I've been mildly flamed for my thoughts before, but get a compensator. If you're hunting lions in Africa, take it off. My Leupold scope could care less and it reduces the punch of my Ruger 375 dramatically. Without it, I change shoulders every shot, with it, the 375 kicks like a WW2 M1.
And yes, a scope cut seems to bleed a lot, for whatever reason.