Not that anyone cares at this point, but after getting my UPIN I went ahead and had Cabela's run the background check. They were weird about it, and no one at the gun counter remembered doing a transaction for someone with a UPIN. Long story short, I got the rifle. Today I got my official response to my NICS appeal - in my favor.
This all worked out well for me, because I've been applying for some new jobs that will likely run background checks. If I hadn't caught this issue now and gotten it sorted out, it could've lost me a job down the line.
