They had some Bushmaster ARs for about $940 and said that for the money shooting at 100-300 yards the Bushmaster would be just as accurate as the bolt action using the "iron" sights.
I would like to know what they base this on? I own scoped Savage and Remington heavy barrel .223 bolt guns and the acccuracy of both with match ammo is pretty impressive IMO.
The ability to aim precisely at targets at a specific point repeatedly favors the scoped rifle. There are many shooters that can shoot a MOA group at 100/200 yards with a scoped rifle but there are far less that could do it with iron sights.
Or for a real life example , we have many iron sight AR shooters at the range I shoot at and none of them have come even remotely close to what I can do with a scoped heavy barrel varmin/tactical rifle.
True they are not match shooters , but then again , I'm not either! If they had said match barrel ARs with scopes vs stock bolt actions with scopes it would have made more sense.
All shooting will be done from a bench. 100-300 yard ranges are available to shoot at.
It sounds as though at any distance the 500 dollar bolt with the 500 dollar scope would have better accuracy than the 1000 dollar AR with iron sights.
Hard to compare iron sights to iron sights as most bolt action manufacturers do not supply their rifles with iron sights.
I bought a Savage 12BVSS for $599 last year , can get a good scope and still be under the 1 grand range. Laminated stock and stainless - definitely not an EBR! And later a super match Lothar Walther barrel could be bought for around $250 if the stock barrel was not accurate enough for you.
You are correct that only bolt action sporters might have iron sights.