I was pondering the same thing a few months ago....
here were my thoughts:
I wanted something fairly accurate for plinking (not that I am a sharp shooter or anything), but also liked the idea of a semi auto that I could put a lot of rounds through (see how fast I could empty a 30 round mag
), so I was thinking AR. It could do both...
Then I started thinking that my rapid fire fun, would be eating into my accurate barrel life.... so my next thoughts were SAR-1 (~$300 Romanian ak clone) for the rapid fire playing (and still accurate enough to hit a pie plate at 100 yards without a problem) then a .308 bolt action Savage (~400), with both still come in around the price of a decent AR but end up with a shooter I don't have to worry about functioning, or wearing out the barrel, and a more accurate longer range tack driver (hopefully a tack driver that is, trying it out today at lunch).
Those prices sounded good but I had to add on a bunch of stuff....
ak:
Kobra red dot sight $130 (on the way)
new stock ($50)
2 cases of ammo ($200)
Red Star Arms trigger group ($85)
Red Star Arms retainer plate ($10)
recoil buffer ($15)
soft case ($25)
more mags ($35)
Savage:
Choate sniper stock (on the way $170)
Bushnell Elite 3200 scope $250
Harris bi pod $50
ammo $60
soft case $25
flip up scope covers ($15)
bases and rings (part of a package deal, don't remember $$)
misc cleaning stuff ($60)
so all in all, I probably have about $875 in the SAR-1 and $1115 in the Savage (but that is including ammo and a bunch of small stuff)... damn I did not realize I spent so much!!
I did it a little at a time and it was not as painful...
