Quality rifle for decent price

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Borch

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Lately I've been thinking pretty hard about competing in some three gun events, but I have no rifle to fill the third slot. I have a solid shotgun and handgun and have competed with both of them but I've never really been overly interested in rifle shooting until recently.

So, those of you who are familiar with these competitions, what is a solid, accurate, reliable rifle(brand and model please) for this purpose and how much am I realistically looking at having to spend?
 
If you've been to a 3-gun event, and you don't live in California or the like, you'll already know the answer: AR15. Prices vary--but start closer to a thousand bucks than you might like.

On the other hand, I had a lot of fun at a number of 3-gun matches with a Marlin 1894c. As long as the shots were within 150 yards, I could run pretty close with the AR's--for the first 10 shots. Competitive, no; but fun.

So if you wanna be competitive, get ready to spend for an AR. Otherwise, shoot what you want.
 
Many will steer you to consider the synthetic stocked Savage rifles. The ones that come to mind the fastest is the 10 series. Great trigger and accuracy out of the box. Most bolt rifles will be extremely reliable. Look for a caliber that has match bullet offerings. 308 win and 223 are great as are a multitude of others. I believe in the saying "plan on spending as much on the scope as you did the rifle." It doesn't always work that way, but there are many good scopes that can be found for under 300. CZ also makes a great rifle. Many people love the Remington 700 series. They are fairly inexpensive, and like the Savages, have a plethora of aftermarket support. Hope this helps. Btw, The Savage will run about 500$ and the Remington might be a tad cheaper. Nikon makes a great scope for the money as well as Burris. Depends on the model scope, but most models can be had for under 400$.
 
If your going for three gun then a AR is the way to go. I would recomend LMT. They are not the cheapest but quality is on par with Colt for much less. Save money and buy used. Check out the trading post here or the equipment exchange on AR15.com. There will always be a few lightly used LMTs floating around out there for hundreds less than new.
 
As others have mentioned, if you want to be competitive, then the AR dominates 3-gun.

If you just want to compete against yourself and learn to manipulate your rifle, then any rifle will work fine (although a Savage bolt is far from optimum).
 
At the last shoot, there were only two rifles in the group that weren't ARs. A 16in Fal (what a HOOT) and my AK.
WE came in First and Second (in the fun category--otherwise, we tied for last...)
 
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