PeetMoss,
You might be interested to hear about a project I've been working on recently. The premise is that there are many folk with AR's in their collection and some interest in Highpower Rifle. However they're often times intimidated by what they perceive to be the extreme equipment requirements of our sport.
My idea has been to buy the cheapest kit AR I can find, and go compete with it in it's stock form. I'll be using a cloth jacket, store store bought ammo and whatever other budget gear I can find. The idea is to show folk with you can actually have fun and do fairly well (that part is yet to be shown by me at least) with stuff that you might already have laying around.
I've got the kit from JT for under $450. A2 Upper with a 9 twist barrel. I just got in the lower and will hopefully assemble it this weekend. My cloth jacket and piece of carpet are ready to go.
Stand by for more reports on the "Budget Rat" project.