A decent optic is a requirement. However you don't have to spend a lot to get something decent. You can start out with a Bushnell TSR-25 and they're usually under $100 and will hold up and hold zero. Romeo 5 or MSR is the next step up at about $120 these days.
From there you start talking about something like a PA or Burris Prismatic Scope (or if your eyes have the 'tism) at $300 - $350 or LPVO from PA or Vortex that start at the same price.
My go to rifle is an old Stag Model 3 with a PA 3x Prismatic scope, magpul VFG, a TLR-1 light on an offset mount, and Magpul RLS sling. I've never done shit beyond that because it just fucking works.
Juliet 3 or 4 depending if you want 3x or 4x magnification are made to go with them, but the $150 Bushnell 3x magnifier that I bought years ago for the TRS-25 also works. Sig is better glass, but if on a budget Bushnell stuff may not win you friends at the range, but it tends to work and not be absolute shit.
In 2019 yes, $1700 would be steep. In 2021...
I would like to get one of the polymer lowers. In fact I may just go ahead and order one. It seems like an interesting idea whose time has come as the technology is likely there now. But the rest of the rifle parts...okay a titanium flash suppressor...cool, but frankly I'd just put an A2 birdcage on and call it good enough unless they require the flash hider to be pinned and welded.
Well I give credit to Kel-Tec for trying new and different things. Never have bought anything from them, but looked at the CP33 a while back. But when 10/22 Chargers exist I think I'll take the proven 10/22 design with 25 round mags that work.
It's a $500 rifle in .30-06 that will be wearing a $200 PA scope for now. Ended up getting an EGW aluminum base rail which is the brand that the tactical model comes with from the factory plus that's what I could find in the silver matte color in stock. They do make a version in Stainless steel that I'll keep an eye out for plus I have aluminum scope rings on hand in 30mm. They're Burris tactical rings...not the fanciest, but even if I do "long range" shooting competitions around here the farthest range is only 600 yards and its on steel IPSC targets.
Although $485 for the gun, $40 for the scope rail, $50 for the rings, $200 for the Scope and $105 for the Harris bipod I'm in for less than $900. Hope to have a rifle that I can finish in the top 1/3rd of the local "long range" competition with a set up that was under $1000. I know some of those guys have spent 10 - 15x that on their guns.
Biggest problem right now is ammo. Usually I like to bring 6 - 8 different brands/types and figure out what works best in that rifle. Nothing like showing up the local "pros" shooting something like Federal 180 grain soft point hunting rounds.
I don't know if this will be the Powder Alarm or Lexington Green. I don't know how many of you have read Fischer's Paul Revere's Ride, but it took a series of events that day to ignite the fire. If not there it will be somewhere else and sooner rather than later.
Remember that the men who gathered on Lexington that morning had no intention to do more than assemble and give the British Army dirty looks as they marched by until things went sideways.
Of course back then the patriots had many of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the colonies supporting them including entire states offering troops. Today that group are against us.
When this all started back in March people back on the ole /r/firearms were "but people have too much to lose". My response was that 30 Million people just lost their jobs, and there was no sportsball on TV to serve as a distraction, and farmers just dumped millions of gallons of milk down the drain and plowed under millions worth of crops. The equation on what it would take for people to boog just shifted massively even if it takes time.
Almost a year later and something like 1/3 of all families with children in the US don't have food security. The entire travel and hospitality industries in much of the country (in terms of population) is gone and it will be a decade or more before it comes back.
Local & State governments are going to default as they've killed their own tax bases and those who are rich enough to leave are doing so. Hell we moved to the next county over that is deep red and open for business because of this shit. Our state government was at least smart enough not to lock shit down, but left it up to the county/city level. But it's just shown what a dunce some county execs and mayors are to the point where mayors aren't running for reelection because of it.
My neighbor works for Energizer and he gave me one of their tactical flash lights. I put it on an offset mount I had and I ran it for a 2 gun season on an AR carbine. Held up okay and I think the light is $30ish. You can buy them at Home Depot, Target, etc.. Doesn't have a mount, but a regular 1" off set mount will work.
Spez: This is the light he gave me: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Energizer-TAC-R-700-Rechargeable-Flashlight-ENPMTRL8/306305732?NCNI-5
Spez II: You can get an offset Chineseum mount for $15 or less. Won't say it will hold up for sandbox duty, but for most HD situations it would probably be fine.
Cheapest Red Dot that's worth anything is the TRS-25 by Bushnell at less than $100 usually. It will work, hold zero, but won't win you any friends at the range.
For a few dollars more the SIG Romeo 5 has a much longer battery life and shake-a-wake tech on it.
I ran the TRS-25 on my Stag Model 3 for years until I realized that a red dot wasn't supposed to look like a bundle of grapes or have a comet's tail. I chocked it up to it being a cheap red dot until I was at a carbine course and discovered that no, that's due to the eyes having the 'tism.
BCA says 1 MOA out of anything over 18". I bought about a dozen barrels when they were on clearance for $35ea during the Golden Era. I was skeptical until I built a couple of gundeals bucket of parts guns on Poverty Pony Lowers & Uppers and BCA was right. Both guns shoot under 1 MOA with factory ammo.
I was going to use that gun in 2-Gun this year and see how well it held up through 13 matches...until "Rona basically cancelled the season.
I don't think people around here are as elitist as the old place. The only problem I really have with Condor stuff is that their buckles are their weak point. Rest of the stuff, material/stitchig/etc., is pretty good these days.
I've got this feeling that a lot of the people who "picked up an AK because its cheaper to shoot" folks are going to be singing a different tune six months from now...
Banning Ammo imports is one of the few things Biden can do with or without congress and it's a low hanging fruit so he can say "I did something".
That's why I sold the two Mosin's and the SKS I had a few years ago. What this is really going to hurt though is the milsurp collectors. A lot of that stuff is made by PPU in Serbia and if those imports dry up. Hell that's what I feed my Garand anymore.
Also with Vista buying up the Remington ammo brand that's one less major competitor out there leaving really only Olin/Winchester domestically that can match Federal et. al's production. Although I think it was Hornady that was building on to their ammo plant recently.
These folks will sell you the kit to DIY: https://www.goldplating.com/pages/guns
When Wayne et. al. ousted the old leadership in the 70's they rewrote the by-laws to make in almost impossible to do the same to him.