Rifles we often use in Service Rifle Competition:

 
• The US rifle caliber .30 M1. The M1 Garand

• The  M14 Rifle (or commercial equivalent)

• The M-16 Rifle (or commercial equivalent, commonly called a AR-15)

The AR-15 is the best gun for this type of shooting!

You can start with a standard rifle, but you soon find that having the 3 big accuracy fixes will help your shooting.
These are:

• Trigger Job
• Float tube under the handguards
• 1/2" sights.

You can:

1. Buy an unmodified rifle and shoot it.
2. Buy an unmodified rifle and send it to a gunsmith.
3. Buy a "DCM-ready" rifle from a manufacturer.
4. Buy a lower and get it a trigger job and then get a CMP ready upper from a gunsmith.
5. Buy a full gun from a custom 'smith.
6. Buy a rifle from the CMP through your club.

Option 1 or 2: The best to get would be a standard, Colt HBAR, with 20" barrel, fixed handle in .223. Its currently called the Match Target HBAR, MT6601, or the Standard Match Target MT6551 as a second choice. Or the equivilent from another vendor. It'll set you back maybe $800 to $1000. There are other vendors: American Spirit Arms, Bushmaster, Armalite, DPMS, Rock River Arms, Olympic Arms, maybe others.....

If you plan to get full use out of the barrel that comes with it, you should get a 1 in 7" or 1 in 8" twist. The basic Colt MT6601, or  MT6551 has that, the basic Armalite M15A2 does not, nor does the basic Bushmaster XM15E2. Those rifles have 1 in 9" which may or may not shoot the heavy bullets we use.

Do NOT get a 16" barrel, a detachable handle, a 7.62x39mm, a tubular handguard, a carbine buttstock, an A1 style rear sight, A1 style handguards etc, if you do, you will only end up replacing those parts when you get serious about this game. (On the other hand, if you already have such a gun, just come to your club matches and start shooting, you can always plan on replacing those parts when you get serious about this game.)
 

Option 2: Give the above rifle to a gunsmith. And I mean a real "mouse gun" gunsmith, not some guy that's been mounting scopes and butchering Mausers. I'd Recommend Accuracy Speaks, 3960 N. Usery Pass Rd. Mesa, AZ 602-373-9499, or Compass Lake, or  Arrington Accuracy., or Turner Enterprises  1242 E. Cottonwood Ln, Phoenix, AZ 85048 ajturner@juno.com, or White Oak Precision, This will cost an additional $300 to $800 more.
 

Option 3: A number of vendors sell what they consider to be a match-ready rifle (alphabetical order):

• American Spirit Arms (ARIZONA based!) has a "DCM Service Rifle" Item #R-DCM01 .
• Armalite, has a similar rifle, their National Match Rifle M15A2 ,
• Bushmaster has a page on their DCM products including their DCM Competition Rifle;
• DPMS has the DCM panther.
• Rock River calls there a NM A2 - DCM LEGAL.
• My feeling is that you will need a trigger job and perhaps some other work, such as modifying and aligning the sights.

Option 4: Get a Lower from Bushmaster or Armalite or others. There are so many upper kits on the market for the casual plinkers that many gunshops either stock or will understandingly order a lower, either stripped or complete. The lower is the part with the serial number and hence it must be purchased at a dealer on a 4473. I thought it was absurd to watch the lady run a Brady check on me when I bought what was nothing but a block of aluminum with holes in it, yet if you can find one, a Mauser 1891 made before 1898 is not a firearm and does not require paperwork!

Get a Jewell Trigger, or send it to: Accuracy Speaks,  Compass Lake, or  Arrington Accuracy., or others for a trigger job. There are other triggers too.

Then, get one of the above 'smiths to build you a fully match ready upper. Tell them you are shooting service rifle, they will know what to build. You will have to make some selections, such as barrel.
 

Option 5: Compass Lake, or  Arrington Accuracy., will build you a full rifle, but there are added expenses.
 

Option 6: This represents perhaps the best firearms bargain of the century. The CMP has a program to subsidize the cost of the rifle. You must be affiliated with a club that is CMP affiliated and has an active junior program.

They have a number of variants from the aforementioned DCM Competition Rifle, to Compass Lake's top of the line. The price is subsidized about $300.

Here is their page.
 

Barrels: You can start with the stock barrel. If it is 1 in 7" twist you can get serious with it. Most of us go to a match barrel. Bushy and Armalite and DPMS have 1 in 8" stainless barrels. There is a Douglas either stainless or steel, I think it is 1 in 8". Then there is the Krieger, the top of the line. There are other makers such as Obermeyer.

When the question arises: "which barrel" most people say: "get the Douglas and spend the extra money on practice ammo." Good advice. The other response is "get the Krieger, that way you will never wonder if you should have gotten the Krieger instead of the Douglas." That is what I will do, when I wear out my Colt 1 in 7"'s.
 

Triggers: The Jewell 2-stage is probably the best. There is a Milazzo, JP, and perhaps others. Local shooters have not had good luck with Bushy or Armalite or DPMS triggers without work. Compass Lake will do a really good 2-stage trigger job on a Bushy lower for $100. Accuracy Speaks does a good single stage trigger job. I tried the American Spirit Arms trigger in their store, it felt very good!
 

Weights: Most of us put weights in the buttstock hole and around the tube under the handguards. Bring the rifle up to 12 or 16 lbs. To start with, you can fill the buttstock with shot or lead bullets.
 

Sights: Most of us use 1/2" (per click adjustment at 100 yds) rear sights. Some people like 1/4", but rarely can you shoot well enough to make use of that and more likely it will confuse you when you get on your state's Rattle Battle team.

Most people use a rear aperture much smaller than stock. 0.046" or so. Often we use insertable apertures so we can use a smaller peep in bright light and a larger peep in poor light. Some use a hooded rear sight. Some use an insertable lens such as those from B Jones Sights.
 

Sling: Most of us use a good leather one. The standard M1907 is not long enough for most humans to use with an AR. Turner Sadlery and others make good extra long lings. 50" or 52". The CANVAS web slings from the M1 days are actually quite usable and can be found for $5. The "nylon" web slings from the M14 days are just about worthless DO NOT BUY ONE!

Magazines: We need to use magazines that hold 2 and 8 rds, have the same dimensions as a standard military 20 or 30. Don't bother with 30 rds. The armalite 7 rd magazine are worthless. Many of the steel aftermarket 20's are worthless.

You can still get military 20's for $20 to $30. Try Cole or Ammo man.

Cleaning: Maybe I'll write more later.

Case: Get a  hard case for travel and a soft case for walking around the range.
 

Old notes:

Since you can get an M1 from the CMP and a lot of folks have one, it makes a good starter. With a lot of gunsmithing it can be almost competitive.

The M1A was king until about 5 years ago. If your prefer it, or your eyesight prefers it, you can get a good one cheap from an AR-15 shooter. Civilian M14 copies are called the M1A. They are from Springfield Armory, or Fulton Armory, (or another manufacturer's but polytech and rewelds are not recommended). If you start with a stock M1A it will take some smithing to get it match ready.