the mods and accessories, even if you DO make your own silencer and buy a used scope. Have as much in casting and reloading gear as the cost of the basic AR, too. Considering that I used to spend over 10k per year (in today's money) on long distance phone calls, shooting aint all that expensive these days (if you cast and reload). The range trip costs nearly as much, when you calculate the true cost of running a decent vehicle, which is about 50c a mile. Most have to make at least a 50 mile round trip to be able to rapifire, fast draw, etc. I used to average 3x that far, every weekend, cause not only would I go from Chatham to litchfield, every weekend, 40 miles one way, I'd also go to Columbia, Mo (190 miles one way) and to the Quad cities/, ILL (150 miles or so one way, I forget.) every month, often to Havana, which is 45or so miles from Chatham, and i"d have to go to litchfield first, since i kept my gear there and would practice there on Saturday before Sunday's match. I sometimes went to Ohio, often to St louis, which is 100 miles from chatham. So I averaged 20k miles per year, or a bit more. in today's money, that would be 10k $ per year. Add that cost to the phone cost and you'll start to see a helluva lot of money being spent. 
50 years of that is a million $ gone. you can retire, easily and well, on the returns on half a million.
50 years of that is a million $ gone. you can retire, easily and well, on the returns on half a million.
