Washington State is active in High Power. Check out
www.wsrpa.org for match info. It matters not which side of the state you live on there is something near by almost every weekend during the season.
You have recieved a lot of good advice. White Oak makes very good uppers, I know as I shoot a White Oak Precision. The RRA NM (DCM) rifle is about as good as it gets for a factory rifle and comes with RRA's good 2 stage trigger. These also have Wilson barrels and can be had with a 7 to 1 twist which I recommend. My Son-in-law just picked up a RRA NM for $1100.00 and it is match ready with the float tube, 1/4 click (MOA) sights and they are tight. (no wiggle on the rear) 2 shooting buddies shoot the RRA NM and both made Master in 2 years starting from nothing.
I also have a couple of other buddies who thought they ran into a good AR deal and ended up spending more $ than I did getting my White Oak Precision and RRA NM lower set up. The WOP upper I have runs at about $850.00 and mated to a RRA NM lower which ran me $280.00 just last year. WOP and WOA are the same company, it just depends on which guy is doing the work. They also work closely with Compass Lake which is another top shelf AR builder of fine rifles/uppers. I like the WOP a little better for some reason. The other nice thing about WOP is you can send the RRA 2 stage trigger to John for $35.00 and he will tune it making it the best "cheap AR" trigger out there.
High Power shooters are a good crowd. Most of the time if you are lacking some gear item, someone will lend it to you until you can get your own. The bad news is don't skip on the spotting scope if you can help it.
Ammo, I reload and I shoot 77 gr SMK's at 2 and 300 and then 80 gr. SMK's at 600. Black Hills has some good reloaded match ammo at a good price over all if you are not reloading yet.
Another good site to check out is
www.highpowerforum.com It's a new site, slow with posting but a ton of good info.