boltgunner, You have been given good advise here so far.
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As to cost, I have a rule of thumb that all adult hobbies cost at least $5K, plus consumables and fees by the time you have all the bells and whistles in good to high quality. Shooting did. Scuba diving did. I understand golf does. But start cheap.
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Jeese Unclenick, 5k would include a shooters stool with a porta potty.
Having a thin buget is a pain in the arse but there are a couple of places you can save a little $. The rifle is not one of them. It seems AR prices are starting to come down a little. Well at least for the stripped lowers. I would second the RRA NM or Bushy DCM. I would lean towards the RRA NM because of their trigger. Course there is always White Oak Precesion or Compass Lake.
I would find a High Power match and maybe just attend if you have too. If you let it be known you are interested, an old crusty Master or High Master might just offer a rifle and ammo for the next match. Nothing makes an old shooter more happy than to see a newbie get started and start heading towards good scores by doing it the right way.
I have seen to many guys wanting to start out and buy the wrong rifle. It might look right but the sights won't be fine enough, or the twist will be all wrong. A couple of years ago, there was a new guy who was on fire for his new found game come up to the Eastern Washington Service rifle Champs. He had read a book on High Power and talked to a local to him AR manf. (won't mention any names, but most will figure it out as this poor guy was from the west side) This un-named Manf. suggested a 1 in 10 twist in his barrel. His rifle shot OK at the short ranges but he struggled with the ammo he was limited to at 600 yards. I don't think he ever hit the paper at 600 as the range has some pretty good changing conditions about the time we get back to 6.