I'm not really clear on what you want. Do you want an AR type .22? Do you want a semi-auto .22 of any type or brand? Do you just want a good .22?
Personally the .22 I want to pick up is the one that shoots the most accurate and that won't be an AR type. Some semi-autos will shoot as well as bolt action rifles but it generally costs a good deal of money to get them to shoot that way. You can buy a good semi-auto that isn't quite to the level of accuracy of a bolt action for not a whole lot of money at all. And you can buy a very accurate bolt action for not much money at all. Of course you can buy an even more accurate .22 bolt action for more money but the law of diminishing returns kicks in at about $300 so that you start to spend a lot more money to get a little bit more accuracy.
It really depends on what you want to do with your rifle as to what type of rifle would be best IMO. You said you wanted it to shoot targets. A bolt action rifle will be the best choice for that unless you want to spend quite a bit of money building a Ruger 10/22 into a much better shooter than the way it came. To get really good accuracy I'd guess you would need to spend around $800. You can get a bolt action that will shoot about the same accuracy for less than $150.
If you want to dress up your rifle and make it look like something it isn't feel free. It's a free country or it's supposed to be anyway. So far you can still build yourself a nice rifle for plinking and even for target shooting if you have the cash. I have no reason to put anyone down for their choices. But since you did mention a target shooter I'd really suggest getting a bolt action rifle. For about $400 you can get a very accurate rifle. You can get an accurate rifle for $170.
This should be a very accurate bolt action rifle for under $170.
This should make you an even more accurate bolt action rimfire for under $375. If you can get all the accuracy out of this rifle you will know you are an excellent shooter.
This should be a very nice semi-auto for under $170. It's accurate and durable but it is what it is and making it more accurate isn't really possible. You can make it slightly more accurate I guess.
This will be a fine semi-auto that is probably not quite as accurate as the one above and it costs just under $250. But this is where you want to start if you want to build an extremely accurate semi-auto.
If you want to start out near the top of the rimfire world look here where the price is about $1650. You will have to look for custom built rifles to generally do better. There are other rifles in this class but this is the one that gets shot at a lot of competitions including the Olympics.
If you want a tacticool rimfire that might turn some heads but won't hold a candle to an accurate rifle (including some of the cheaper rifles in my list) then you should probably ask someone else which one to get.
See folks, its important to familiarize yerself with laws reguarding your particular state...
Linear Mode
