Dave,
My apologies for this late reply. I was tied up at work today and
didn't get a chance to post here.
The club to which I belong, the Dakota County Gun Club, is located
in Rosemount, Minnesota. It's about a 20-minute drive from my
house, and has outdoor pistol, rifle, shotgun and archery ranges.
The pistol ranges go out to 25 yards, and the rifles ranges extend
from 25 yards all the way out to 300 yards. We also have a couple
of bowling pin ranges for pistols.
The 24" AR is indeed a tack driver. Here's a better shot of
it:
I built it about three years ago. The upper assembly was built
around a DSC 24" stainless bull barrel with a 1-in-8 twist to
handle the heavier projectiles. The lower comprises an Eagle Arms
receiver with RRA internals and a two-stage match trigger set to
break at around 2.5 lbs. The scope is a fairly ordinary Simmons
'Whitetail Classic' 6.5-20X 50mm unit.
With my 75 gr. handloads, this AR is usually able to achieve 200
yard groups like this:
If you do decide to build an AR, the Bushmaster and DPMS lowers
will serve you well. With a few exceptions, almost all lower
receivers on the market today hold very tight tolerances and
conform well to milspec dimensions. If I were building a new AR, my
choice of lower would be RRA as they seem to be finished a smidge
better.
You're right about ammo prices going through the roof. Even though
I handload for all my guns, I'm still feeling the pinch from the
rapidly increasing component prices (particularly projectiles). The
guys who buy commercial ammo, though, must really be feeling the
pain! 
