It started out as a box stock Remington SPS Tactical. You can find them new in the box for around $600. They are however entry level "tactical" rifles and that means three things:

1) the original Hogue over molded stocks are too flexible for serious shooting with a sling or a bi-pod, so you go into it with that in mind.

However, you can get a Bell and Carlson Sendero/Police/Varmint stock like the one this rifle for around $270, or a very similar stock from HS Precision for about $340 - or choose from a large variety of other stock styles.

2) The barrels on the SPS Tacticals are a bit of a **** shoot, but nearly all of them will hold a solid 1 MOA and the better ones are sub MOA capable. I got somewhat lucky in that mine is extremely stable and consistent, and did not have to re-barrel it to get the accuracy and consistency I wanted.

3) The X Mark Pro triggers they come with are nothing to write home about. However, you can get a very nice adjustable Timney Trigger for a Remington 700 for $140.

My total cost for the rifle was $1010 - $600 for the rifle, $270 for the stock plus $140 for the trigger.

That compares to the Remington XCR compact Tactical at around $1,400, street price. However it still comes with the less than stellar X Mark Pro trigger, so you're still looking at around $1,540 if you go that route. However, it comes with an very good stock, and the 416 stainless barrel is quite good.

Consequently, if you buy a SPS tactical and lose the barrel lottery, you'll have to re-barrel and will end up spending a bit less to a bit more money, depending on the barrel you choose.

On the other hand, if you go the SPS Tactical route you can build it the way you want it rather than just taking what Remington puts on it - and that was the major appeal for me. Again, I got lucky on the barrel so I'm about $400 ahead, and I'll spend that on a new barrel when I wear this one out.

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Optics wise I spent around $900 on a Nightforce SHV 4-14x56, which along with mounts and accessories brought the total cost for the rifle to around $2200.

I'm picky about scope adjustments - I want them to be very consistent, produce the MOA change they are supposed to and return to zero, even after going all the way out and back in terms of windage and elevation adjustment. I also want an optic that will hold it's zero and the Nightforce scopes do that quite well.

I'll be honest though - in terms of optical quality you can get better optical performance for not much more money. The Leupold VX-3i series scopes, for example, are just as sharp in terms of resolution, and don't suffer from slight chromatic aberration you see in the Nightforce NXS and SHV scopes. And you can get a Leupold LRP model similar to my scope for a about the same money - although I'm not sure how well the adjustments perform in comparison.

However, at the time I bought mine, the 3i series wasn't around, and the Nightforce SHV models were a better buy than what was available given the accuracy and range of the adjustments and the available reticles.

Nightforce has addressed the chromatic aberration issue in their ATACR series, but a similar scope in that series would cost upwards of $2600. I'm ok with spending as much on the optic as I spent on the rifle, but that's my limit, which makes that series about two and a half times more than I want to spend.