You get what you pay for as with anything. A semiauto has alot more moving parts than a bolt action. Producing a semiauto like a remington 7400 or an SKS for the same price as a moderate quality bolt gun isn' t going to get you much in the way of accuracy, or even functionality as in the case of the Remington. A semi auto is a great technological advancement over a bolt rifle and with technological advances comes a higher price for quality. Its almost like comparing a motorcycle to a bicycle.


Shooting from a stack of sandbags will give a well made bolt action a huge edge over any semiauto, but in the real world, not too many shoot their guns like that out in the field. From my bit of highpower rifle experience, I' ve been shooting a carefullly assembled 03A3 Springfield this year, and I have shot nothing but bolt actions in the past, except for using Garands a few times. The 03 is easily as accurate if not more accurate than most of the semi-auto' s including m1a' s and AR-15' s that are not match tuned- I simply cannot compete with them because cycling the bolt in rapid fire requires me to break my cheek weld and reset my position after each shot, whereas semi shooters just ride out the recoil and allow their rifle to come back down to their natural point of aim.