USpolitics

Oh, it's not even different manufacturers. Palmetto State Armory has a ton of cheap options, like if you bought a blemished set of their lower grade in 2014ish you could get a full rifle for $400-600, but they also had stuff in the $1500 range that definitely grouped better at 200y (which is the longest distance range I could find that didn't involve giving money to the NRA which at no point am I willing to do)

Edited to add: my main point was that a 30 year old rifle manufactured well shouldn't be that far off from a semi-sloppy modern manufacture, and if the reports that the rifle was stolen from his father are true I'd bias towards a nicer one since the same reports say he stole the rifle but not the sights and was firing without them