Since the title of you thread implies to LR (LR for most small arms is 800+yds)
We all know a semi can be accurate yadda yadda......
There is many other areas where bolt guns have the upper hand in the LR game though. One of the most important being consistency. As you noted it IS possible to shoot your AR as accurate as your bolt gun but it does take extra time. This is completely true. ARs must be driven in a much more complicated fashion then Bolts. I'm not saying it's not possible but when looking for every little advantage you can @ 1k with a 308 you definitely don't want to struggle driving your rifle. Bolt guns are simple. They are more easily repeatable with your technique and it will mostly come down to your knowledge of the elements beyond that. If you've never shot in wind or changing weather then you would need to understand what goes into making "consistent" shots at LR. Bolt guns also have the upper hand in load tuning. Most semi 308s will pop primers trying to reach the velocities that you can achieve with a Bolt rifle. In LR velocity plays a big part. Most people taking LR shots on the norm will be pushing their rounds as fast as possible to help counter all those elements i talked about before.
If you're just learning or wanting to learn LR then get a 700 in 308. It's one of the best places to start from. I've had factory 700s that shot 1/2" groups as well so this should keep you happy for sometime until you're ready for a go fast caliber like 260 or 243. It's important to take the time to learn how to properly make consistent hits and read conditions at LR. If you're just looking to spray a 1000yd piece of steel with 10rds as fast as you can pull the trigger with a %50 hit ratio then the semi will be fine. Once you learn and get comfy with the bolt gun you could successfully move over to a semi and still get great results.
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