I'll second/third/etc the suggestion to buy yourself a decent .22 so that you can get some inexpensive practice time to work on your skills. The marksmanship principles still carryover. A Ruger 10/22 is much fun, and you should see what you can do with them....I'll have to dig out a picture for you.
The thing about buying one rifle, is that one turns into two very quickly, which turns into 3, and hey, that other one looks so nice and shiny, why not make it 5 or 6?
Be prepared that if you go down the road of gun ownership, you're unlikely to only own one firearm.
There's some good shooting available in the Pet area from what I understand, so it's just a matter of meeting the right folks. Some hang out here, so they'll be able to help you when the time comes.
Now, something that you may want to look into once you buy an AR-15 type rifle is the .22 conversion kits that are available for them. I have one, with a dedicated upper receiver that I swap onto my rifle for indoor training in the winter. Basically, I end up with a rifle that looks exactly like my issued C-7A1, that I can practice with at my local indoor range, on my own time.
Anyhow, drop into canadian gunnutz, and feel free to look at some of the "fun" guns that are out there for owning.
NavyShooter