AR10 or 15

[ar15barrels]

Hello all,
I have a few questions that I need help with. I am new to the AR type firearm. I’m interested in purchasing a M&P AR10 (308) I live in California. (Hold the jokes please) could someone please explain what it means to be featureless. Does a fixed mag preclude me from a fin grip? Is there a barrel length restriction? Lastly, at some point in the next 5 years my wife and I may move to Texas where our daughter lives. Would I be able to convert my AR to a detachable mag without a ton of work or expense involved. I appreciate all the help.

Start with an AR-15 as your first AR.
After you are familiar with it, you can add a 308 as well.
An S&W M&P10 is a good choice.

CA defines any semi-auto centerfire rifle with detachable magazines to be an assault weapon IF it has any of the following "features:
Pistol Grip
Thumbhole Stock
Folding or Collapsing stock
Grenade or Flare launcher
Flash Suppressor
Forward pistol grip

A "featureless" rifle has none of those features.
A Fin grip is NOT a pistol grip.
It will be quite easy to convert a featureless rifle back to it's standard configuration when you leave CA.

Note that a datatchable magazine is a REQUIRED attribute before a rifle can be an assault weapon.
If you have a FIXED magazine, the rifle is not an assault weapon unless it is under 30" long.
With a FIXED magazine, you can collect all the "features" that you want from that list above and the rifle is still NOT an assault weapon.
If you go the FIXED magazine route, you can only have a 10 round magazine fixed into the rifle.

[alexisjohnson]

Like everyone else mentioned...i would recommend starting with an ar 15 unless you specifically want to use it for hunting or you have some other reason for getting a larger caliber...

I would also recommend getting something nice....people usually don't sell what they buy...so buy once....buy nice

[Mwjakel15]

I’d like to thank everyone for their contributions so far. Great info written in plain English. To those who asked. The reason I was leaning towards the AR10 is because I have a mini 14 in 223 and two nice bolt action rifles in 223. Was wanting to go with a larger caliber. But maybe the 15 is the way for me to go since I don’t know anything about the AR platform. Ie, mechanics, take down, etc yet. Also, as someone mentioned, cheaper ammo cost is a deciding factor.
It would be nice to take the 10 and 15 for a test drive before I pull the trigger. (Pun intended)

[russ69]

...It would be nice to take the 10 and 15 for a test drive before I pull the trigger. (Pun intended)

Everybody NEEDS a good AR-15 but given you have a few 223s already, go ahead and buy an AR-10. Buy a complete rifle off the shelf and have at it (and maybe throw an AR-15 lower on the 4473 while you are at it).

[golfish]

OP, PSA has some decent rifle kits for sale. I wish they had them when I was building my PA10. The lower is 100.00

http://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-gen2-pa10-18-midlength-308-win-1-10-stainless-steel-15-m-lok-acs-l-rifle-kit-516446761.html

http://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-gen2-pa10-308-stripped-lower-receiver-516445318.html