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CA Legal AR 15

8549 Views 17 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Jeff_850
Has anyone had experience with the modified AR 15 that's CA-legal? It has a fixed/hinged 10-round magazine that you load with a special stripper clip. I think it has an M4 upper and an AR lower?

I'm buying some property up north in Shasta County, and between the white supremacists and the cranksters, I'd like a great semi-auto rifle for handling any threats which I may encounter. Although I know a fixed 10-round magazine is kind of handicapping myself, I'm unaware of a semi-automatic rifle that I can purchase which is any better.

Jeff850 has already expressed his dissapointment in the idea of buying a gimped AR, but I'm in California, so I'm limited in my options. Anyone have experience with the CA AR... or perhaps know of a better-suited rifle?

Scatch Maroo
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There is another gun that you can buy here that takes m4 mags but has no handgrip and is CA legal.....course when you put the handgrip on it you just committed a felony but hey. Ill find the name and post it later.

The CA legal AR is silly....you have to feed it manually by pulling the field strip pin and loading the rounds manually but if you want to go that route thats on you......they could of at least made it look good but it looks like a m4 without a mag.
How easy is it to attach/detach the pistol grip?

Scatch Maroo
i'd reccomend not breaking the law here
then you wont have any rifle to defned yourself with and a bunch of people who will want to attack you in jail
i'd rahter take the .50 BMG than manually load the damn CA AR...
jstu remember to wear ear protection and they will be the ones going deaf (or dead) from it
it goes mroe than 10 rounds your skrewd while you can always load a new mag into your M95
depending the range, would you consider a good shotgun for protecting yourself?
pump action or autoloading if CA permits them, slugs and buckshot have incredible stopping power and should be fine for 40y
i guess the best option for you would be a shotgun, a rack of shotshells attached to the reciever for quick loading and a pistol and a few mags

sry i didnt get back to your im, left my comp for a few, was in a differnt room and didnt hear aim goin off
Just get a mini-14. Yeah there not as good as AR's but at least you wont go to jail. I have a mini works great, and I know if I got in trouble it would certainly get the job done. Plus they are cheaper too.

I knew a guy who got caught by the BLM with 3 30round mags before the assualt ban expired and was able to talk himself out of it. Just a though :wink:
well the Mini14 is a reliable and good assault weapon
in my opinion it doesnt have the sweet looks of an AR-15
still they are a good rifle for not a lot of money

I reccomended an M1A or M-14 but you said not legal or somethin i think
i suppose you could go Mini 14 too, just im not a lawyer so no clue whats legal and waht isnt
says Drew is in CA, idk
id go M1A/M-14
generally their mags (USGI 20 rounders) are better than 30 round aftermarket mags fot eh mini 14... just what i hear anyway... never did my own reliability test here
thats silly... of course M1As are legal (at least garands are) arnt they?
ive seen a garand for sale at a sporting goods store!
Yes, M1A's are legal garands or m-14's you just can't have the flash surpressor on them. :(
What makes the AR 15 illegal is that it has both a pistol grip AND a detachable magazine: if you have a rifle with one of those features, it can't have the other (or any other feature listed in the law).

I'm looking at Mini-14s and the M1As, either in .308 (or 7.62 for the Mini)--but the M1A is so much more expensive, the Mini is much more appealing.

What kind of effective range could I expect from either gun?

Scatch Maroo
Scatch:

If I lived in PRC (Peoples Republic of CA), I would consider tricking out an 870 Remington with a night sight, extended magazine (legal on pump) and dutch loading (alternating rounds) with OO Buck and Slugs.

With a little practice, the thing becomes the perfect poor man's SMG.

Turns out that the chief reason for a rifle (range) doesn't make sense when in full self defense mode because if the threat is several hundred yards away, they are by definition not a threat.
Here is a perfectly legal AR alternative for CA.

Get an 80% frame and complete it. Because you are manufacturing the rifle yourself, (you cannot sell it ever) you are allowed to build a fully functional AR that is not subject to the CA assualt weapon ban.

MEL
mele said:
Here is a perfectly legal AR alternative for CA.

Get an 80% frame and complete it. Because you are manufacturing the rifle yourself, (you cannot sell it ever) you are allowed to build a fully functional AR that is not subject to the CA assualt weapon ban.

MEL
Thats worked in other places while the ban was in effect Mel but will not work in CA.

The law says that if you have a Assualt Weapon in CA it must be registered through our DOJ office or you are in violation of the law. So even if you had one before the ban if you didn't register it you are in violation. If you didn't register one with the DOJ before 1999 you are out of luck.

Just like in the case of the new barrett Scatch bought.....it is legal now but he will have to register it after the ban goes into effect as will all 50 BMG owners in CA or they will be in violation of having a unregistered illegal weapon which is a felony.
You said you wanted this for protection so the threat has to be close 50yds i would say. Anyways the M1A is great you could easily hit out to 600yds even farther if you know how to shoot. I have a .223 mini so I say it's good to about 300yds I don't know how good the min-30 is. Though I feel very comfortable with my .223 mini next to me if something happened.

You need to figure out how far away you will be shooting. What ever it is.
Good gravy, I'm glad I moved out of CA when I did (over a decade ago)

MEL
A .223 round out of the Mini-14 would be effective in stopping a man at 300 yards, assuming I place the shot properly?

What about the 7.62, would it be more effective, especially if the person is "pumped up" on a narcotic?

Scatch Maroo
a mini-14 in .223 would be effective no longer than 200y w/ a 20" barrel to reliably stop someone with a shot to the center of mass with M193 or M855 military ball ammo (surplus)
byond 2500-2700 fps in velocity the military ball ammo will not relaibily fragment which makes the .223 more effective at the closer ranges
77 gr BTHP has a larger wound channel and higher BC but im not sure what twist the mini14 has and if this is really an effective round
mini14s anrt known for accuracy so im not sure how far you would want to shoot with them with irons
idk about a mini-14 in .308 if it exists... not gonna be as accurate as an M1A... Ruger is notorious for hit/miss accuracy

M1As are a differnt story
they will have hte same knockdown punch of the rifles that snipers use (.308)
they are used for natioanl matches and for battle rifles, they can and will hit a target at short and long ranges and stop it dead... even if your target is a bear
Ruger has the mini-30 which shoots 7.62x39, same ammo as the SKS and AK I believe. I wouldn't have the slightest idea how well it shoots though, nobody I know has one.

Can’t wait to get out of CA myself.
meh i dont really like 7.62*39mm
its inaccurate, commie surplus is crap and dirty, Aks can take it and never need to be cleaned but our american guns might nto be able to as well
american commercial stuff is more expensive than .223 budget ammo
.223 western military surplus has better terminal ballistcs at 100-200y
if i watned something for long range an AR-10 or M1A would be my choice
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