Nobody is fighting; opinionated people are presenting their preferences with added comments.

I for one, am trying to figure out what YOU want in a rifle and what you want to do with it most of the time.

The AR-15 is a platform that allows you to change the rifle at will by the simple expedient of pushing two pins and swapping one upper for another. Total time: 20 seconds.

With one AR-15 lower, you can have as many uppers as you want, in various calibers, as long as the cartridge is no longer than the .223. You could have a short 16 inch barrel upper with a red dot sight for those bumps in the night and in the morning, push the 2 pins and mount the 26 inch monster barreled upper with a Hubble-class scope and go shoot at long ranges. The next day, you could put an 18 inch 6.8 SPC barrel and go hunting and when you come back you could mount a National Match A2 style upper and go compete at Camp Perry.

Any lower will do the trick, the design of the AR-15 removes all stress from the receivers and places it squarely on the barrel, barrel extension, bolt and bolt carrier; the receivers are there to hold the above pieces together and provide a buffer for the bolt carrier.

You could buy the stripped lower that has your prefered logo on it, add a lower parts kit and the trigger of your choice and have it assembled in just an hour or two or you can buy the lower fully assembled. The lower is the only part you have to buy through an FFL. You can order whatever upper you want on the Internet and receive it via UPS/Fedex/USPS right at home.

The only issue these days is the parts availability, which can be a little iffy but is showing signs of improvement.

What I like the most about building an AR-15 is that you can pick and chose the parts you want and for my match rifle, I selected what I considered to be the very finest parts throughout the rifle. There is no other rifle quite like it and it is supremely accurate. But that's another story.

So, I understand your dilemma; you are afraid to commit yourself, thinking that you would make a mistake and blow a good opportunity. Forget about that, it's not going to happen. You will not go wrong with an AR-15; if you decide later on that you really would like a longer or shorter barrel, build or order the upper that suits that need and push two pins. Bingo, a new rifle.

Start with a .223/5.56 caliber rifle and as you learn and your needs become clearer, you can easily adapt.