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Great review...even more impressive for a first time gun buyer/owner!
-1 more 'fail to feed' (I might be technically incorrect on the vernacular?). My friend who isn't familiar with the gun released the bolt while the charging handle was tilted against his forearm (same thing I did when I first shot the gun.) Then he pulled the charging handle back like a sissy causing there to be 2 rounds in the feeding path. It's no big deal but familiarization is key when it comes to that bulky charging handle.#
While your description is descriptive, usually when we use the term "failure to feed", we mean that the operator did everything right, but the gun/magazine let you down. And damaged ammo is chalked up as just that: damaged ammo. In your specific case, we'd describe that entirely as "operator error", and should not be considered a fault of the gun or its design. (Although if the ergonomics on a design are so poor that the man-machine combination regularly creates this, then yea, an ergonomic fault requiring a change. But this doesnt seem to be the case on the XCR's)
Now...when you get two rounds jammed in there, first things first: place the safety ON. Keep your muzzle conciously pointed down range even when clearing the fault. People have a tendency to forget muzzle direction when clearing jams like that. Then remove the magazine. #### the action back, let the rounds and possible debris fall out, cycle the action again, check there are no rounds in the chamber. If everything looks good, put the magazine back on, #### the handle back all the way and release it so the spring does the work of chambering the rounds. Some new users will #### back, and then slowly ease the action forward...and that's wrong, just let the spring do it!
Eye protection: you have an ejection port, brass and gas comes flying outnof...keep your eyes armored so you can keep enjoying thenshooting sports even if something ever strikes your eye.
Accuracy testing:
Generally, the accepted method is to shoot 5 shots (known as a "five shot group") at the same point on the paper, at either 100meters or 100 yards (nearly the same). And then you measure the furthest of the five shots from each other (in inches here in north america; metric millimeters in Europe). For this, its not important for the bullets to strike dead center of the bullzeye, because this is just a test of what the ammo and barrel/rifle can do mechanically. You should mention size of all your groups for each brand and weight of ammo bullet used, because they can perform quite well and poorly. Knowing which ammo yours prefers is good for you and the prospective buyer interested in your type of rifle.
For a semi auto, at 100m,
8" would be considered crap. Many AK-47's can do no better.
5" would be considered dissapointing.
3" is considered acceptable for most uses. The US Govt used to specify no larger than 3" for its new bought M-16's in then1980's.
2" is quite decent, and typical of a new semi auto from most manufacturers. Brand new AK-47 pattern rifles, with quality ammo, have been known to do this consistently, in 5.56 and .308 chamberings, but most were still made in 762x39 which is not shaped well for precision amd the ammo is not real accurate generally.
1" and close to it, is really good, and in semi autos is usually only achieved in AR-15's, and tuned up M1 and M1A rifles. AR's can do this because the barrels are ususally "free floated", and the gas is just a small empty tube...most semi autos use a big piston, and while that's great for reliability, it makes pure accuracy suffer a tiny bit.
Sub 1" is usually for top end heavy barreled AR's, sniper designated marksman rifles.
