I bought a new XCR-M keymod upper &light barrel, so Wolverine fixed my entire rifle!

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Astute Observer

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I bought a new XCR-M keymod upper &light barrel, so Wolverine fixed my entire rifle!

Hey all;

I just got a new goodie in the mail from the guys at Wolverine - I bought both a new barrel and upper for my XCR-M, both 18.5", and now I have two seperate receivers; one standard quad rail, and the new keymod.

D2o1v9i.jpg


One optic is pretty good, the other is so-so. I've got a Millett 1-6 DMR on the heavy barrel (for now), but a Trijicon 1-4x Accupoint on the light.

My intent is to replace the Millett with something a little more suited to longer range shooting, and then use that upper / barrel combo for a target rifle. I'll then use the lighter barrel and keymod upper for either hunting, or maybe perforating pumpkins and soda bottles at closer ranges. ;)

Micheal at Wolverine hooked me up really well with a custom order, and he was very patient with my repeated bugging. Much appreciation to him.

Also, Dave, Wolverine's gunsmith, busted his butt to get me this rifle. I sent it in for a diagnosis (was having some issues) and they were really great about helping me out. I bought the rifle on the Equipment Exchange, but bought the new upper and light barrel from wolverine - but Dave looked at the whole rifle, even though I had bought it second hand. These guys really did me a solid favour, and I can't compliment enough that their customer service was awesome. They even sent it back to me in a new gun case!

I haven't fired them yet to compare the accuracy between the two, but I just wanted to say thanks to Dave and Micheal.

Cheers!
 
S1de8urnz said:
Is there a noticeable diference in weight? If you had to carry one all day through the woods, which would you take?
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The light barrel and keymod - hands down lighter. The difference is noticeable, especially because it's got more weight at the front. I can shoulder the rifle and hold it for twice as long with the light barrel and keymod upper, before I get the 'shakes'. Add in that the heavy profile barrel and quad rail version has significantly heavier scope, a bipod, and a slightly larger muzzle brake on the heavy version, the effect is pronounced.


Wilks said:
Interested in an accuracy report for sure
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For sure! I plan on using the same ammo, same rifle, same upper (the Keymod), same optic, same mags, on the same day - to try to minimize the variables.

That all said: Depending on accuracy, if the light barrel is signifincantly worse than the heavy, I'd probably go for the keymod and heavy barrel and try to just do a multi-role rifle. We'll see, time will tell. I'll be shooting it this weekend coming up and will have some data then.

Cheers!

AO
 
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One thing to note as well; If you do decide to get a new upper, you'll want to get a new gas tube too. It's just one less thing you'll have to switch around when you're going from one to another. Now I get the whole point of the XCR was so that you DIDN'T HAVE TO change uppers - you could just change barrels (and bolt face in an XCR-L). So I acknowledge that this was probably an unnecessary step, but I wanted to semi-permanently mount the optics and barrels in their respective uppers, to improve accuracy as much as possible.
 
I too ordered a separate light barrel and keymod upper and it completely changes the feel of the gun. Much better balance and more comfortable to use. The quad rail and heavy barrel I've just left in storage and will probably not use them again.
 
Astute Observer said:
For sure! I plan on using the same ammo, same rifle, same upper (the Keymod), same optic, same mags, on the same day - to try to minimize the variables.

That all said: Depending on accuracy, if the light barrel is signifincantly worse than the heavy, I'd probably go for the keymod and heavy barrel and try to just do a multi-role rifle. We'll see, time will tell. I'll be shooting it this weekend coming up and will have some data then.

Cheers!

AO
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How much worse could it get? My XCR-M shoots minute of barn.
 
Wally said:
How much worse could it get? My XCR-M shoots minute of barn.
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Which barrel do you have? The light, or standard (heavy) profile?

My heavy profile barrel wasn't that accurate initially - about 3-4 MOA using the Norinco ammo. Dave from Wolverine did some work to accurize it (that was why I sent it to them in the first place) and it came back with the new muzzle brake. We'll see if that's the deal.
 
Wally said:
How much worse could it get? My XCR-M shoots minute of barn.
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I love it...that's funny! I will actually let everyone know that I use 7.62x51 MFS or Barnaul both are the same manufacturer, it is Russian made and very inexpensive. I get very accurate and repeatable results. Approx. 1.28" so just over MOA @ 100 yards.
Minute of barn is awesome.
 
Can anyone speak to the weight difference between the keymod and quad rail upper if the barrel profile is the same?
I understand that there's a big weight difference between heavy + quad and light + keymod. But how much of that weight savings is in the barrel change versus the rail change?

I currently have a light barrel with quad rail, and I'm wondering if there's significant weight savings to justify going to a keymod upper, with the same barrel profile (light)
 
Flumser said:
Can anyone speak to the weight difference between the keymod and quad rail upper if the barrel profile is the same?
I understand that there's a big weight difference between heavy + quad and light + keymod. But how much of that weight savings is in the barrel change versus the rail change?

I currently have a light barrel with quad rail, and I'm wondering if there's significant weight savings to justify going to a keymod upper, with the same barrel profile (light)
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Unfortunately I don't have an accurate scale (bathroom scale only, no kitchen scale or anything and I don't reload yet)...
But I have both uppers. I would say that the weight difference "feels" to be just less than a pound.

I guess that's not much help, sorry...
 
Astute Observer said:
Which barrel do you have? The light, or standard (heavy) profile?

My heavy profile barrel wasn't that accurate initially - about 3-4 MOA using the Norinco ammo. Dave from Wolverine did some work to accurize it (that was why I sent it to them in the first place) and it came back with the new muzzle brake. We'll see if that's the deal.
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I have the heavy barrel. It's from the first run with the FAST stock. I sent it back to have the chamber polished because it kept jamming closed but the accuracy sucks as much as ever. maybe 2moa with a 3-4moa flier every 5 rounds. Seems to get worse as the barrel heats up. I've run Nork, FGMM, Norma match, federal hunting ammo, handloads with hornady 168 match bullets, 168 a-max, etc. etc. and nothing helps.
Watchout Larry said:
I love it...that's funny! I will actually let everyone know that I use 7.62x51 MFS or Barnaul both are the same manufacturer, it is Russian made and very inexpensive. I get very accurate and repeatable results. Approx. 1.28" so just over MOA @ 100 yards.
Minute of barn is awesome.
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I would be happy with that.
 
OK, I finally got to the range today! Lots of good data. I fired four different ammo types out of both barrels, and came up with significantly different results.
I'm posting the review in the Main Battle Rifle sub-forum.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1241594-XCR-M-comparison-light-profile-barrel-to-heavy-profile-barrel

All in all, Dave at Wolverine did an amazing job accurizing my heavy barrel. Given I'm a moderate shooter (can pass the CF PWT3 at the best of times), I can say I was the weaker link in the chain when using the XCR-M with the heavy barrel, new compensator, and a tighter gas system that Dave installed. I feel satisified with this rifle's accuracy, and for me 2 - 2.5 MoA is reasonable for a battle rifle.

Cheers all!
 
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Will try to revive this old thread lol.
One small tip I would like to share with folks here who claim their XCR's have poor accuracy, it will work on brand new owners of XCR's. Most people don't bother with barrel break-in period, but my lifetime experience had taught me
that it is better to break it in properly than not to. Almost every new barrel comes fresh from the factory with little micro burrs as a result of manufacturing processes.
It is crucial to remove this burr by at least pulling a bore snake through the bore 2 or 3 times. Shoot one round, pull the snake through, check for copper build up by running a patch soaked with Butch's Boreshine, letting it work for 2 minutes and running a dry patch to test for blue color. If it's blue repeat the process, if it's clean run a lightly oiled patch (CLP works great) and take another shot, repeat the procedure after each first 10 shots, and then after 5 shots taken, then 20 shots.
The burr and copper will be removed this way. If you shoot over the micro burr you will permanently damage the barrel and make it 2-3 MOA at best (or Minute-of-Barn as some say).
 
Anton520b, totally agree, use wipe out on my XCR- M .308 and a couple of other tricks and most match and good quality 150 grin to 168 grn are right at 1 inch but it loves HSM Berger 168 grn Hybrids will shoot first five into 1/4 in and next five opens to 3/4 in.
If you shoot crap ammo or run it flat out with multiple mag dumps you will end up with crap groups.
You can burn out a barrel in two minutes, if you go Hollywood Rambo.
 
Wally said:
How much worse could it get? My XCR-M shoots minute of barn.
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Too bad.

I got one of the light barreled key mods with the m4 stock from the summer sale. Has the accurized gas system and "match" chamber. Plenty accurate and so happy with it. 1"- 3" groups (100m) using from Fed Gm match, my handloads to surplus brass hirt and steel cased norc.
Running it on gas setting 2, eats and ejects everything. Makes busting clays at 280 m almost boring. The latest gen seems to be far and away better than past ones. My .02 .
 
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