Initial XCR Range Report

QYV

QYV

Regular
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Location
Edmonton AB
Well, took the new XCR out to the range for the first time yesterday, put over 200 rounds downrange in total. Here are my impressions:

Preparation:
Not to much prep needed. For break-in (first 300 rnds) RobArm recommended using extra lube and gas setting 4. So I opened it up a sprayed some CLP inside the receiver and on the internal parts. I also mounted my YHM BUIS, a finer front sight needle and a borrowed EOTech (thanks CanAR15).

Ammo was 55grn Winchester.

Shooting:
Like a dream! Zeroed the EO at 100m and co-witnessed the buis on the EO. Started out shooting at 100m silhouettes sitting at a bench, was grouping a few inch's, which is good for me! Definitely the best I have ever shot, but Ive only been shooting for about a year. I am very confident that the rifle is capable of much, much better shooting than I am! One of the first things I noticed is that the muzzle likes to recoil slightly down and to the right, and even though it was on the highest gas setting the recoil was noticeably less than my friends 16in Bushmaster AR. The brass was landing about 20 feet out at 2 o'clock, and a lot of the case necks were severely caved in; this is no doubt because it is running on gas setting 4.

We then did some 25m rapid fire with both the AR and XCR. Getting quick follow up shots is so easy with the XCR as recoil is almost straight back. This was very noticeable with the EO mounted, each shot would simply 'shake' the reticle a little bit, but the sight never left the target!

After that it was out to 300m, shooting phone books off a bipod on the bench. Hit 3 out of 5 on my first mag with the EO without my trouble; again, the best I have ever shot!

The only problems encountered all day were 3 bolt hold open failures. I forget to note if they were all on the same mag or not, but I will see next time I'm out.

Overall I was very, very pleased. It was easy to shoot, very mild recoil, and all of the controls were extremely easy to use. And it made a rookie like me feel good about my shooting! :)

Afterwards:
I opened it up again to see how the the insides faired. There was still a lot of CLP in there so I wiped everything down with a rag. Despite how wet it was inside, the ONLY fouling I saw was on the bolt face and the front of the gas piston! I didn't bother to clean it. There was some noticeable wear in the finish on some of the internal parts; places like the interface between the op-rod and the bolt carrier, the interface between the bolt carrier and the receiver (on both the bolt carrier and the receiver), and the inside of the bolt carrier where the bolt sits. I am going to keep an eye on this.

One thing I really noticed during the out is the little bit of movement between the upper and lower receivers. Despite the fact that the two halves fit together very well, if you grasp the hand guard and the pistol grip and give it a little twist, you can hear and feel a bit of movement. I compared it to my friends Bushmaster AR, and the AR had no movement between the upper and lower. I think that the 'quick access' rear latch is just not as secure as a capture pin, no matter how precisely it is machined. While I don't think it affect the performance, it is quite annoying considering the cost and apparent quality of the rifle. Any other XCR owners want to add their 2 cents on this?

The other thing I noticed when I took it apart after shooting is how the front-right side of the bolt hold open catch got a bit chewed up. I seen some people on arfcom mention this, and other who say it hasn't happened to them. Again, any other XCR owners care to comment?


Thats it for now. I love this rifle, its fun and easy to shoot, its good looking, its non restricted, and its different. I will get some pics up eventually, maybe a video too. Next outing is going to be the service rifle match Apr. 29th at Spruce Grove, can't wait!!! :cool:
 
Pics! Nice little review, and it needs pretty pictures to go with it.
How is the weight distribution? Say, compared to long-barreled AR?
 
imagine_74714 said:
Pics! Nice little review, and it needs pretty pictures to go with it.
How is the weight distribution? Say, compared to long-barreled AR?
Click to expand...

Haven't shot an AR longer than 16" so I can't really compare. All I can say is that a 16" AR feels small compared to the 18.6" HBAR XCR.

The weight on the XCR is forward biased thanks to the heavy barrel. I had the barrel out before and though I didn't weigh it, I'm sure the barrel accounts for about 2/3rd's of the rifle's total weight. I would love to try a 14.5" or 12.5" barrel on the XCR :D
 
QYV, I was very impressed when you brought it by the shop the other day. I'm glad it worked out for you.
The upper and lower lock together very much like the Deawoo KC-10 I had some time ago and I found the looseness was a problem. I cured the problem by drilling and tapping into the top of the lower reciever and putting a set screw through to contact the spring extention that goes from the upper to the lower to hold the two pieces together. Once you tighten down the screw the upper and lower felt much better. I also put a small piece of stock through the hollow end of the spring assembly so the screw would not crush the hollow extention piece. It take a couple more seconds to take the gun apart for cleaning but whats acouple of twists with an allen wrench to loosen the screw?

See you Sunday guys.

Scott
 
I noticed my upper and lower were REALLY loose. then I realized that I forgot to tighten the bolt when I put the new pistol grip on.

I also had a couple bolt-hold open failures, but they happened in the first 40 rounds. she has been running like a top, and I will blast a few hundred rounds of 45 gr JHP at some gophers tomorrow.
 
Throttle_monkey1 said:
I noticed my upper and lower were REALLY loose. then I realized that I forgot to tighten the bolt when I put the new pistol grip on.

I also had a couple bolt-hold open failures, but they happened in the first 40 rounds. she has been running like a top, and I will blast a few hundred rounds of 45 gr JHP at some gophers tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Do you still get a bit of movement between the upper and lower when they are locked together? How is your bolt catch holding up?
 
XCR- nice gun, shoots well, easy to take apart, HEAVY as a mother f*cker and wrecks good brass that I could be collecting.

AR- oh my sweet sweet AR....much lighter, feels smaller, shoots great- I was easily hitting phone books out to 300yrds (ACOG helped with that), doesn't wreck my brass so I CAN pick it up to be recycled.

When shooting the XCR I did notice that the trigger likes to slap the back of your finger when it resets. Any one else who find this?

Oh yeah- I was dropping 5 rounds out of the AR faster than QYV was with his XCR....especially when he forgot to close the bolt!! I'm not sure which gun has a faster ROF but I like to think that the AR would. Over all the XCR is a very nice gun but the only thing that I like about it is that it's non-restricted. I'll gladly take an AR15 over the XCR anyday.

edit- post up the damn pics and video.
 
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How did you find the trigger?

There was on XCR on the range last weekend and I found the 2 stage trigger to be a bit weird. The first stage being quite stiff,, so that when it broke you just went flying through the second stage.

I only handled it for a few minutes,, but the owner mentioned he had difficulty with finessing the trigger as well. Is it adjustable?

Shelldrake.

PS: The rifle was visually sweet and well finished.
 
CanAR15 said:
XCR- nice gun, shoots well, easy to take apart, HEAVY as a mother f*cker and wrecks good brass that I could be collecting.

AR- oh my sweet sweet AR....much lighter, feels smaller, shoots great- I was easily hitting phone books out to 300yrds (ACOG helped with that), doesn't wreck my brass so I CAN pick it up to be recycled.

When shooting the XCR I did notice that the trigger likes to slap the back of your finger when it resets. Any one else who find this?

Oh yeah- I was dropping 5 rounds out of the AR faster than QYV was with his XCR....especially when he forgot to close the bolt!! I'm not sure which gun has a faster ROF but I like to think that the AR would. Over all the XCR is a very nice gun but the only thing that I like about it is that it's non-restricted. I'll gladly take an AR15 over the XCR anyday.

edit- post up the damn pics and video.
Click to expand...


Put an 18.6" HBAR and rail on your AR and bring it out gopher hunting, then we'll compare weight :p
 
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Shelldrake said:
How did you find the trigger?

There was on XCR on the range last weekend and I found the 2 stage trigger to be a bit weird. The first stage being quite stiff,, so that when it broke you just went flying through the second stage.

I only handled it for a few minutes,, but the owner mentioned he had difficulty with finessing the trigger as well. Is it adjustable?

Shelldrake.

PS: The rifle was visually sweet and well finished.
Click to expand...


My trigger was exactly the same out of the box, it was very crisp but stiff and it was easy to blow right through both stages. It really needs some use before it starts to feel good, after 200 rounds it is A LOT nicer. It now very easy to pull just the first stage.

I noticed the slapping a bit at the beginning of the day, by the end it seemed to be gone. I'll see if it happens again on Sunday. Any other Edmonton XCR owners coming to the match?
 
what match? I spent the day blasting gophers with the xcr. The trigger has vastly improved, and I don't notice any movement between upper and lower. I checked my bolt catch, and it doesn't seem to be exhibiting any abnormal wear patterns. love this rifle. just need to wait for eotech to release their magnifier or pick up a leupy clone.
 
QYV said:
Put an 18.6" HBAR and rail on your AR and bring it out gopher hunting, then we'll compare weight :p
Click to expand...

Why....I already bought my AR with the nice, light barrel it came with. I'll stick with my range queen, rather than some heavy SOB that may be non-restricted. I hope you're going to have a quad to haul that fat ass gun around all day.
 
lol. my XCR is not much heavier than my Hbar AR. Now if I put a quad rail on the AR, it will probably be the same weight. Face it, the AR is a great gun, but can be finnicky. The xcr isn't.

In my opinion, the XCR is a better rifle, as it should be, it wasn't designed 40 years ago. Add to the fact that the nanny state of Kanada has deemed my AR to be too dangerous to shoot outside of a range, the xcr beats it hands down. There is no way I am selling my AR though
 
Throttle_monkey1 said:
what match? I spent the day blasting gophers with the xcr. The trigger has vastly improved, and I don't notice any movement between upper and lower. I checked my bolt catch, and it doesn't seem to be exhibiting any abnormal wear patterns. love this rifle. just need to wait for eotech to release their magnifier or pick up a leupy clone.
Click to expand...


Service Rifle Match @ Spruce Grove, Sunday 11am.

Interesting, there is definatly noticable movement between my upper and lower. I looked at it more closely and it appears the movement is centered around the front pin not the rear catch. There is a bit of side to side play where the upper slots into the lower and the pin slides through.

We should get together for gopher blasting one day ;)
 
for sure qyv. I was in at P&D today and showed my rifle off to scott. he had mentioned you were in there. There is slight movement between my upper and lower, but not enough to bother me. The problem i have is that there is nowhere to mount a sling on the front of the rifle. No biggie, I will drill+tap the side quad rail for a sling swivel.

Out shooting today, the rifle ran flawlessly. I am going to take it apart tomorrow and go to gas setting 3 or 2 and see how it runs. I was out shooting gophers by myself, so I shot from the truck. Saftey nazis are gonna love this, I accidentally shot my driver's side mirror off. lol, it scared the #### out of me.

I won't be able to go to the service match, as I have to box at noon.
 
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