I recently got a "new to me" XCR off the EE after having done a fair amount of reading about them. I also went ahead and got a Hi-Lux CMR 1-4x24 after reading some very positive reviews. I've decided to do a quick write-up on my thoughts about the two products. When I was considering buying them I have never held an XCR and never looked through a CMR. Now that I've got them I am very pleased, but I have a few criticisms.
Here is the XCR as it arrived to me;
First impressions were that XCR was very nicely build and finished. The location of the bolt release, mag release, the simply gas adjustments, and short rotation of the "safe / fire" switch were all very satisfying. Some of the flaws that I noted were: the very short length of pull on the fixed skeleton stock (mine does not fold), the plastic knob on the charging handle, and the mushiness of the trigger. The flared magwell is also a nice touch. This last point, the trigger, I should revise as a PRO. Having now shot the rifle I must say that this trigger is excellent. It is almost a two stage or a progressive trigger, either way, it breaks clean and consistently and does not have a heavy pull. Having read reviews I also expected the rifle to feel very heavy, especially front heavy. I didn't find it heavy at all but I will say that the "front heavy" perception is likely caused by the short and light rear stock. The overall balance could use some improvement.
Magwell and safety:
Charging handle:
I should also note that I took out my allen keys and checked the tightness on a few bolts here and there and did not find anything loose. I also did not see any traces of loctite (I would never have thought to mention this about any firearm but the XCR seems that have this weird loctite following that just doesn't want to go away. It reminds me of elementary school when there was a rumour going around that Mountain Dew kills your sperm, I think of it any time I see Moutain Dew).
Here is the final product, mounted with the CMR, PEPR, AVG, and Vertical Grip, and PMAG (and no, my PMAG had zero issues with seating in the magwell):
Having put everything together I must say, this XCR has gotten heavy! I bought the PEPR because everyone seems to be happy with it. Having looked at it, I can say that it's overkill. There is no need to have 6 screws for each ring (and it's annoying to tighten all those screws) as it just adds weight. The actual PEPR could probably have been built lighter and thinner and I'm sure it would still be plenty strong. Either way, it sits nicely on the rail and is machined very nicely.
The CMR is a nice piece of glass for the price. Is there better out there? Yes. Do the optics that cost 2x the price give 2x the value? No. I was hesitant to buy the CMR because I felt the reticle was too "busy" but having now looked through it I think it will suit it's role perfectly. The center dot is quite small but easily visible so you have a good point of aim. The hash marks on the horizontal and vertical hairs are nice and thin so they don't obstruct the target but they will give some good points of reference if shooting in wind or unknown distances. Do I think that 1-4x is enough to shoot accurately at 100+ meters? No, but my definition of accuracy is anything sub-MOA. 1-4x will be plenty accurate to hit what you aiming at and that is what is important to me with this rifle. A quick note on the quality of the CMR; good glass (not Sightron quality, but still good), the turrets and magnification adjustments are nice and still, and the zero stop is a nifty feature. The negative; the illuminated reticle does not illuminate evenly and the center dot does not seem to illuminate. The eye relief also seems a little short but at least it feels fairly consistent between 1x and 4x.
At the range!
Thoughts; the rifle's fore-end could be a little longer. I like shooting close targets using the magpul-style straight arm thingmajig that I've seen on the interweb and now prefer over the vertical grip. I'm not a big guy and my arm when extended reaches out past the fore-end and would naturally grab the gas block. That gas block gets very hot on this rifle! I set up the AFG so that it extends about 1" past the fore-end and this works for me, but I need to remind myself to watch where I place my thumb.
I still think the LOP of the stock is too short but it's not the end of the world.
The trigger is great, as noted above, and allows for good control when shooting off the bench for accuracy.
One of my favorite methods too shoot these type of rifles is by resting them on the bottom of a 30 round PMAG with a Ranger Plate. With this rifle it will not prove to be very accurate. There is a little bit of play in the magwell and there is also a little bit of play between the upper and lower receiver. As a result, the shots will not land consistently. If you want to shoot this rifle accurately, you will need a bipod or a rest to put under the fore-end to help overcome the play.
I am also glad to have added the MAID. I'd say I have average sized hands and so unless you are wearing gloves, the MAID will give you a more consistent grip on the rifle. The normal A2 style grip and the curve of the lower receiver above the grip simply gives too much room for my liking. I prefer griping the pistol grip like I grip pistols, it should be snug and thus more consistent.
At the end of the day, the rifle functioned flawlessly. My only major criticism is the weight of the rifle with optics. I fired Winchester white box and AE black box. The AE is much less accurate than the Winchester. The rifle was surprisingly easy to zero. All that hipe about the "monolithic rail" may actually have been true. I was on target with on shot and more or less zeroed with 3 shots. My final zero is set for 100 meters and also happens to be a perfect zero for 50 meters.
The flash hider didn't do much to hide the flash but it did help as a muzzle break. The rifle did not jump much when fired. My friend was next to me when I was shooting and he did say that he could feel the shots through his lip hair ... I guess it's not very range polite.
As for accuracy, I'd say there is potential. This certainly wasn't match ammo but I'd say I was getting 2 MOA out of the rifle. This was shot at 50 meters:
So hopefully this is good food for thought if you're reading this and considering an XCR. I think I will be having a good amount of fun with this rifle.
Here is the XCR as it arrived to me;
First impressions were that XCR was very nicely build and finished. The location of the bolt release, mag release, the simply gas adjustments, and short rotation of the "safe / fire" switch were all very satisfying. Some of the flaws that I noted were: the very short length of pull on the fixed skeleton stock (mine does not fold), the plastic knob on the charging handle, and the mushiness of the trigger. The flared magwell is also a nice touch. This last point, the trigger, I should revise as a PRO. Having now shot the rifle I must say that this trigger is excellent. It is almost a two stage or a progressive trigger, either way, it breaks clean and consistently and does not have a heavy pull. Having read reviews I also expected the rifle to feel very heavy, especially front heavy. I didn't find it heavy at all but I will say that the "front heavy" perception is likely caused by the short and light rear stock. The overall balance could use some improvement.
Magwell and safety:
Charging handle:
I should also note that I took out my allen keys and checked the tightness on a few bolts here and there and did not find anything loose. I also did not see any traces of loctite (I would never have thought to mention this about any firearm but the XCR seems that have this weird loctite following that just doesn't want to go away. It reminds me of elementary school when there was a rumour going around that Mountain Dew kills your sperm, I think of it any time I see Moutain Dew).
Here is the final product, mounted with the CMR, PEPR, AVG, and Vertical Grip, and PMAG (and no, my PMAG had zero issues with seating in the magwell):
Having put everything together I must say, this XCR has gotten heavy! I bought the PEPR because everyone seems to be happy with it. Having looked at it, I can say that it's overkill. There is no need to have 6 screws for each ring (and it's annoying to tighten all those screws) as it just adds weight. The actual PEPR could probably have been built lighter and thinner and I'm sure it would still be plenty strong. Either way, it sits nicely on the rail and is machined very nicely.
The CMR is a nice piece of glass for the price. Is there better out there? Yes. Do the optics that cost 2x the price give 2x the value? No. I was hesitant to buy the CMR because I felt the reticle was too "busy" but having now looked through it I think it will suit it's role perfectly. The center dot is quite small but easily visible so you have a good point of aim. The hash marks on the horizontal and vertical hairs are nice and thin so they don't obstruct the target but they will give some good points of reference if shooting in wind or unknown distances. Do I think that 1-4x is enough to shoot accurately at 100+ meters? No, but my definition of accuracy is anything sub-MOA. 1-4x will be plenty accurate to hit what you aiming at and that is what is important to me with this rifle. A quick note on the quality of the CMR; good glass (not Sightron quality, but still good), the turrets and magnification adjustments are nice and still, and the zero stop is a nifty feature. The negative; the illuminated reticle does not illuminate evenly and the center dot does not seem to illuminate. The eye relief also seems a little short but at least it feels fairly consistent between 1x and 4x.
At the range!
Thoughts; the rifle's fore-end could be a little longer. I like shooting close targets using the magpul-style straight arm thingmajig that I've seen on the interweb and now prefer over the vertical grip. I'm not a big guy and my arm when extended reaches out past the fore-end and would naturally grab the gas block. That gas block gets very hot on this rifle! I set up the AFG so that it extends about 1" past the fore-end and this works for me, but I need to remind myself to watch where I place my thumb.
I still think the LOP of the stock is too short but it's not the end of the world.
The trigger is great, as noted above, and allows for good control when shooting off the bench for accuracy.
One of my favorite methods too shoot these type of rifles is by resting them on the bottom of a 30 round PMAG with a Ranger Plate. With this rifle it will not prove to be very accurate. There is a little bit of play in the magwell and there is also a little bit of play between the upper and lower receiver. As a result, the shots will not land consistently. If you want to shoot this rifle accurately, you will need a bipod or a rest to put under the fore-end to help overcome the play.
I am also glad to have added the MAID. I'd say I have average sized hands and so unless you are wearing gloves, the MAID will give you a more consistent grip on the rifle. The normal A2 style grip and the curve of the lower receiver above the grip simply gives too much room for my liking. I prefer griping the pistol grip like I grip pistols, it should be snug and thus more consistent.
At the end of the day, the rifle functioned flawlessly. My only major criticism is the weight of the rifle with optics. I fired Winchester white box and AE black box. The AE is much less accurate than the Winchester. The rifle was surprisingly easy to zero. All that hipe about the "monolithic rail" may actually have been true. I was on target with on shot and more or less zeroed with 3 shots. My final zero is set for 100 meters and also happens to be a perfect zero for 50 meters.
The flash hider didn't do much to hide the flash but it did help as a muzzle break. The rifle did not jump much when fired. My friend was next to me when I was shooting and he did say that he could feel the shots through his lip hair ... I guess it's not very range polite.
As for accuracy, I'd say there is potential. This certainly wasn't match ammo but I'd say I was getting 2 MOA out of the rifle. This was shot at 50 meters:
So hopefully this is good food for thought if you're reading this and considering an XCR. I think I will be having a good amount of fun with this rifle.
