XCR Models/Type Question, Please Educate Me!

Travis Bickle

Travis Bickle

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Got to fire my first XCR-L the other day.
I have to say I'm a huge fan of the rifle. The design is beefy and sturdy ala FN FAL on the receiver anyhow.
The mag and bolt release location are brilliant. The rifle balances very well. Seems like a very reliable feeding and firing system over all.

However I also experienced the greatest flaw in the design.
The single tiny allan screw that holds the entire barrel on the receiver came loose.
That has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Why in gods name would they sacrifice an otherwise brilliantly designed rifle to insert a weak link of that magnitude?

I get the concept of a quick change barrel. I can barely see in any way however, how a quick caliber change feature makes any sense at all though.
Especially if to make that possible you have to design a flaw of that size into the design of the rifle....
Holy hell!

Anyhow, all that long winded complaining for a simple question: Has there ever been an XCR model or earlier variant which just has a properly threaded barrel into its receiver? Or are they all the same with a single ridiculous screw holding the barrel on?

Was blown away at the rifle itself, until we tried to zero it and the found out the screw would not stay tight. And for the money these things go for!? Unbelievable...
 
In the words of Microsoft: "It's not a design flaw. It's a feature." :cool:

All XCR-L barrels use the bolt under the upper receiver to retain it. The purpose for this was to facilitate easy calibre changes. (Loosen the hex bolt. Remove/replace the barrel. Tighten the hex bolt. Swap BCG. Done.)

They are a great rifle, but they are certainly not (nor were they ever intended to be) a precision rifle. Make sure that the Barrel Retaining Hex Bolt is properly torqued (200 inch-pounds) and you should be getting somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1.5-2.5MOA.

As for the need for calibre changes, keep in mind the original purpose of this rifle. There are places in the world where the potential users of this rifle may not want to leave .556 casings around, and where 7.62x39 casings will draw a lot less attention.
 
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Get a torque wrench once the barrel screw is torque down properly the barrel ain't going no where, between my full size rifle and my Micro, both have been used at my club's annual open house where over 500 rounds are shot in a two hour period, I have never had any issues with the barrel coming loose.

as to other method of barrel retention? the answer is no, with monolithic upper like the XCR there are no easy access to were the chamber end of the barrel mate against the upper.
 
Not exactly what I would call a tiny bolt. Besides, if you torque the barrel down to the proper specifications of 250 inch pounds, it won't come loose. It is not a design flaw and works very very well as all the owners of the XCR who caliber convert it regularly. Many users do that. The xcr was never designed for a threaded barrel.
 
Oh I wasn't expecting it to be a prceision gun, believe me, I own an AR180b and a glass bedded Rem 700 lol I know the limits of a design.
The rifle belonged to a close friend. The screw came loose after we zeroed his optic it and it wasn't even printing on a 25" x 36" target board at 70 meters!

So there was never a version or variant that has a proper threaded barrel into the receiver. And if so it would obviously not be commercially common or available. Would I be correct in assuming this?

I don't know, to me that's a huge trade up for reliability in a design that's supposed to be essentially a "combat rifle". Just my view on it personally so don't take offense.
I think other than that aspect it's a great semi auto average accuracy rifle but I would never drop the cash on it unless there was a properly fixed/threaded barrel and receiver.
 
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Travis Bickle said:
Oh I wasn't expecting it to be a prceision gun, believe me, I own an AR180b and a glass bedded Rem 700 lol I know the limits of a design.
The rifle belonged to a close friend. The screw came loose after we zeroed his optic it and it wasn't even printing on a 25" x 36" target board at 70 meters!

So there was never a version or variant that has a proper threaded barrel into the receiver. And if so it would obviously not be commercially common or available. Would I be correct in assuming this?

I don't know, to me that's a huge trade up for reliability in a design that's supposed to be essentially a "combat rifle". Just my view on it personally so don't take offense.
I think other than that aspect it's a great semi auto average accuracy rifle but I would never drop the cash on it unless there was a properly fixed/threaded barrel and receiver.
Click to expand...

Ease of caliber change was an actual US Army requirement for their next generation rifle program submission.
 
So.....never was a version produced with a standard threaded barrel??

I get the whole US army requirement thing. I could defintely see it being a great feature for when you're running sketchy black ops where you need to shoot up a whole village and can use Chinese 7.62x39 vice Lake City 5.56mm yadda yadda whatever.

I'm some dude who shoots holes in paper out to 300 meters in the woods...
When they switched to commercial sales did they ever produce any with a threaded standard barrel into the receiver?
 
Travis Bickle said:
When they switched to commercial sales did they ever produce any with a threaded standard barrel into the receiver?
Click to expand...

No, there is no room to get a wrench or a tool down a monolithic upper to tighten the barrel against the upper and you really can't just thread a steel barrel into a aluminium body and expected to last under such pressure.
 
Travis Bickle said:
Oh I wasn't expecting it to be a prceision gun, believe me, I own an AR180b and a glass bedded Rem 700 lol I know the limits of a design.
The rifle belonged to a close friend. The screw came loose after we zeroed his optic it and it wasn't even printing on a 25" x 36" target board at 70 meters!

So there was never a version or variant that has a proper threaded barrel into the receiver. And if so it would obviously not be commercially common or available. Would I be correct in assuming this?

I don't know, to me that's a huge trade up for reliability in a design that's supposed to be essentially a "combat rifle". Just my view on it personally so don't take offense.
I think other than that aspect it's a great semi auto average accuracy rifle but I would never drop the cash on it unless there was a properly fixed/threaded barrel and receiver.
Click to expand...

Proper torqueing will stop the barrel from coming loose. As per my post above there never has been a threaded barrel for the XCR. As for reliability We have lots of customers with over 10000 rounds through their XCR's that have never had a problem or the bolt coming loose when properly spec'd and maintained.
 
200 INCH - pounds.... NOT FOOT pounds!!!
And a small dab of locktite. I've had my barrel out many times for cleaning and shot 2 - 3 thousand rounds with no problems.
 
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