XCR pre keymod lightening

RedDemon

RedDemon

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Hello everyone, I’m hoping to get opinions of what I want to get done to my XCR. I’m thinking of getting a machine shop to machine the side rails down to the flat surface as well as make oval holes similar to the ones above and below the side rails to lighten the rifle. I may also remove 2/3 of the lower rail leaving the front 1/3 for a bipod and sling attachment. I'll also purchase a pencil barrel to replace my heavy walled 7.62 barrel.

I figured this will be cheaper than going to a keymod upper.

Any thoughts and does anyone know of a competent machine shop in the GTA?
Thanks





 
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I have the pic rail vrsion also, and it is heavy. A light barrel would be a good mod, but I'd be afraid of the resale value if you start to grind pieces off the rifle. You could always do a complete key mod swap. I've just learned to live with the weight of the XCR.
 
Are you a member of the xcrforum? There are a few guys who have done this and I have toyed with the idea myself. As mentioned, see if you can find a pencil barrel and try that first. Might make more of a difference.

The keymod upper only, is 20% off right now at Wolverine....but I couldn't pull the trigger. I bought a complete AR for the same price. :)
 
GD7 said:
I have the pic rail vrsion also, and it is heavy. A light barrel would be a good mod, but I'd be afraid of the resale value if you start to grind pieces off the rifle. You could always do a complete key mod swap. I've just learned to live with the weight of the XCR.
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I'll probably never sell the xcr, I like it a lot and it's NR. I'm hoping to take it hunting with me next season.

onetwentyish said:
I would get it milled down and get M-lok slots milled in, then get it cerakoted. Should look slick and be very comparable to the keymod version but with the advantage of using M-lok. It would look pretty slick!
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Hmmm, haven't heard of M-lok. Looked it up and I think I prefer it to Keymod since it doesn't require tapered fasteners. In this case, I would remove the entire bottom rail as well.

berger said:
Are you a member of the xcrforum? There are a few guys who have done this and I have toyed with the idea myself. As mentioned, see if you can find a pencil barrel and try that first. Might make more of a difference.

The keymod upper only, is 20% off right now at Wolverine....but I couldn't pull the trigger. I bought a complete AR for the same price. :)
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No, I'm not on xcrforum, I'll register and look them up. Looks like after tax and shipping (and with the 25% off), the upper comes out to $696. That's pretty steep but I can't imagine the machine work will come close to that....right? I bought an AR as well for the range, but as I said earlier, I want to take this out and hunt with it.

I'm going to try and find a gunsmith and see what their rates are for machining.
 
The pencil barrel will make a lot of difference. That's based on my experience with a keymod 6.8 SPC heavy vs a .223 pencil. I just switched bbls tonight.

I wouldn't machine. If a pencil bbl doesn't do it I'd do a keymod upper with pencil bbl or similar.

Or sell and buy a keymod.

Also some bipod mounts have to be removed before changing barrels. Not a real big deal.

ETA......You may want to look at Magpul MS4 QD sling, it's real handy on foot and jumping on and off atv and climbing ridges where both hands and a ready gun are useful. Much better at weight distributing than a regular gunsling.
 
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Master-G said:
There's a thread here from a couple of years ago where another member had something similar done.
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Oh wow, thank you. I like it!

Brian46 said:
least hassle way would be to sell your current xcr and then buy a new or used keymod one with light barrel
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Honestly, just thinking about trying to sell, package, ship and then check everyday on the EE for a 7.62x39 LW Barrel Keymod feels like more of a hassle.

skypilot said:
The pencil barrel will make a lot of difference. That's based on my experience with a keymod 6.8 SPC heavy vs a .223 pencil. I just switched bbls tonight.

I wouldn't machine. If a pencil bbl doesn't do it I'd do a keymod upper with pencil bbl or similar.

Or sell and buy a keymod.

Also some bipod mounts have to be removed before changing barrels. Not a real big deal.

ETA......You may want to look at Magpul MS4 QD sling, it's real handy on foot and jumping on and off atv and climbing ridges where both hands and a ready gun are useful. Much better at weight distributing than a regular gunsling.
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Thanks for the advice, I'll look into the MS4 sling


So I've called around and after speaking to Tactical Ordnance, the cost of milling all three rails and machining M-lok is about $170 after tax. So essentially for $170, I get an XCR with all the benefit of M-lok and I save $526 if I bought the keymod upper from Wolverine. Oh, and I would have one hell of a unique XCR haha.

I'm going to call them back and see if they can flute or maybe turn down my heavy barrel. It'll lighten up the barrel some bit, not as much as buying a light barrel but it's hard to justify spending $500+ on only a barrel lol.


Thanks for the advice everyone
 
RedDemon said:
Oh wow, thank you. I like it!



Honestly, just thinking about trying to sell, package, ship and then check everyday on the EE for a 7.62x39 LW Barrel Keymod feels like more of a hassle.


Thanks for the advice, I'll look into the MS4 sling


So I've called around and after speaking to Tactical Ordnance, the cost of milling all three rails and machining M-lok is about $170 after tax. So essentially for $170, I get an XCR with all the benefit of M-lok and I save $526 if I bought the keymod upper from Wolverine. Oh, and I would have one hell of a unique XCR haha.

I'm going to call them back and see if they can flute or maybe turn down my heavy barrel. It'll lighten up the barrel some bit, not as much as buying a light barrel but it's hard to justify spending $500+ on only a barrel lol.


Thanks for the advice everyone
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Very cool, I really like the idea of an M-Lok XCR, make sure to post pictures if/when you get it done!
 
How much is it to get refinished after all the milling? Are you leaving a piece of rail on the top for the front sight?

Lastly, how many m-lok slots are included for that price?
 
F22_RaptoR said:
Very cool, I really like the idea of an M-Lok XCR, make sure to post pictures if/when you get it done!
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I definitely will, they don't have time till February. So I'll have to wait till then to get it done.


Ghost~Rider said:
Go for it. Get it milled down. I'm a fan of custom stuff like this and like that.

End of the day, it can be replaced.
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Yup, pretty much.


NaviDave said:
How much is it to get refinished after all the milling? Are you leaving a piece of rail on the top for the front sight?

Lastly, how many m-lok slots are included for that price?
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So, I haven't decided what to do after they mill off the rails. I have two options; the first is to tape the entire upper and just shoot black paint on the exposed aluminium or the second option is to have the rifle cerakoted. A part of me wants to get it cerakoted Olive Drab which would cost $250 for both upper and lower (not incl. disassembly which I would do myself), while the other part is saying screw it since it'll get all scratched up anyways and just spend $10 buck on a can of paint.

I'll be leaving the top picatinny rail, I'll only remove the side and bottom rails. I then would need to buy 2- 3 slot M-lok rails for the bipod and sling mount.

The gunsmith didn't care how many M-lok slots I wanted, they work on an hourly rate. So in my case, he said it may take 2 hours at $75/hr to do the job. I just need to send him the dimensions of the M-lok which I found online.
 
More mlok slots = less weight + better ventilation.

Interesting option for sure. It is nice to know that there are still some true craftsmen around.
 
This is going to be sweet and I am looking forward to the end result. Dont cheap out by only milling a few Mlok, do the whole rail so your not limited in where you place accessories. I think that by the sounds of it you will be using this out in the bush, possibly in colder months to, and the smooth metal surface will not only be harder to grip but also colder to the touch with out rail covers, so having the ability to put a low profile rail/handstop kit will likely be enjoyed.

As far as paint goes, If your worried about scratches at all, you would be a fool to not get the whole gun cerakoted. Cerakote is about the toughest firearm finsh out there and is not gonna show wear under normal use likely at all, and under hard use still very little. You could get your rifle done in a OD/black Tiger stripe like those top end factory XCR's.

Then if you want to go all out, you could see what kind of BCG coatings they all offer, perhaps some NiB or TiN coating is in need for extra performance and wow factor? ;)
 
Instead of milling off the entire bottom rail, you could leave 1" or so right at the front to use for bipod. Think I saw something similar on the XCR forum.
 
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