Here is my first hand observation on how the XCR has performed. I have one of the first units shipped to Canada, selected at random. This is a display/demo rifle kept in the store. She gets regular use and has been used in every Tactical Carbine Match that we have held here, often by several different competitors. To date not one single report of a malfunction, except on one occasion an ejector block screw fell out and jammed the trigger. This was reinstalled with Loc-tite and no more problems. It turns out that a batch of rifles had the Loc-tite missed during assemble.
This rifle gets no special treatment, is only cleaned after competitions, the only preparation before matches is a good slug of oil, which is a standard practice for me, which I apply to any (semi) automatic firearm before a match. I do not have enough time to shoot these days and even less time to clean guns. Caressing my large caliber double rifle taking preference!
This rifle is fitted with a Schmidt & Bender short dot scope and has shot very well from 300 yds to point blank, a variety of ammo and mags have been used. In one match there was a requirement to crawl along a shallow ditch under barbed wire, it was hot and dry and the ditch had about 4 inches of dust in the bottom and by the end of the day this was the consistency of talcum powder. Most of us filled up our mag pouches, holsters, firearms, shirts, shorts and boots crawling up this ditch, there was a lot of cursing and cleaning of equipment. The XCR was used by four us, she was not cleaned until the next day and performed 100%, I was very impressed.
Personally I find her “softer” in recoil than any M15 (not that recoil is an issue with 5.56mm) I shoot tighter double taps with her, she is a little nose heavy which is excellent when firing but a pain the butt the rest of the time but the 18.6 inch barrel keeps her non-restricted which means we can shoot Gophers with her.
Based on my XCR, I rate her reliability right up there with my favorites which would include the following: Thompson, M1, M14, M15, FN FAL, Galil, AK47 and MAG58. This observation is based on a lot of first hand experience with these firearms