I didn't noticed the rims looking chewed up.
I had done a cursory cleaning before heading to the range. The gun arrived unclean, and I didn't take the time to get it really clean. I have no idea how many rounds since the last cleaning. I have run over 500, the original owner claimed to clean it regularly and that it had a low count.
If it didn’t reach your hands clean and you ran over 500 of steel case, I suspect a cleaning will get you running right again. Which apparently you have done:
I spent 3.5 hours cleaning it tonight. This seems like a long time. There is still some carbon residue baked on the chrome rod. I got most of it. Scraped it for over an hour with a brass pick/toothbrush/cotton cloths with Hoppes #9. Scrubbed the chamber with the fancy chamber brush. Got my hand in there with a rag on my pinky and some more Hoppes #9 and really cleaned it out before and after the scrubbing. It's as clean as I can imagine getting it. It is really tough to get in there. Any recommendations on what to swab it with after scrubbing with the receiver brush? It's really hard to see in there, and tough to reach. THis seems like a real nuisance for regular cleaning.
The piston is a real SOB to get clean. Frankly, I’ve stopped bothering to get all of the caked on carbon off. I get off what I can with a reasonable amount of effort and let the rest sit. IIRC, EC has said that Mobil-1 as a lube has decreased the amount of stuck on build-up he gets, but it didn’t sound like it was completely eliminated.
The chamber brush is probably what I find to be the most important thing when shooting steel cased ammo. If you’re not aware, steel doesn’t expand the way brass does, so the chamber doesn’t necessarily get sealed by the case, so gun powder residue gets deposited in the chamber. Supposedly, with steel, in addition to not expanding much, also doesn’t contract afterwards, as brass does. Some feel Flex Hone is a great way to prevent this…I’m not so sold. I suppose smoothing out any tool marks would help to prevent build-ups, but if you had a tight chamber, I’d suspect you’d have a lot more failures than 2 in 210. Personally, I just make sure I spin my chamber brush around a couple times after each range session with steel. And yeah, the extension makes cleaning the barrel a pain. After the chamber brush, I use a .40 cal mop attachment to get out any loosened debris from the chamber. For the extension itself, I use baby Q-tips. They have an extra large bulb to prevent them from going too deep into babies’ ears, which helps to get in all the nooks and crannies of the extension.
Cleaned every moving part thoroughly, and lubed it. Probably over lubed it, but this should just burn off, right? I assume routine cleaning will go much faster after I get this thing really clean, right? I don't think I really want to have to spend this much time cleaning it after every usage. I must have run over 100 patches through the barrel, and have run the bore snake through several times, and it is still not passing them totally clean. It is pretty close.
I’m a believer that the only time you can overlube a firearm is when it’s your carry piece that’s staining your clothes. When I was breaking in my XCR, I had oil seeping out between the receivers. Got it to the point where I feel I have more than enough lube without it seeping out now. Another plug for EC (Eric Cartmann, BTW), he swears by Mobil-1 requiring just a wipe down and reapply. I actually kind of like doing detailed cleaning, so I haven’t gone this route yet.
I had a difficult time cleaning the inside of the upper receiver as well. Ant suggestions here? There is probably something else about htis in another thread, I'll go looking for it after I've slept.
Can’t say I’ve found an easy way to clean the upper either. I’ve tried .45 jags and lotsa patches to make it tighter, but nothing I’ve found is ideal. At the same time, I’ve never really found the upper to need much cleaning.
I've asked ace to extend my trial period. I really like the gun, and want to get it to work. If he agrees, I'll check the gas ports to at least make sure they are clean.
When you take off the gas dial for cleaning (which is a must IMO!), make sure you get the dial back on and seated in a position correctly (and give it a tug to make sure it doesn’t come off). Some people have had the unfortunate experience of making a mistake and firing their gas dial downrange. Both embarrassing and hard to find, I’m sure.
This thing spits the expelled cases pretty far. It was throwing them about 20 feet with the gas set at 3. At the indoor range on 4 I had the divider between shooting lanes, but it seems to spit them at 3 o'clock, not forward at all. I had one bounce of the divider and hit me in the mouth and stuck between my lips momentarily before I spit it away. It kinda hurts now. Minor burn.
If you’re spitting most steel cases 20 feet on 3, I suspect you’ve got a pretty fine rifle. If you’re not getting ejection to 2 o’clock, it’s possible the 7.62x39 brass deflector got on there accidentally.
If I need to hone the chamber, should I have my local gunsmith do this? Send it to Robinson? I am really interested in trying to make this thing work for me, as I really like it. It is super comfortable, and I love the ergonomics of the controls. I just want to make it reliable while shooting cheap ammo.
Again, Flex Hone is up to you. If you think taking care with the chamber is too much work, maybe give it a try. If you’re handy, I’m sure you could do it yourself. If you don’t mind spending a little bit of money, have a good smith do it. Talk to Aziator and SeanK about Flex Hone, they’d know much more than I would.
As for being reliable with cheap ammo, well, that’s a gray area. What is acceptable reliability to you? 10K rounds of Wolf BB without a clean or lube and no failures? I think that’s unrealistic. Cheap ammo is cheap because it’s unreliable. I’m willing to deal with the potential problems of steel cased ammo at the range, in exchange for the low cost. If I was concerned about having 0 failures, I’d use brass. If you have problems with brass, then I’d be looking at tight chamber, gas ports out of spec, bent op rods, etc.. I did a tactical rifle class earlier this year, shooting Wolf MC. I made sure my rifle was clean beforehand. I also brought my 7.62x39 conversion with brass cased rounds in case I had a problem. I didn’t, but I was aware that the potential was much greater using Wolf MC instead of something like XM193.
Does the carrier/op rod/bolt/recoil spring assembly slide all the way out of the upper without hanging up or meeting resistance?
Yes, this seems to slide out effortlessly, and back in just as easy.
The spring was filthy. How do I clean under the spring? Do I need to disassemble the piece and remove the spring?
IIRC, the spring does come apart, but someone that did it had parts fly. So be careful. I’ve never found it necessary. I just use a shop towel (the blue paper towels) and some solvent to wipe it down.
Thanks for all the help so far. I really hope I can get this working for me.
If you want to make sure the rifle is a good one, run brass through it for 500 or so rounds. If you don’t have any failures, I’d say you have a fine rifle. I don’t expect any rifle to be 100% reliable with steel ammo. 2 failures in 210 rounds is a little much....but if the rifle hadn't been cleaned before that, it wasn't 2 in 210.
I just want to add two other things.
First, I am not, nor do I claim to be an expert with firearms or the XCR. Anything I’ve said is simply based on my gleaned knowledge and experience, and could be wrong. As they say, it’s my advice and worth what you paid for it.
Second, kudos to Ace for being so accommodating. 7 days, with firing allowed is unheard of to me. 3 day, visual inspection, no firing is standard. That’s really outstanding of him, don’t take that for granted.