Joined
·
117 Posts
To start off, we/I are/am dealing with a 2022 production XCR-L in 5.56 caliber, 16 inch barrel. Shooting Winchester 55 grain 5.56 NATO.
I finally managed to take it down to the range and run some rounds through it.
It seems to have more recoil than I remember with the Norinco NHM-90 shooting .223 caliber ammo.
I specifically bought something other than another 5.56 AK, because the NHM-90 has always bent brass, and the Galil I was looking at had the same reputation. I believe the NHM-90 was bouncing the brass off the charging handle. I did some things to resolve that, might find out the next trip to the range. This trip I took only the XCR.
I run through the first magazine in the XCR, bend over to pick up the brass, and it's bent and dented. My first through: "Am I not allowed to have a rifle that will allow me to reuse brass?".
Bends on the mouth.
Dents in the shoulders.
Occasionally, both.
One thing I am wondering: This is an indoor range. The stalls might not be even as wide as a porta-potty. And the walls are made of diamond plate pattern aluminum sheet. I'm taking some pretty good brass hits in the side of the head and neck. I wonder if I am just too close to the wall, and the dents are coming from that.
Second thing, I have not adjusted the gas at all. When the rifle was complete, the telephone call was from Alex. He said he tested the rifle himself, with 5.56, and it should be good to break in on 5.56 on setting 4, where he left it. If I decided to use .223 later, I could/should adjust one setting position.
I am a car guy. We want adjustable everything on the suspension. The factory makes nothing adjustable, because people would hurt themselves. The most important thing about having adjustable everything, is knowing how to adjust it.
I don't think it's time to start screwing around with the gas setting, but this seems like another one of those things like the recoil spring, that is adjusted based on how far the brass is thrown, so I bring it up as a possibility, because it seems like the brass might be flying with a pretty high level of lethality.
Last thought, this thing is bouncing brass off the area around the ejection port. But I don't see any marks on the upper, left by the brass.
I may look into a brass catcher, or more likely, try to figure out how to hang a towel on the right wall to reduce the bounce.
It kind of ticks me off, because other places, I could usually find and retrieve most of my brass. But at this place, I lose a good 40+%, no matter what I am shooting.
Additional thoughts:
The two gill muzzle break is too freaking loud.
This thing is supposed to be something like a half pound lighter than the Norinco NHM-90. I'm many years out of practice, and ended up with a pretty good left arm cramp. Should I be thinking about an angled fore grip?
Knock on wood, no problem with the firing pin, and no problems feeding or ejecting.
I ran 150 rounds through. Not exactly fast. Lots of pausing and running the target up and back to see how badly I was shooting. The barrel got HOT. I had read people comment the barrels do not get hot on these things. This was much hotter than the NHM-90 ever got. I waited at least ten minutes for it to cool before I could pack up to leave.
I finally managed to take it down to the range and run some rounds through it.
It seems to have more recoil than I remember with the Norinco NHM-90 shooting .223 caliber ammo.
I specifically bought something other than another 5.56 AK, because the NHM-90 has always bent brass, and the Galil I was looking at had the same reputation. I believe the NHM-90 was bouncing the brass off the charging handle. I did some things to resolve that, might find out the next trip to the range. This trip I took only the XCR.
I run through the first magazine in the XCR, bend over to pick up the brass, and it's bent and dented. My first through: "Am I not allowed to have a rifle that will allow me to reuse brass?".
Bends on the mouth.
Dents in the shoulders.
Occasionally, both.
One thing I am wondering: This is an indoor range. The stalls might not be even as wide as a porta-potty. And the walls are made of diamond plate pattern aluminum sheet. I'm taking some pretty good brass hits in the side of the head and neck. I wonder if I am just too close to the wall, and the dents are coming from that.
Second thing, I have not adjusted the gas at all. When the rifle was complete, the telephone call was from Alex. He said he tested the rifle himself, with 5.56, and it should be good to break in on 5.56 on setting 4, where he left it. If I decided to use .223 later, I could/should adjust one setting position.
I am a car guy. We want adjustable everything on the suspension. The factory makes nothing adjustable, because people would hurt themselves. The most important thing about having adjustable everything, is knowing how to adjust it.
I don't think it's time to start screwing around with the gas setting, but this seems like another one of those things like the recoil spring, that is adjusted based on how far the brass is thrown, so I bring it up as a possibility, because it seems like the brass might be flying with a pretty high level of lethality.
Last thought, this thing is bouncing brass off the area around the ejection port. But I don't see any marks on the upper, left by the brass.
I may look into a brass catcher, or more likely, try to figure out how to hang a towel on the right wall to reduce the bounce.
It kind of ticks me off, because other places, I could usually find and retrieve most of my brass. But at this place, I lose a good 40+%, no matter what I am shooting.
Additional thoughts:
The two gill muzzle break is too freaking loud.
This thing is supposed to be something like a half pound lighter than the Norinco NHM-90. I'm many years out of practice, and ended up with a pretty good left arm cramp. Should I be thinking about an angled fore grip?
Knock on wood, no problem with the firing pin, and no problems feeding or ejecting.
I ran 150 rounds through. Not exactly fast. Lots of pausing and running the target up and back to see how badly I was shooting. The barrel got HOT. I had read people comment the barrels do not get hot on these things. This was much hotter than the NHM-90 ever got. I waited at least ten minutes for it to cool before I could pack up to leave.