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Ordering an M, humbly requesting some advice from those in the know.

3194 Views 89 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  Spazmann, 
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Hey all. I recently found the XCR-M lineup and it's what I have been looking for, for a very long time. I was previously going to get a SCAR or a Noveske N6, but not anymore. I digress.

I am overwhelmed by the choices available. I've chatted with Robarm a bit on IG/email, but still am unsure how to configure mine out. I will be ordering as soon as I can figure out a few bullet points. Perhaps those of you with an M would kindly give some advice? T'would be very much appreciate.

Use case: Standard battle rifle activity. Lots of off-hand suppressed use (suppressed with Dead Air Nomad most of the time). Some bench resting/prone shooting supported. Split drills, reloads, the general tactical stuff. I want something versatile and not particularly specialized for JUST off-hand use, or supported shooting. The ideal setup would be something that does both well. Going with a 16" barrel. I am stuck on the following points...

1. Heavy vs light contour barrel. My suppressor as configured is 17.5 ounces (Nomad-30 with key mount). Does hanging 17.5 oz off the end of a light barrel really cause substantial drooping and POI shift?

2. Mlok vs Keymod upper. I don't plan on mounting much, and it appears the keypad uppers are "sleeker" and lighter. But how much lighter? I have both systems in AR rifles and like them both. I don't really have a preference. I'm also stuck on standard VS Mini upper for the same reason. I think I like the visuals of the mini more, appears to be more proportionate looking.

3. GB2 vs GB3. Would be suppressed more than 50% of the time. Probably all of the time.

If any of you could touch on these points, and/or give some suggestions, I would be super grateful. THANK YOU. This is driving me nuts.
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Thank you tons for the reply!
So sticking that can on a light profile barrel is likely fine right? I’m not going to be trying to achieve award-winning groups, but I want it to hit what I’m intending it to.
I’m probably going to end up going with the mini Mlok upper and GB3 if it’s good with a can. I guess I can order other upgrades at a later date if needed.
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I think I had an epiphany. XCR-M mini MLOK with 16" heavy barrel and GB3. I'll send the barrel off to ADCO for fluting (or see if Pac Nor here in town can do it) and save a little weight with less worry of thin barrel problems. I think I'm going with that. Best of both worlds approach. Would look sweet too.

I just REALLY like that mini look with the 16" barrel. The photos in this review really take my breath away. The proportions, oh my. He says it's a standard but doing some research on Robarm, it appears that he has a mini with a light 16" there. VIDEO: Testing the Relatively Unknown Robinson Arms XCR-M Rifle
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Sean K. said:
Careful....ADCO wasn't doing fluting last I checked....but that was a few years back now....maybe they started again, but they had too many nit-pickers complaining about the finish or where the flutes were laid when they didn't specify exactly what they wanted....the hassle drove Steve (IIRC) to say fuck it.

And yeah...that's a mini upper..not a standard.
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Well, that would make sense. I couldn't find the fluting option on their site when I was looking a bit ago. I ended up pulling the trigger on the one I mentioned a few minutes ago. Mini, 16" heavy, Mlok, FAST3, GB3.

Man these are sexy rifles. I wish I would have found them years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.
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roflcopters said:
I have a standard 20"
Currently waiting on a mini 14.5

My POU is brush gun for bears etc. I'd suggest the gb3 for the finer tuning. If your going to be humping the gun a lot, get the light profile. If it doesn't meet your accuracy expectations you can always get a heavier barrel later to swap on. You'll see poi shift with both contours with a can mounted, it's usually not much though.
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I grabbed the GB3 version, mini with the 16" heavy barrel. I may ask them to change it to a light barrel, or just flute it like my original plan and have a middle of the road solution with cool aesthetics. Not sure. I like the look of the light barrel better, I'm sure the fluted would be cool also.
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roflcopters said:
Start asking around now for someone to flute it, or maybe ask Robinson if they are aware of anyone that can do it.
I'll be posting some targets after my barrel finishes break-in
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I just called my local SOT/FFL in town here and he charges $100 for straight fluting and $50 for cerakote. Wouldn’t need to pay for shipping. He’s a very skilled gunsmith that has been doing it since before I was corporeal. He does very clean work. I’ll likely just have him do it. There’s also a world class barrel shop in town that might do it for me, but they typically don’t touch autoloaders. Either way it’ll happen. I’ll ask robarm also.
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Chowwow said:
According to my friend who is a gunsmith, a heavy profile barrel is recommended for suppressed shooting to maintain accurate groups; with a light profile barrel, it will flex more and have a greater POI shift between suppressed and unsuppressed. Furthermore, that POI shift will get worse as you continue shooting and heat up the barrel. Personally, I've seen the POI shift when I suppress my light profile 5.56 -L, not a huge deal because I get that with my .308 MDRX when suppressed too; you can zero your scopes to account for the initial POI shift. The issue is I have to adjust my aim more and more as I put more rounds through my -L at that configuration, the first few rounds aren't too bad but I notice more and more drop by the second or third mag of rounds. It's why I ordered a heavy profile 5.56 barrel from RA to try to mitigate this. So if you do a lot of suppressed shooting and typically shoot while resting on a bench or lying prone (like my lazy ass) then a heavy profile barrel would be best. Otherwise, a light profile would be fine if you have to travel a lot with your -M and only shoot suppressed occasionally.
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Good deal. I was under that impression initially also. The only other gun I’ve ever suppressed has a 7.94 inch stainless HBAR, so this isn’t a situation I have experience with. I’m going to stick with my heavy barrel and have it fluted, if I hate it then I’ll order a skinny barrel.
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Sean K. said:
Personally, I think fluting is the way to go. Post up if you find someone to do it....when I looked, most places wouldn't touch the XCR to flute b/c they'd have to make a jig for it and it's uncommon (though simple in terms of the bbl design).

I'd flute my 16" HBAR -M and likely my HBAR X39 bbl too.
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I’ll definitely share no matter what. I really like the look of fluted barrels so I’m leaning that route for sure. I’m sure if my local guy did it, it would be very old school. I’m talking by hand on a Bridgeport in a vice or with a dividing head. He does everything by hand. He turns out some amazing stuff doing things that way though. Walking into his shop definitely makes it clear that technology is not a priority. Going through the eform 4 process with him was fun.
On a related note, I imagine it’s easy to get the gas block and everything off of the M barrel for ease of fluting? I also thought about sending my Keymo brake to Robinson for timing and torquing. I’m not sure what’s recommended for torquing muzzle devices on without damaging anything. I’ve got AR vice blocks but that obviously is irrelevant here.
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joshobean said:
I just acquired and shot my XCR-M this week. Softest shooting semi-auto 308 I've ever had the privilege to test.

On the barrel, I will say I'm very glad I went with the light profile. To me it also doesn't look skinny. I compared to my DSA SA58 FAL and it's noticably thicker. Granted my barrel is the 18.6 but I would have no qualms using a suppressor. I'd only get the heavy profile if it was solely for bench shooting personally. Good luck in your quest!
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Man that’s gorgeous, congrats. I ended up ordering a mini with a 16” heavy barrel, OD green. Such an awesome looking setup. I’ll get more barrels I’m sure, so I’m not too concerned about the weight.
So you’re loving the M, eh? No regrets? They told me “2.5+” months out, which I imagine will likely be more. How long did you wait for yours? I’m just hoping to see mine before any AWB BS passes. I know it’s unlikely, but don’t want to get complacent.
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joshobean said:
I waited 9 months for mine. I would expect your wait will be similar.

I love the rifle so far, only about 120 rounds through it though. Reasonably accurate with ball ammo, soft shooting (for 308), lighter than I expected, best controls to me if any rifle I own, super tight lockup of upper and lower receivers, good 2-stage stock trigger.

If I was to nitpick anything, there were a couple of very minor finish blemishes on the upper receiver close to the ejector pad. Kinda like a raised piece of metal in one spot and feels rough to touch in that area. Cerakote job overall is great though, and you really don't see unless you're looking closely.

What I do strongly dislike are the plastic sights. They look and feel like airsoft quality. The rear sight on mine had it's adjustment knob broken in the wrapping, but I'd read here those sights were bad and didn't expect much.

Overall with my small experience I'm very happy I waited and expect this to be a lifelong part of my collection. It's very unique, I'd never held or seen one until this.
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That’s good to know. I’m okay with waiting for it, I just hope it’s still legal when it arrives, lmao. That’s pretty much what I’ve heard, it’s kind of a best-kept-secret. Not much notoriety, but a phenomenal gun. I can’t wait. If the plastic sights and the blem is the worst of it, I can get on board for sure. I’m going to swap those for something else anyway (probably something akin to 45 degree offsets with an ACOG), and I’ll eventually scratch it myself. It’s going to get used. I’m very excited to meet it.
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Sean K. said:
Nothing wrong with manual machining.....provided the person doing it is skilled as your guy seems to be. It's definitely a dying art though.

Yep....these rifles are about the easiest I've ever seen to work on. I think I had one block that was really tight...but even so, I didn't have to use a shop press to get it off like I've done so many times on AKs.

I wouldn't send your brake to RA to time/torque. All you need is a set of rubber or plastic softjaws.
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They really do look like they’re easy to service, and just overall wonderful rifles. I bet someone at USSOCOM is kicking themselves for adopting the SCAR instead, which is arguably a good rifle, but NOT as easy to service.
Good to know on the brake. Would you clamp the receiver or just the barrel with the soft jaws? I’ve never changed a muzzle device on anything other than an AR. Looks like the XCR is quite a bit beefier, so the receiver probably can handle the 40ft lbs without deforming eh?
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roflcopters said:
This, you definitely want to use spacers on anything that you'll be mounting a can on. Crush washers can squish un-evenly and cause baffle strikes. Always check with a rod.
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Definitely. I run the Keymo system from dead air. I’ve already got the brake, the shims, and the rod.
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GA_flyer said:
FYI I ordered mine in September 2022. RobArms told me expect 3-4 month wait, and even reaffirmed that they would have all orders on book completed by end of year 2022. I just checked with them yesterday and my barrel hasn't even been sent off for chrome yet. So at least another 1-2 months most likely for me.

But I plan on running keymo as well. YHM Turbo K w/ keymo attached to a dead air flash hider.
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Good luck with that wait! I hope it finds itself in your hands soon. As for me, I am okay with the wait for now. I will probably be chomping at the bit in a few months.
On a related note, people crap on keymo because of the weight, but I think it's the slickest thing since snot on a doorknob. It definitely makes up for the weight in sheer utility and stupid-proof lockup. Weight schmeight. I am over six feet and over 200 pounds. I lift whole humans as part of my job. I care not about a handful of ounces. I probably won't even care about the heavy barrel on the M. I tend not to "notice" weight unless it's obnoxious. I went airsofting recently with my plate carrier full of AR500 3+ plates and forgot that I was wearing it after five minutes. Not trying to brag about being a tough guy, but I don't have a problem with hefty kit typically.
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Sean K. said:
I'm not following; KM is the lightest of all the setups.
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In case no sarcasm, I am referring to the Dead Air Keymount silencer attachment system, or “keymo” for short. It’s kinda chonky but EXTREMELY stout, eliminates carbon locking, and is obnoxiously user friendly. It’s just “heavy”. Very intuitive ratchet system with return to zero/poi every time.

I can see where the confusion between keymount and keymod would come in. Very similar names, one is a rail system and the other a silencer mount.
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They (RA) just emailed me and asked if I wanted to switch to a stainless barrel instead of a chrome moly barrel because they have a completed stainless one in my same profile (16” heavy) and apparently it would ship out in a few weeks, as opposed to months.

should I switch to the stainless barrel and get the rifle super soon, or should I stick to the standard chrome lined one? Probably a silly question as I can always order another barrel.
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roflcopters said:
Personally I shoot a lot so I prefer the chrome
If you want to get trigger time faster, I'd say do it, and keep your spot in line for the chrome barrel. Maybe you can provide a comparison bergen the SS and chrome barrels down the road regarding grouping/load preference.
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Are the stainless barrels less durable in terms of round count? I was kinda thinking of asking them to still ship me that other barrel also when they finish it, but send the rifle with the stainless one now.
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roflcopters said:
Personally I shoot a lot so I prefer the chrome
If you want to get trigger time faster, I'd say do it, and keep your spot in line for the chrome barrel. Maybe you can provide a comparison bergen the SS and chrome barrels down the road regarding grouping/load preference.
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I decided to do precisely that, push it through with the stainless heavy barrel. I also asked them to keep me on the list for the chrome moly barrel but turn it down to standard profile, throw in a set of spare parts for the rifle, and bill me for that when it’s done.
Wow guys, I may have my XCR sooner than I thought!
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Chowwow said:
So who's yellow and got an XCR-M last week? This guy:

View attachment 16182


The set included the manual, the pair of BUIS, one mag, and the value priced bag that fits the rifle after folding the stock.
View attachment 16183

So after waiting a month after paying for the rifle, the -M was shipped to my FFL without a hitch. The rifle was nice and greasy from the factory and seemed good to go out of the box. At seven months wait, I honestly think it was the shortest wait time I've heard of for one of these barring the ready made ones on inventory.

I'll post more pics in a separate thread one of these days after I have it kitted out. I think I'll keep the FAST 3 stock this time and get around to making a 1913 adapter for it, so the stock can be used in other rifles. Off to work I go.
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That’s dope, congrats!! I haven’t heard from them since I told them to go ahead with the stainless barrel, but I’ll report back if I do. Hoping mine gets here soon, I’d love to fondle it!
On a related note, how did you like the fit and finish? Pretty amazing like everyone has said?
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Today, they told me that the receivers have been sprayed, and they just need to cerakote the barrel and finish assembly, and shipping would likely be next week. I won't hold my breath, but I hope its true, that would be very cool, and a very short turnaround.

On a related note, I am itching to buy some accessories and I have heard that the plastic BUIS they send with the gun are trash. Can anyone confirm this, and/or recommend a set that works really well with the XCR-M? Historically, I have gone with troy BUIS but am not afraid to try something new. I don't love the magpul pros for the price, and would rather have something metal than plastic.
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Sean K. said:
I've read the sights are made by Fab Defense....so not trash. You can get Tritium posts for them too apparently....

I can't stand Troy's politics, but they are the only game in town for micro height sights now.
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That’s good to know, I’ll wait until it gets here to evaluate the sights then. I’ve got a couple sets of Troy BUIS on other stuff and generally love them. I don’t know anything about politics with Troy, but I can’t stand when anyone, including owners of gun companies, start vomiting their political opinions. I’m just here for the hardware, not your diatribe. Such a turn-off. That’s what initially pulled me off of buying stuff from Q. The owner is a total asshole.
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