[TerraShrewsbury]

I am curious to see how our baby is doing in the field. How many rounds have been put through yours so far? If you are a guest, not a member, email me at [email protected] and tell me about your experience and the number of rounds you have put through.

 

[Bravo]

Terra, I just posted something about this weekend just past, and my experiences qualifying with the XCR (just to see if I could). It was a simple weekend, a touch less than 400 rounds - I took 420, came back with a little.

By my reconing, I'd figure I've got about 6000 rounds or thereabouts down the tube to date (she didn't get much play time last year), but this year I've got another carbine course lined up (another carbine course to take the XCR to!) so I'm guessing I'll hit 10K before the end of 2008 pretty easily.

For those who question how accurate the XCR is, or want to quibble about the light barrel versus the heavy barrel, you can tell them this:

The light barrel XCR with Aimpoint M2 (2 MOA dot) no-magnification scope is capable of turning in scores in the very high Expert range. I'll go as far as saying the 19 points I dropped (out of 250) weren't due to the XCR. The light barrel when hot is capable of making hits on demand far, far past the useful range of the 5.56 NATO round.

Edited to add: and for the sake of conversation, I should mention that I used Winchester 55gr FMJ ammo - M193 equivalent. No match grade ammo, no problems with 'overstabilization', etc. The 1:9 twist isn't any kind of handicap whatsoever.

 

[Martens]

I am pretty sure I am above 6000 rounds as well.

I'll echo Bravo's comments that the light barrel is accurate enough. I threw a scope on mine and passed Marksman/Observe Quals with wolf ammo so it is plenty accurate.

 

[MickeyC]

About 4500 rounds so far. About 1k 55 grain, 3000 62 grain and 500 77 grain. No issues with ejector bolts but i've had the gas block come loose, the barrel nut come loose and about 500 rounds in when she was new the gasplug nut came off and got lost. I'm still running a stock trigger and it's still crap, so much for it'll wear in, but the rest of the rifle is good.

 

[SWEEP]

Ive put 2000 thru mine but dont know what the previous owner had shot

 

[TerraShrewsbury]

About 4500 rounds so far. About 1k 55 grain, 3000 62 grain and 500 77 grain. No issues with ejector bolts but i've had the gas block come loose, the barrel nut come loose and about 500 rounds in when she was new the gasplug nut came off and got lost. I'm still running a stock trigger and it's still crap, so much for it'll wear in, but the rest of the rifle is good.

Other than the trigger, how is everything working out? If the trigger seems worse than a typical factory trigger, I could take a look at it for you. Maybe rebuild? Let me know.

 

[aziator]

I have somewhere between 4-5K, everything is working great. 95% of mine is 55gr reloads. Haven't had any bolts come loose. Runs like it should.

 

[Bravo]

Mickey, like you, my gas adjustment nut and gas block bolt came loose. That was year before last. I added a small flat wrench and a hex wrench just the right size for the gas block to my cleaning kit, and hit it every day "just to make sure". Hasn't happened again. ALMOST lost the gas plug nut, it was on the last thread when I saw it loose.

Interestingly enough, I've never had any problems with the ejector bolts. I touched them once to make sure they were secure, and never after that (figured as tight as they were, had to be loctited).

The other stuff though, that was pretty new to me. Bah.

Edited to add: the trigger group is 100% stock. Er, maybe 'restock'. The original disconnector and such were replaced under the recall, the rest worked itself out NICELY. Heck, sometimes the first stage is so slick I pull all the way through the second by accident :

 

[MickeyC]

Other than the trigger it's probably my favourite .223 semi auto rifle. Unfortunately the trigger is such an important part of a rifle that it spoils the whole affair. It's like a great turntable with a crappy needle, or a great scope with a scratched lens. 90% of the feel of a firearm is based around the trigger. I like everything else on the rifle other than a few little items that are being worked on right now. Biggest issue that stops me from buying more is the trigger.

For example, the ergonomics are great, although the stock needs a cheek piece to lift the eyes to the proper position for using AR sights and it needs a better barrel retention. The switch to an adjustable front sight mounted to the barrel will perfect the caliber change. A few more steps and the rifle will be better than anything else out there. It would be nice to have the option of a longer rail system on the upper but that's just a personal preference. So is a fold down cocking handle like the L1A1, again a personal preference, but it doesn't get in the way of a three point sling. Forget forward assist, in the time it takes to action the forward assist I can rack the action anyway.

As for the reliability, the gas plug nut got lost so I ordered two spares, before you even had a parts list so that was interesting, but Ty got them sorted. The gas block screw came loose, but hasn't since I put it back in, I am surprised it isn't pinned in. Ejector bolts have not been touched by me and have never come loose, at least so far. Even my old issue L85 never fall apart! It's had feed failures a few times and the bolt got stuck closed once, but that was easy enough to clear.

Terra, I appreciate the offer of a trigger fix, but I've got three sets of trigger components already. One is so badly finished that the disconnector won't even fit on the trigger pin. I'll probably do the set screw and a little polishing this weekend to see if I can improve it. If that doesn't work I'll send it to Bill. I stopped shooting the rifle for about six months as I was so pissed off about the whole trigger situation, but I missed it. I might even try an AR set and see how we go, but, I suspect the hammer face angle won't work unless I make a new firing pin or recontour the hammer face, which I won't do. What I can't work out with mine is how the trigger has one feel when open and another when closed. Go figure! Pre-recall it was ok and just needed a polish and it would have been fine. It wasn't even that bad without a polish but after the recall......the trigger pull is never consistent, even with a trigger gauge. Sometimes two stage, sometimes single. The problem is that no matter how much I like the rifle, I can honestly say that if I had tried the rifle as is is now I would not have bought it. I know I bang on about the trigger but compared to the rest of the rifle it's night and day. Ultimately I'm focussing on an AR build right now, just trying to work out a POF or LWRC upper or doing my own with an aftermarket piston kit. I figure it will be easier to get to a top level competition rifle with the AR than fussing with the XCR right now. The AR will probably be too easy so I'll be back with the XCR in a month or two anyway!

Almost two years ago I suggested the spring loaded detent for the gas plug in a long phone call with Alex and I'm glad he went that way. I'll proably upgrade to one next month or so when more parts are available.

 

[aziator]

I would agree with you on the forward assist, I find it is easier to just pull back and let her fly. I myself don't care for them on ARs, but that is just personal preference.

Hope you get your trigger sorted out, I love mine now that Bill has worked it over and I have the set screw in place.

 

[Bravo]

FWIW, on the M16 / AR15, we called the forward assist the "armorer call button".

Shortly after watching someone slugging on the FA (using it incorrectly), you KNEW there was going to be a call for an armorer.

Can't get it back, can't get it forward, and the only way to get the upper off the lower is to punch both pins and hope it comes apart without liberal use of foul language.

On that chassis, the FA is something that needs to NOT be used - the ONLY time I don't gripe at someone touching it is when they're doing a chamber check. Elsewise it should be a simple matter of ingrained racking with a flip to the side.

 

[ny32182]

The trigger, sure it does suck, and when a new one is available I will buy it, but the existing one is not a deal breaker for me on this type of rifle... the only time I would notice that it sucks is when shooting off a bench, which is not really the intent for this rifle anyway.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had loosening bolt problems on rifles with the new style gas valve. Seems like most of the issues I read are with the older rifles. I don't have enough rounds through mine to make any kind of judgement.

 

[Prizm]

Somewhere around 3500-4000 if I'm not mistaken. No stoppages or FTF except when I had placed my thumb in front of the ejection port. Not so much as a hiccup outside of that.

 

[MickeyC]

Bravo, I think the FA on the AR platform went on as a posisble solution to the fouling within the reciever causing repetitive short stroking and was supposed to allow you to shoot single shot until you could hunker down and clean the thing. Out manual of arms for the rifle was to ignore the FA and cycle the action completely. If that failed switch to an alternate weapon, usually a P226, until we could quickly brush the assembly down to resume contact.

As for the trigger thing. I got this to be a competition gun but should have gone AR because the trigegr was a strong point on the AR and there were and are lots of alternatives. Bill is good, but he can only go so far with the stock trigger. Compared to what can be done with the AR trigger it's a poor cousin. For accuracy the trigger is about the most important part of a firearm, followed by the grip/cheekweld. Look at the accuracy difference between a stock AR compared to a precision modified varient. That's what I wanted to do with the XCR, make it into a winning competition rifle. possibly even a good rifgle for a spotter on the Lapua sniper shoot. Not really a RobArm issue more my error in buying unseen. I just assumed that with all the improvements being touted, that the stock trigger would at least be as good if not better than a stock AR trigger, I wasn;t expecting it to be worse.

As an example, I've been playing with a friends Winchester Mod 70, which used to shoot 1.5-2". After putting some time into the trigger, wider blade with a 2.5lb pull and 0.04" creep, and spending a little time on the stock and LOP, I've got it shooting regular 0.6" groups with 168 gr handloads out of a Dillon press. Not bad for a 40 year old tapered barrel. That is how much difference a good trigger can make. Pre-recall I was getting 0.5" or less at 50 yards with the XCR, now i'm lucky to get it inside 0.75". Not a big difference at 50 yards, but out at 400-600 it sucks!

 

[Jbpark55]

Between me & the previous owner about 3000-3500 rounds. 8)

 

[EricCartmann]

glad to hear everyones XCR doing so well after thousands of rounds down the barrel.

I myself put loctite on the extractor bolts and the gas bolt so I feel pretty confident it will stay put now. Time will tell.

I totally agree with Micky about the trigger, it does suck! I heard standard AR triggers are about 8 lbs so the XCR must be about 12 lbs. My Noveske has the RRA match trigger, and that one is about 5 lbs. So I do have some other guns to compare with the XCR trigger. My trigger will go off to Bill Springfield soon.