Here are a couple of pictures I took to illustrate the differences between an AR and the XCR.  Everyone is free to come to his own conclusion as to which is better.  My AR's aren't going away, but I personally feel that Robinson has made a better gun, albeit with 50 years of AR lessons to go by.  The AR is a great weapon, but "great" doesn't mean it can't be improved upon or bested.  We live in a great time when we have so many choices.  

The first picture is my 6.8 SPC rifle.  I bought the lower and upper from Eagle Firearms in Colorado and the put different parts on it as I saw fit.

I took a picture of everything I used to pull the barrel off the upper, and then field stripped it as if I were going to clean it after shooting.  The only things I didn't get in the picture were the vice I used, the wood block that went on top of the receiver in the vice (the PRI receiver vice works well sideways like that) and the hex key I used to take the PRI sight loose.  




The picture below is my XCR with the single 1/4" allen wrench used to remove the barrel and the upper field stripped.  No need to remove the firing pin from the bolt.




This makes cleaning the barrel really easy, and barrel swaps are obviously no problem, and don't require any tools other than the wrench.  Do I swap barrels while shooting? No, but I'll be getting the 6.8 conversion when it's available, as well as one of the 11.5" barrels.  I don't have to buy a whole upper, just the barrel (and bolt if changing calibers).  With LaRue's mounts, I can have dedicated optics for each barrel/caliber.  

Most of the time, my AR barrels stay put, but I would love to be able to swap them with an allen wrench instead of a vice, vice-block, special wrenches for the barrel nut, special blocks for the front sight base, and punches for the oh-so-annoying taper-pins.  

Sorry if the pictures make some of the parts look bent/distorted.  They're not.

I will try and contribute later today. I really should buy my own digi cam and stop using my cellphone

Next, we have the Bolt/Carrier Groups and Bolts:









Both stripped: (note- normally, you don't need to remove the XCR's firing pin for cleaning)




The XCR bolt has 3 lugs: (can you tell I've been shooting Wolf?)


We're all familiar with an AR bolt:

Quoted: Next, we have the Bolt/Carrier Groups and Bolts: i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRandARbcgs1.jpg i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRandARbcgs2.jpg i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRandARbcgs3.jpg i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRandARbcgs4.jpg Both stripped: (note- normally, you don't need to remove the XCR's firing pin for cleaning) i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRandARbcgs5.jpg i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRandARbcgs6.jpg The XCR bolt has 3 lugs: (can you tell I've been shooting Wolf?) i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/XCRbolt.jpg We're all familiar with an AR bolt: i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/bolster/ARBolt.jpg

Damn, beat me to it. I just picked up my digi cam