@chewbacca The rifle itself is 8.2 lbs empty as I have it configured with an AAC 51T brake, MI BUIS set and Magpul MOE grip. Most of the weight is in the barrel which is basically a HBAR profile. Admittedly, that's probably a good things as far as heat absorption as the keymod handguard leaves very little space between your hand and the barrel. Adding an AAC 762SD suppressor and Aimpoint Pro in an ADM mount gets the total weight to 9.6 lbs unloaded.

Fantastic  ergonomic, accurate, highly innovative rifles. Nothing but love here. My dealings with the company has been fantastic.

I am willing to bet large amounts of money that Czechoslovakia never purchased any XCR rifles of any type.

I am mostly just pulling your leg.  (Czechoslovakia hasn’t been a country since 1993)

If you don't like fantastically solid rifles, then don't get one. If you can live with a rifle that's going to last longer than your AK's and AR's combined, and shoot really well at the same time, the XCR is for you.

FWIW, the firing pin tip just broke on my XCR-L pistol.  Total rounds fired before the break: 1572 300 Blackout and 1296 .223.  My pistol was out of warrantee, so I simply installed the spare FP I'd bought with my pistol.  I'll be getting another spare FP to keep on hand.  My other XCR-L's have never broken a FP.

Even though it is out of warranty, call the shop/email Holly and let them know what you had fail and your round count. They may send you a new pin.

I never gave the XCR a second thought until I just viewed MAC’s review on it. It seems like a very good and simple design.

I’m aware of the initial issues they were having, but it seems like all the bugs have been workes out. Are current production rifles different from the original design in any way?

Different, not really, consistently evolved and made better, as well as modernized (Keymod and Mlok), YES!

TL;DR crafted like a Swiss Main Battle Tank, shoots as good as the ammo you put through it, runs like a Rolex even when fed crappy commie steel case fodder.


It's ruggedness and simplicity belie it's mechanical design elegance and ingenuity.

For the curious: why some like the XCR-L and lay out the cash to purchase.

Superb ergonomics. Every user operation can be accomplished without breaking the firing grip.
Aluminum upper and lower.
Calibers and conversions in 5.45, 5.56, 6.8, 7.62x39, .300Blk and 6.5 Grendel.
Options on barrel lengths, calibers, twists and heavy light and medium contours from 7.5 inch to 18.5 inch.
Monolithic upper with full length Picatinny rail.
Uppers available in four different lengths.
Factory SBR and pistols.
5 position tool-less gas regulator. Suppressed,1,2,3,4.
User changeable barrel.
Takes all NATO STANAG / AR compatible mags and drums.
Takes all AR compatible grips.
Factory standard 3.5# trigger is on par with Geiselle SSA.
Left side charging handle with forward assist, all other controls are fully ambidextrous.
Collapsible adjustable aluminum folding stock that locks tight, does not flex and does not crumple when used to smash and beak things that need smashing and breaking. It features a polymer cheek piece adjustable for height and angle.
The stock folds to the right and does not interfere with controls, firing or ejection.
The 16" barreled carbine breaks down in 30 seconds or less into three pieces that fit in a 17 inch tool box, brief case or day pack.

To better understand the XCR get some trigger time on one and then take it apart. All the way apart. It's easy.

To completely disassemble one down to the last piece and build it back up you will need the complete armorers tool kit for the XCR which consists of the following items:
a folding hex key set.
a small adjustable wrench.
a small punch or nail.
a hammer ( or rock if you prefer )

No specialty tools required. No jigs. No fixtures. Not even a torque wrench. The complete armorers tool kit fits in a pouch or pocket.

There are no specialty fasteners or rivets used in the XCR. The few screws and pins that are used are common industrial standard hardware available at every NAPA and Home Depot and a hundred hardware retailers on line.

With it taken apart take a good hard critical look at the pieces, their design, their function and their fabrication. There are some very brilliant engineering and design features.

The two stage trigger system is very M1 Garrand like in it's use of the M1's "two hooks" technology as opposed to "square edge and notch" design FCG's most of us are familiar with.  The two hook system is what what gives the M1, M14 and others derived from the design their superior trigger pull characteristics. The XCR factory trigger pull is 3.5 pounds and very crisp.

The XCR's FCG pins are a robust .170 inch diameter, .015 thicker than standard .155 diameter AR FCG pins. If they become lost a pair of long shank short thread number 8 socket head cap screws and lock nuts from Home Depot would suffice until replacement arrive. Alternately one could cut and groove some 5/32 HSS rod. Or better yet stock however many spare parts makes one happy.

The bolt has three massive locking lugs which give more bearing surface and more shear area than needed. It's right lug features an impressive T-slot extractor that can not  slip off the cartridge rim and is prevented from doing so by the barrel extension. When the bolt comes back the case is coming with it. Period.

The bolt is forged with an integral cam lug protruding from the side. This allows for a smaller bolt body diameter than any other designs. This smaller diameter of the XCR's bolt body when coupled with the deep feed lip cuts in the bolt carrier allows the magazines feed lips to sit higher and closer to the bore center line than any other rifle I know of. This gives near straight line feeding. The bolt locking lug at the bottom position reaches deeper into the magazine than 6, 7 or 8 lug designs can. It engages more area of the cartridge case base. This increases reliability in stripping rounds from the magazine. The bolt locking lug cut out in the barrel extension is essentially a feed trough  instead of a feed ramp. Bullet, case neck and shoulder are positively guided to the chamber.

On the recoil stroke the carrier travels rearward a short disatnce before the cam cut in the the carrier begins to rotate the the bolt. This gives time for the carrier to build inertia and time for residual chamber pressure to bleed off to zero or near zero. The result is little to no case grip on the chamber walls before unlocking and extraction occurs.

When the bolt starts rotating, the left locking lug engages a caming ramp in the barrel extension. The caming ramp gives a 23:1 mechanical advantage for slow positive initial extraction like for example, the Mauser model 98.

The slot machined into the top of the carrier that the lug on the bottom of the op rod fits into is slightly longer than the said op rod lug that drops into the slot. In operation, with gas pressure pushing the op rod back, the back end of the lug presses against the aft end of the slot in the carrier pulling it backwards from the tail end. Going in the opposite direction, when the op rod is being pushed forward by spring tension the lug slips forward and now the forward end of the lug is pulling the carrier forward from the front end. This effectively eliminates carrier tilt in both directions.

The XCR's bore center line is very low in relationship to the top of the butt plate. This is a large part of the reason why the XCR produces noticeably less muzzle climb than straight line designs.

The gas piston head shaping, gas block and gas regulator and gas volume have an interesting effect on operating system pressure curves and impulse in the first half inch of op rod travel.

The sum of the design features and operating characteristics of the action doing what it does combine to give a firing sensation best described as so buttery smooth is makes butter wish it were that smooth. It is very MP5 like but on a larger scale.

Personally, I'd like to see development of a polymer lower to reduce weight.  It's an unstressed part that can be executed that way without compromising function.  But of course, the cost of fabricating a high precision mold probably makes it cost prohibitive.

Durability. Aluminum but stock on aluminum lower is durable enough for but plate smashing things that need to be smashed.

That's a rather low probability occurrence.  More realistically, in a world where ounces = pounds, every ounce counts.

But like I said, it's too cost prohibitive for RA to pursue it.  They'd have to be moving 6 figures of product to justify the investment.

I'm in complete agreement here. The XCR was never designed to have a polymer lower, and I have no interest in one. Robinson has gone through great pains to build the rifle as rugged as possible...hell their stock is made out of Aluminum! It would be one thing if the gun was designed from the beginning with a polymer lower such as the Scar and the Bren, but I'll leave this one as is.

Do you run aluminum followers too?  

Reality disagrees.

Nope---Buy a torque wrench, use it, no issues.

Pistol Grip and grip screw? Possible A2 flashider--thats about it

Replacement barrels are between 400-650 depending on how many parts you need to convert the rifle.

They like keymod over mlok because Key mod is a thinner/slimmer process for the handguard, allowling the barrel to be removed while keeping the handguard very thin,
They have mlok available as well, it just makes for a wider handguard to allow barrel removal.

I bought a QD point set off a gent here in the EE, that bolted right up to the back of my FAST 2--problem solved. I hunt with mine--so this was an issue.

Agree. While I prefer MLOK over Keymod, when I held both I could really feel the extra bulk needed for the MLOK rail which made it less comfortable to me. Hence, both my XCR-L and XCR-M use Keymod rails (even though I have very few Keymod accessories).

Same here, both of mine are keymod for this reason.

In normal times that would buy you a complete AR, lol.

Yep, but have 20 cheap AR's in my safe isn't what I'm looking for.

No extensive dry firing, just one pull when leaving the range and one pull after cleaning it. If checking to make sure it is empty prior to putting it up, then another pull.

@The_Beer_Slayer  

HK had problems of melting of what, exactly?

As for polymer receivers, I don't mind polymer if a rifle was to be designed with that in mind. However, I carry my XCR all over this state's damnable terrain and have never wished for the receivers to have been made of a material other than aluminum. Even my Pic rail version is not too heavy to carry all day.

Everyone says that but no one has ever been able to prove it. From what I understand the heat issue story originated with a few German military units claiming it had heat issues but they later admitted they just wanted a new gun. I don’t see any proof of it.  (No offense)

InRange did an interesting test of the G36 polymer trunion.  I think they could've tested it further, but it's their ammo.

Beretta has no such problems with the ARX, which has a combat track record of reliability & durability; CZ Bren series uses a poly lower.  Op ed characterization doesn't match the facts, & the fact is that fiber reinforced polymer works quite well, regardless of RA not using it.

Only issue I’ve had with the xcr was on my current sbr, the hammer spring retaining pin got bent. Had their spare parts kit already so no big deal, and if I didn’t, I’m sure Ace Hardware would’ve had something that would’ve worked.
For those looking to get into one, watch GB, I’ve seen many 1st and 2nd gen pop up there for as cheap as $1k, then swap out whatever parts you want to upgrade or change.
I’ve got the 5.56 & 7.62x39 kit for mine, the x39 runs awesome with the old USA frankenmags and most asc mags
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Just get both. All I need is a TommyBuilt T36 clone and I will have the trifecta.

Honestly they’re about equal to me, both run great, no issues. The xcr obviously has more aluminum vs polymer so xcr feels slightly more solid. I’d love to upgrade the xcr upper to mlok but cost vs weight savings isn’t great, so not a priority. Also something to consider now is no more acr’s, while the xcr at least over the last few years have plenty of parts and caliber kits available.
I had a scar 17 for a while, the 16 just didn’t seem worth the cost, at least for me.

One of InRange's recent videos seems to indicate that the G36's dual optic could have been at-fault, specifically how it is mounted. The trunnion issues seems to be dead-in-the-water. German troops using the optics rail don't seem to be complaining.

@the_beer_slayer

Yes, do the upgrades.

From my understanding the bolts were made lighter, went through some changes for reliability, and the firing pins changed to avoid breaking. I believe thier were also changes in the case deflector as well. They also made a change in the take down portion of the guide rod, which tightens the receivers up.

Other thing is to have them generally inspect the rifle and upgrade anything else they see.

They are quick, I wouldn't expect them to have the gun any longer than a couple of weeks at the most.