I have a gen 1 Robinson XCR. Always liked the rifle and had it out of the safe the other day.

I know it had some upgrades available from the factory. Has anyone ever gone that route and sent it back?

Thank you

That is a question for the xcrforum. You will get some diverse answers

I also have a Gen 1 and do like the rifle immensely.
However, while the improvements are valid I never have had to do any of the upgrades due to any failure or performance deficiency.
If it were me I would NEVER send in the rifle but rather just buy the parts and install them myself (or another gunsmith if you don't have the ability).
I even like the original ACE stock although the newer stocks are very sexy.
I do think that the fact that Alex Robinson is a First Class Jerk with no regard to customer service has helped keep me from having to deal with them though.
Nevertheless his rifle is good despite the customer service deficiencies.
Yes, the XCRFORUM is/was a source for some info but it has also dwindled due to what has been mentioned above.
YMMV

2 gen 1 rifles and 1 current pistol. The current trigger is much nicer than the early triggers. That is the upgrade I would recommend. I too like the old folding tubular stocks and never gave any serious thought to upgrading considering cost vs benefit.

The current skinny uppers feel much nicer, but too expensive to upgrade for me. I see no reason to upgrade the bolt or gas system until they are worn out. Many upgrades do not require a trip to the factory.

quote:

Originally posted by Dae Zee:
2 gen 1 rifles and 1 current pistol. The current trigger is much nicer than the early triggers. That is the upgrade I would recommend. I too like the old folding tubular stocks and never gave any serious thought to upgrading considering cost vs benefit.

The current skinny uppers feel much nicer, but too expensive to upgrade for me. I see no reason to upgrade the bolt or gas system until they are worn out. Many upgrades do not require a trip to the factory.

Mine runs just fine and has for years. I have an excellent Smith, what upgrades would you all recommend without sending it back, which is pricy.

I have a first gen XCR.

For DIY upgrades, the trigger and fast stock are probably the two easiest and most important. If you are a left, also get the ambi safety and mag release.

If you shoot suppressed, the gas block is probably worth it. However, if your gun has the original gas block with the nut on the gas plug, upgrading is a bit more complicated. It is easy enough to change the gas block and piston at the end of the oprod but the issue is that the newer gas block was designed to go with a smaller size gas port found on later barrels. I did not know this and wondered why my XCR never would shoot as soft under any setting with the new block as the old block. I had to send the barrel in to RA where they put a sleeve in the new gas block to compensate for the larger gas port in the older barrel.

Many or most of the early 1st generation XCRs had a bit of annoying free play in the lower to upper fit. The free play was the result of Robinson using commercial off-the-shelf hinge pins that (probably unknown to the buyer) in reality come a few thousandths of an inch smaller than their nominal 'labeled' size and also smaller by those same thousandths than the left and right hinge pin holes in the lower thereby enabling a bit of wobble.

The lockup can be made quite snug easily if yours has this problem. Just replace the old pin with a cut to the same length new hinge pin made from the non-fluted cylindrical end of an off the shelf drill bit that is just that same nominal diameter but which possesses the needed amount(two or three thusandths) larger in diameter(as it will be exactly the 'standard' size) and voila the free play is history. A Dremel with a cut-off wheel will easily cut the much harder drill bit.

As others have mentioned some had a bit of trigger slap that was overcome with the newer 2-stage trigger and that is a great improvement. An improved bolt hold-open also was a longer lived replacement and inexpensive. Its OEM heavy hard-chromed 1/9 barrelled 16", after some 4000+ rounds, is still consistently shooting 0.6 moa at 100 yards with my 55gr fmj handloads.

I wanted to thank everyone for their replies, The rifle went home to the mother ship today.

I asked for all upgrades, minus the stock, as I like the tube stock and always have.

I am also going to get a .300BO conversion kit for it.

Falling in love all over again.