OK. Some Comments.
We had a design for this rifle over 6 years ago. However, we had to completely redesign and re-test all the major parts - upper, lower, bolt, barrel, extension, carrier, operating rod, etc. We could not use our design from years ago because it was done wrong and would not have worked. Anyone who think that this is just a "scale up" knows very little about firearms design.
The picture that was posted gives you the general idea but you are all trying guess too much. The upper receiver of the production units will be longer. It is not known yet whether or not the gas system will be completely covered by upper receiver. The upper receiver has 1913 rails that are not grooved down the middle. (We can groove them if you want us to for an additional charge).
The barrel is not stainless. It's just a test unit and we were just too lazy to phosphate finish the barrel. The chrome lined 18.6" barrel shoots under .75" and under repeatedly. It's 1/10 shooting 168 gr stuff. We'll probably offer both 1/10 and 1/12.
The controls are completely ambidextrous except the charging handle. If the rifle were turned over, it looks exactly like you think it would. No there is not and there will never be a folding charging handle. The hole purpose of the charging handle is so you can get to it quickly.
The design of the XCR-M is actually more refined than the XCR-L. Better fit and finish. We incorporated all we learned from five years of making the the XCR-L into the XCR-M. THERE WILL BE NO UPGRADES OR CHANGES TO THIS DESIGN. We do plan to offer .260 and .243 Remington calibers shortly after we begin selling the .30
It will have a variety of options for stocks including our new do it all stock. The stock is not going to be shown until we're ready to do so (which shouldn't be too much longer). I don't want copycats like Fagpul and Femington to see it just yet. I will say that the stock is almost all metal and there's only plastic for the butt pad and adjustable cheek rest.
The price is going to be about $2500 retail including the new stock. I guaranty it will be worth it.
It does have a lot of parts commonality with the XCR-L. There's only about 25 parts that are different from the XCR-L but they're big parts. The M uses all the same trigger parts, bolt hold open, etc
We may also make our own sights for this rifle. Feel free to give us suggestions on the rifle or sight. Email us at
tech@robarm.com.
We'll post some pics of the finalized rifle with the new stock shortly.