At Shot Show this year, the XCR rifles saw another stage in their continuing evolution. The big step for Canadians will be the extended forearm options.

When your barrel has to be 18.5″ long, it’s easy to get that too long look and feel with shorter handguards. The extended models Robinson is featuring offer an improved sight radius, and keymod accessory mounting.

Keymod is a big deal at Robinson Arms these days, and I can see why. One of the initial concerns regarding early XCR rifles was the forward weight, particularly with the Canadian length barrel. 2015 saw the release of light profile XCR barrels, and substantially lightened Keymod handguards. With the extended handguard arriving in 2016, Keymod is a crucial part of keeping the weight and balance from shifting too far.

The XCR is a rifle platform that’s continually evolving. Particularly if you compare the flashy lime green rifle I snapped at Shot to the original design. Stocks, controls, bolts, gas system, and recievers have all improved in subsequent iterations. I mean, just look at the original. It’s almost unrecognizable from what you see at the top of this page.

That continual forward progression is what keeps me interested in the XCR. We’ll see if 2016 is finally the year I jump on board and start shooting one.

The Recce Pro:

The new monocular essentially bridges between Vortex’s Viper level mountain scopes and their original Diamondback level monoculars. So this unit is the size and weight of the originals, with the glass and reticle out of the mountain scopes.

And it’s worth noting that the reticle in there is one of the best ranging reticles I’ve ever used. It’s got solid substentions (which have actually been expanded for the Recce Pro) but also features a number of quick ranging silhouettes that can be framed over a person or deer’s torso.

The model I saw at Shot Show was an 8×32, but apparently a 10x magnification is also in the works. You’ll also notice the rubber covers for the objective and ocular lenses, that seal around the optic, but remain tethered when detached.

If you’ve been following my stuff for a while, you might remember this little beauty from 3 years ago when I liked to put on multicam and go for long walks in the rain.

While in retrospect I might shake my head at that unbridled enthusiasm, I did like the Recon quite a bit. Now, with a smaller, lighter version that maintains the sharp glass and useful reticle, I’m feeling very tempted.

But small things can make all the difference to revitalizing an existing platform. And this one got my jimmies rustled:

Fab Defense finally launched a Vz58 magazine.

The Vz58/Cz858 is effectively Canada’s Kalashnikov replacement, but until now only military surplus magazines and KCI clones were available. And never in large numbers. Additional magazines could easily cost $30-40 and the Korean made KCI’s had some serious reliability issues.

Fab Defense has been making polymer AK and AR mags for years, but in 2016 they’ll be expanding the line to include everyone’s favourite Czech rifle. As you can see from the photos, it’s a windowed polymer mag, designed for the Vz from the ground up, and includes a weird littly doohickey on the bottom.

That device is a spring loaded magazine pull. The idea is that it sits flat against the base when stowed, but makes pulling the magazine out of a pouch that much easier. It’s not a loop like a traditional magpul, but instead relies on the shooter pinching or hooking the pull. I’ll have to try that part before I form an opinion on it.

Fab is planning to produce a pinned version at the factory specifically for the Canadian market, which I’m hoping will be available sooner rather than later.