We reviewed two XLR Evolution Chassis Systems from the factory for Remington 700 SPS and Savage 10FP LE.

XLR INDUSTRIES:
owned by Kyle Miller and James Cox. In the first 8 months of business, XLR Industries has sold over 200 chassis systems.  Currently 26 different inlays are available for various actions, and about 10 more are coming soon.

The XLR (Extreme Long Range) Evolution Aluminum Chassis System:
Features:
Fully adjustable cheek weld, length of pull, butt pad elevation and cant, built in DBM (detachable box magazine), optional accessory rails, M4 pistol grip, M4 mil spec buffer tube allows a wide variety of butt stocks (not that you’d want anything other than XLR’s stock), fully free-floated barrel, optional ACE folding stock, light weight, rigid, all weather consistency, anodized aluminum construction, precision CNC machined.

It’s one thing to gawk at the Evolution system on XLR’s website, and another thing entirely to pull the stock out its box just a few weeks after placing the order.  The first hands-on experience almost makes you wonder if there was some mistake.  It’s just hard to believe you’re actually getting this much stock for this little price!

Kyle told us he “wanted to build a top quality chassis that is affordable; I believe in shooter first, business second.”   It looks like they’ve accomplished their objective.  The stock has every feature you would look for on a custom top-end stock at a price that even semi- serious shooters can justify.  If that’s not shooter first, business second, we don’t know what is!  We have to wonder if they don’t know something about business everyone else has missed because they’ve definitely earned our business and our recommendation!

The stock is designed to handle ALL weather conditions.  The chassis is completely treated with a Type 2 Class 2 hard coat anodize that adds corrosion resistance and durability while giving you three color options to choose from.

On the magazine fed option in .308, XLR uses Accuracy International magazines. The A.I. mags are easy to come by and have a wonderful reputation for being very reliable! The magazine fit like a glove in the mag-well. We tested both rifles by cycling them through 10 rounds as fast as we could to try to get a jam.  No misfeeds or other problems came up on either our Remington 700 or the Savage 10FP.

XLR gives a lifetime warranty on all their stocks.
My guess is that they’re confident because XLR stocks are machined from solid 6061 T6 billet aluminum. You can forget about having to do bedding and all the headaches that come with many custom stocks that are made of plastics, fiberglass or wood. This is what Kyle Miller of XLR said, “One great thing about the XLR stocks is that there’s no bedding or blocking. Just bolt in and go.” That was exactly the case with both our Rem. 700 and the Savage 10FP LE.

After our experience with what is generally considered one of the best aftermarket stocks available (the McMillan A-5), we were almost shocked at the ease of setting up our Savage in the Evolution stock!  This is in no way a knock on the McMillan A-5, but it took a bedding job, grinding the trigger guard and some milling to get everything to fit and function properly.  To be fair, McMillan does recommend sending in your barreled action for custom fitting and installation when you order a stock which is likely what we do next time, but we couldn’t resist a learning experience.  The XLR stock on the other hand couldn’t be easier or more fool-proof!

As for the Remington, I pulled my rifle out of the Blackhawk stock it was sitting in and literally bolted it into the new XLR Evolution. I also noticed how tight and snug my rifle fit into the stock. Both rifles fit perfectly without any smithing on our part at all.

We’ve talked with several shooters who don’t think you can achieve top accuracy without bedding your rifle action.  If you are still uncomfortable with the idea of not bedding, consider this: The purpose of bedding is to create such a perfect fit that the rifle won’t flex under pressure of fire.  The XLR stock eliminates flexion in a more effective way.

Even with the best bedding jobs, your action and pillars are in a more vulnerable material than the aircraft grade aluminum used on the XLR Evolution stocks.

There’s no way you can match the fit you get by dropping your action directly into liquid epoxy that will harden around every facet of your action, but keep in mind that even the best epoxies don’t give a 100% guarantee against shrinkage during curing.  It’s part of the process.  Then you need to remove your action to assemble the trigger again and replace the rifle action, tightening the bolts perfectly to the correct torque or the whole job can be sacrificed.

Glass jobs tend to break down with time as well, especially on heavy caliber rifles.  Obviously, accuracy is lost as the bedding breaks down.  The XLR can’t promise the same perfect fit you get from a bedding job, but you get the best fit I have seen so far in any custom stock where you don’t have to send your action in for fitting.  The scales tip in your favor when you add the substantial gain in rigidity that comes with XLR’s Aluminum stocks over wood and plastics.  Not only does the end result give you equal or better accuracy than a lot of bedding jobs, but it takes less time, less effort and a lot less expertise!  If you can twist your wrist and hold a torque wrench, you can install your own XLR stock in less than 30 minutes!  Another 30 minutes at the range and you’ll have her dialed in and ready for action.

Adjustability:
The ability to adjust the length of pull EXACTLY where it is the most comfortable for the shooter is outstanding!  Add to that, adjustability of the butt pad (elevation and cant angle) and an adjustable cheek weld and the only other thing you might change to suit your needs is the pistol grip (select from any M16 compatible option).

In my Blackhawk stock I had issues re-gaining a good cheek weld after firing. Even when I built up the cheek portion of the stock, it was still not great.  The XLR’s adjustable cheek weld elevation adjusts easily with only one allen bolt and is held in line by two slots over machined tabs.  It has been so consistent that I decided to put it to the test.  I fired ten rounds getting up and then back into shooting position between each shot.  I got a sub-MOA group at 100 yards. That’s not impossible with other stocks, but getting on a gun that was custom fit to my body and shooting stance offered obvious advantages in target acquisition, visibility and consistency.

I have had three different stocks on my Remington 700, and I would recommend the XLR stock over the past stocks every time. It is of course an obvious advancement over the factory stock, and has been an equally great improvement over my Blackhawk Knoxx Axiom.

Because the stock is constructed of aluminum it also keeps the rifle fairly light. I like that factor in the construction.

A unique design feature is XLR’s handguard. Not only is it nice to upgrade to a free-floated system, but the light weight tube allows for the installation of pictanny rails in many positions to suit your needs. I have also received several comments about how unique the tubing looks on my 700. All of the comments thus far have been very positive, if not a little covetous!

One of our XLRs has the side-folding stock. To be honest I was quite skeptical at first about having my precision .308 with a side-folder. I will tell you though, when that side-folder was locked into place, there was NO movement. For storage, having the side folder is a nice option. Not that we’ll be on any scout sniper outings soon, but it’s easy to see how this option could really improve stealth and maneuverability with a drag bag and a ghillie suit.  I can also see how this option may be nice for a SWAT team sniper or a designated marksman when getting into position. Needless to say, I was very surprised and impressed with the side-folder.  One intriguing difference with this folder is that it came installed upside-down making the stock fold to the left allowing right handed shooters to keep their trigger hand on the ergo grip while unfolding the stock.  For this kind of rifle, your tactical situation would be getting into position, pulling the gun out and dropping the handguard on your pack, a sand sock or bipod.  Flipping the folder to swing from the left would allow the shooting to carry the rifle like an M4 to position, drop to the prone placing the gun in ready position and swing the stock in place in an instant having everything else already in place.  In this situation it shows foresight we wouldn’t have thought of to have flipped the folder.

The addition of a detachable box magazine truly upgrades your stock rifle to a whole new level not only of capacity (10 rounds X number of mags on hand), but also to a new level of functionality.  XLR Industries builds their own integrated mag catch and release equal in quality and function to bottom metal with a price tag that rings in at about half the price of the complete Evolution stock!  [Compare the Badger Ordinance DBM at $329]

We honestly looked for anything negative to say about the XLR Evolution, but it would appear that Kyle and James have made the same search and eliminated every possible weakness before they sent their stocks to us.  In our search of the Evolution’s presence on the web, we didn’t find anyone else with any problems to report either!  It doesn’t look like we’ll be looking much further for chassis solutions on future builds in the SR Custom Shop then.

For under $700.00 I cannot think of a reason why I would not purchase this stock. Competitors of XLR are going to be in trouble as more shooters find out about Evolution and HD stocks.

Review by Garrett Jones and Jarem Frye
Photos/videos by Jarem Frye

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