Earlier I mentioned my new-to-me XP-100 in .223 Remington and how it had arrived utterly filthy and in need of a good cleaning.
Well, here it is all shiny, with its newly-polished case:
Bandwidth warning: more pics below. All are click-for-bigger. Excuse the resolution; they’re from my cell-phone camera.
The XP was advertised as coming with a 4x Leupold extended-eye-relief scope, which I immediately removed for use on the M1A SOCOM I’m intending to purchase in 2008. What I didn’t realize was that the mounts were by Buehler, which is very very kewl.
I also didn’t realize Buehler had been just a few miles away from me in Orinda. I used to go through Orinda on BART every day when I was commuting to UC Berkeley. 
The gun has the somewhat-rare black “coyote” nylon stock, which I prefer to the brown version. Fits the hand really well, and the center-grip is certainly “handier” than the rear-grip CFP.
I mounted one of the Barska 6.5-20×50 scopes that have done so well for me. That’ll do for now; if this thing shoots as well as XPs are supposed to, I’ll probably upgrade the scope later.
Still, the Barska performed admirably on the Weatherby CFP at Boomershoot 2007 and I don’t see how it should be any different with the XP.
If you want a great cheap Xmas gift for a gunny, Sportsmans Guide still has the Barskas for about $45. Can’t go wrong there.
Anyway, here’s the XP with the CFP for comparison’s sake.
…and with the rest of the RNS Boomershoot 2008 pistols team.
I love mine, chambered in 7mm BR, center grip with a laminated wood stock (I hated the brown Zytel plastic original). I’ve got a 4x LER Burris on it now, and if I can see the target, I can hit it. That’s about a 4″ circle at 200 meters with my eyes and that scope using a 130gr HPBT Sierra Matchking over 31 grains of BL-C(2) or the military pulldown equivalent. Terrific pistols!
That’s some good shooting. With a higher-power scope you’d probably do as well out to 400 with little difficulty. 4″ at 400 is minute-of-boomer right there!