I'd previously posted some information about my Rock River pistols. I've received the 6" long slide, so I thought I post an update for those of you interested in Rock River Arms.
My sister lives near Rock River Arms, and her husband is a machinist in the shop that does a lot of their work (and Les Baer, Armalite, Springfield Armory, etc. My sister has married well!). I had the chance to visit them in August 1999. Chuck and Mark both seem like good guys, and the pistols I examined impressed me. I placed an order in September, initially for a Basic Limited Match with Black-T coating on the slide, and night sights, along with a second long slide upper. I changed the order in January to two complete pistols. I believe that they initially quoted a 4-6 month wait, but the Black-T coating added some time. The long slide took longer, but considering that I didn't order it as a complete pistol until January, that is certainly my fault. In fact, some of the pieces of that pistol are marked with the serial number for the initial 5" gun.
I received the first pistol in early August. This is a Basic Limited Match, Black-T coated slide, with Bo-Mar tritium sights, on a stainless frame. Yes, the tritium Bo-Mars are just as nice and as accurate as the original Bo-Mars. I have always preferred the sight picture and fine, reproducible adjustment of Bo-Mars. Also, I've been through several pistol classes where I was trained to handle malfunctions (when shooting one handed) by "hooking" the rear sight on my pants, holster, or pocket, and using it to rack the slide. Tough to do with a streamlined sight!
The 10-shot, 50 yard test target on this pistol was a 2" group. The first shot out was marked, and low to the group. Excluding this shot, the group was 1.5". I do not have a Ransom Rest and cannot verify this target. However, the gun rag reviews on RRA that I've read have achieved accuracy equal to their test targets. The pistol is beautifully machined and fitted. I am quite glad I went with the Black-T. Yeah, it just looks cool. However, cycling the slide on the frame is nearly a religious experience. It is slicker then glare ice, yet perfectly tight and smooth. The frame looks identical to that on my Les Baer Premier II, with crisp edges and perfectly square mating surfaces. Even the extractor channel appears to have been polished, and cleans up with the pass of a Q-tip. The bushing to barrel fit is very tight, but has loosened to the point it can be moved with (firm) hands after about 700 rounds. I do recommend using the Brownell's aluminum bushing wrench for the RRA and Les Baer pistols.
The trigger out of the box was about 4.25-4.5#, but has smoothed out to a consistent 3.25# after 700+ rounds. I had requested a 4-4.5# trigger, but I'm quite happy with this. It is wonderfully crisp, with no creep whatsoever. The pistol was supplied with an 8-round Metalform magazine. I had a couple failures to feed in the first 100 rounds, but none since.
I took the pistol to a Ken Hackathorn class in late August. Found two problems. First, when using 8-round Shooting Star magazines, and inserting the mag under time pressure, I could over-insert the magazine and lock up the gun. This did not occur with Wilson-Rogers magazines. The gun feeds from both 8 round and 7 round WR mags just fine. I haven't tested their 8-round Metalform enough to be cocky about it.
Second, I'm not a good enough pistolero to reliably use its grip safety. The pistol came with a perfect grip safety. When fully depressed, the "bump" on the safety was exactly flush with the mainspring housing. The grip safety had to be fully depressed to disengage. My other 1911's are a little sloppy--just like me. Their depressed grip safeties protrude compared to the mainspring housing, and only needed to be depressed about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way to disengage. This caused me a few problems when quickly presenting from the holster.
Since I ordered this pistol planning on using it for concealed carry, I decided this was going to be a problem. I took the pistol with me on a trip back to see the family in late August, and my brother-in-law dropped it by RRA. Had it back in under two weeks, and the grip safety is just what I like! I went out last Tuesday and pushed the pistol and myself as hard as we could go. Never failed to engage the grip safety, and had no problems with the pistol whatsoever. I've shot my best splits ever with this pistol.
The accuracy of the pistol is impressive, although I can't shoot well enough to confirm the test target. I will say that the pistol will reliably shoot small one-hole groups in the head A-zone of an IPSC target at 15 yards. I need to get some Federal Match .45 ammo and try this off sandbags at the range. In short, two big thumbs up, go with Black-T, and treat a fine pistol to Wilson-Rogers magazines.
(Long Slide review separated)
My sister lives near Rock River Arms, and her husband is a machinist in the shop that does a lot of their work (and Les Baer, Armalite, Springfield Armory, etc. My sister has married well!). I had the chance to visit them in August 1999. Chuck and Mark both seem like good guys, and the pistols I examined impressed me. I placed an order in September, initially for a Basic Limited Match with Black-T coating on the slide, and night sights, along with a second long slide upper. I changed the order in January to two complete pistols. I believe that they initially quoted a 4-6 month wait, but the Black-T coating added some time. The long slide took longer, but considering that I didn't order it as a complete pistol until January, that is certainly my fault. In fact, some of the pieces of that pistol are marked with the serial number for the initial 5" gun.
I received the first pistol in early August. This is a Basic Limited Match, Black-T coated slide, with Bo-Mar tritium sights, on a stainless frame. Yes, the tritium Bo-Mars are just as nice and as accurate as the original Bo-Mars. I have always preferred the sight picture and fine, reproducible adjustment of Bo-Mars. Also, I've been through several pistol classes where I was trained to handle malfunctions (when shooting one handed) by "hooking" the rear sight on my pants, holster, or pocket, and using it to rack the slide. Tough to do with a streamlined sight!
The 10-shot, 50 yard test target on this pistol was a 2" group. The first shot out was marked, and low to the group. Excluding this shot, the group was 1.5". I do not have a Ransom Rest and cannot verify this target. However, the gun rag reviews on RRA that I've read have achieved accuracy equal to their test targets. The pistol is beautifully machined and fitted. I am quite glad I went with the Black-T. Yeah, it just looks cool. However, cycling the slide on the frame is nearly a religious experience. It is slicker then glare ice, yet perfectly tight and smooth. The frame looks identical to that on my Les Baer Premier II, with crisp edges and perfectly square mating surfaces. Even the extractor channel appears to have been polished, and cleans up with the pass of a Q-tip. The bushing to barrel fit is very tight, but has loosened to the point it can be moved with (firm) hands after about 700 rounds. I do recommend using the Brownell's aluminum bushing wrench for the RRA and Les Baer pistols.
The trigger out of the box was about 4.25-4.5#, but has smoothed out to a consistent 3.25# after 700+ rounds. I had requested a 4-4.5# trigger, but I'm quite happy with this. It is wonderfully crisp, with no creep whatsoever. The pistol was supplied with an 8-round Metalform magazine. I had a couple failures to feed in the first 100 rounds, but none since.
I took the pistol to a Ken Hackathorn class in late August. Found two problems. First, when using 8-round Shooting Star magazines, and inserting the mag under time pressure, I could over-insert the magazine and lock up the gun. This did not occur with Wilson-Rogers magazines. The gun feeds from both 8 round and 7 round WR mags just fine. I haven't tested their 8-round Metalform enough to be cocky about it.
Second, I'm not a good enough pistolero to reliably use its grip safety. The pistol came with a perfect grip safety. When fully depressed, the "bump" on the safety was exactly flush with the mainspring housing. The grip safety had to be fully depressed to disengage. My other 1911's are a little sloppy--just like me. Their depressed grip safeties protrude compared to the mainspring housing, and only needed to be depressed about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way to disengage. This caused me a few problems when quickly presenting from the holster.
Since I ordered this pistol planning on using it for concealed carry, I decided this was going to be a problem. I took the pistol with me on a trip back to see the family in late August, and my brother-in-law dropped it by RRA. Had it back in under two weeks, and the grip safety is just what I like! I went out last Tuesday and pushed the pistol and myself as hard as we could go. Never failed to engage the grip safety, and had no problems with the pistol whatsoever. I've shot my best splits ever with this pistol.
The accuracy of the pistol is impressive, although I can't shoot well enough to confirm the test target. I will say that the pistol will reliably shoot small one-hole groups in the head A-zone of an IPSC target at 15 yards. I need to get some Federal Match .45 ammo and try this off sandbags at the range. In short, two big thumbs up, go with Black-T, and treat a fine pistol to Wilson-Rogers magazines.
(Long Slide review separated)
