jeepkid

I was talking to a buddy that shoots a lot of hi-power service rifle competitions (actually he's ranked in the top 15 in the nation), anyway, he was saying that the last few Rock River uppers he has bought all had problems. Either the bolt was sloppy, sights were messed up, accuracy was poor, something with every one. So he started asking around at different shoots and he heard that they got too big and quanity went up, but quality went down. And they have had extremely terrible customer service lately. Has anybody heard anything? Anybody bought one recently (last few months)? I was going to order a upper from them this week, and then he told me not to.

robinsok

I don't know, i bought mine a couple months ago, but i bought if from a stocking dealer, so who knows how long ago it was manufactured. I know as far as customer service, the only time that I have dealt with them is when i accidentally submitted an order for T-shirts twice, and so i sent an email asking to have shipping combined so i wasn't double charged. They called me the next day and asked if i wanted to do that or just have one order cancelled. They were very friendly and the lady took the time to check and see what colors they had and what i wanted. I know this is just a shirt and not a gun, but still they were prompt and helpful. And so far, all is good with my gun too.

Rammer

I got my last Rock River in January or so, and there are no problems with mine. I had to wait 4 weeks for it to be built.

halcon

We recently bought two stainless Rock River varminters and the accuracy is great on both of them,no problems at all .

Briman

I'm suprised that he buys production uppers instaed of something semi-custom like a WHite Oak Armaments of Compass Lake Engineering upper. Production rifles are put together with parts from a parts bin, some custom manufacturers like the ones listed above carefully handfit the uppers together from custom made parts. If he's a top notch shooter he will notice the flaws in something in a RRA that most people won't- especially with sight repeatabilityand sight adjustment accuracy (if whether or not the sights adjust in 1/4 or 1/2 moa adjustments like their supposed to or actually end up something like 3/8 ,5/8 MOA adjustments).

jeepkid

He's always used RR uppers because they were really good. He is now using custom uppers from a guy in Southern California (not sure of the name). He bought the latest RR uppers for a Junior team that he coaches, and those had problems with the sights.

Briman

FWIW, there's a man named John Hollinger who accurizes AR-15 for match shooting. 5 years ago the only production uppers he would work on were from RRA- so at one time RRA did make superior uppers. Hoolinger went on to open White Oak Armaments which makes their own match uppers and rifles now.

I have a feeling that since RRA has taken off, they have geared more to compete with Bushmaster, Armalite, and Colt. They make an excellent carbine that is one of the best made for under $1500, that costs less than $1000. This is no knock on RRA, as some or all of the other big makers have had quality control issues with their rifles- Bushmaster with overtorqued barrels and improperly staked gaskeys, and others with improperly stakes gas keys and/or use of inferior parts, and as far as I know, RRA hasn't had any majorproblems.

kdvollmer

Didn't RRA just pick up a huge government contract for the ATF or somebodylike that. There was all sorts of testing done, freeze the rifle, dunk it in sand, don't clean it and fire a bazillion rounds through it. this has been in the last 2 years or so. Possible the big order for the government has forced the quantity vs. quality issue. Though I would doubt it. Make a test gun to do one thing for the government, and a production gun that doesn't is askng for some big problems. I know, the gun Uncle sam is getting isn't the civilian purchase gun, but when you slack in one area you tend to slack off in others.

Briman

Yes, they beat out Colt, FN, and others on a government contract for carbines. I think it was for the DEA.