Rock River Wad Gun

[gulliver62]

I recently came into possession of a Rock River bullseye gun as part of a larger deal.
Anybody know anything about these? Seems nice an tight but no indication it was 'built' other than by Rock River.
Blued, serial # in the 22xx range
full length guide rod
scope rail with built in slide racker (marked Rock River) with no irons
Kart barrel
Skeleton hammer & trigger
looks like a modified grip safety
Fung grips

I will get her out to the range in the next couple of weeks but was looking for experiences before I decide what to do with it.

[Misny]

Rock Rivers are top-of-the-line. The best machine rest group I've ever seen was shot with one at 50 yards. It was a 10 shot group which measured under an inch and was fired with a Nosler bullet reload.

[Levergun59]

Check the slide play by grabbing the slide and trying to move it side to side and then back end to fore end. No wiggle is excellent. Unload gun and put into battery. Stick your finger on the barrel and wiggle. No movement here is also excellent. Open the slide and check the barrel ramp. If that ramp is one straight angle right to the bottom of the barrel, then fire it and see how it feeds. The ramp should only go up to a certain distance from the barrel, followed buy a cut away then the barrel. Bullets are supposed to bounce off the feed ramp, miss the cut away and pop in the barrel. Some gunsmiths will move the ramp back and polish it and claim it will feed empties, {it will}, but it won't feed bullets reliably. If you have no slide endplay or sideplay, the muzzle is tight and the feedramp is polished, but not cut back, you have a heck of a good gun. I had a trigger job done by them at Camp Perry at their big van next to the army and marine vans. First class job.
Chris

[Ernie Rodriguez]

In checking pistol-you might also pull the slide lock pin out and check for the tell tale twin burnishing marks left on it by a correctly fitted lug lock up system. Also see if the end of the FL guide rod was altered so that there is no interference with the lugs/lock up function. Cheers

[GunRunner]

retail on the rock river was around 2k new, they stopped building them for several years when the ar 15 got hot, but i hear they are building them again. They are good guns, basically the same as Les Baer, good tight frame slide fit, kart barrel and good parts.

[1911nut]

Gulliver,

I've been shooting a Rock River wadgun just like yours in bullseye matches for 3 years.

Mine has been excellent. The trigger is a crisp 3 1/2lbs. Rock River told me the factory recoil spring is 13lbs, I changed mine to a 10 lb. Wolff variable to get reliability shooting light wadcutters.
I shoot 200g SWC bullets from LaserCast over 3.8g of Vihtavouri N310.
I put a 30mm UltraDot on mine.
They are built tight and provide excellent accuracy.

Some think they were the best factory 1911's ever made. Too bad they quit making them.
There's good demand for them among bullseye shooters, I would think your gun in excellent condition should sell for $1500 or better.

[gulliver62]

Thanks guys, sounds like I got even more than I thought I did in the deal.
My backup gun is in need of a re-build so I was hoping this one would fill the void until that one is back fully functional.

Sounds like I may find it hard to let go of once I start shooting it. Hopefully will get a range report on it this week.