Recently, Rock River Arms released a new series of rifles. The Operator 2 line entails three distinct types of Rock River Arms respectable direct-gas-operated LAR-15 style rifles. Each will share some familiar attributes, and the rifles take their name from the new Operator stock Rock River Arms has recently announced. Rock River Arms started out constructing excellent 1911s, years before it was cool, the Corona, IL, company got into the AR-15 field. Its rifles were so perfectly made that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency decided on Rock River to produce its issue rifles available currently as the LAR-15 Pro-Series Government Model.

Rock River Arms was launched eleven years ago by 2 brothers, Mark and Chuck Larson, who worked out of a garage. It has grown continuously ever since and today employs over 90 folks. Although Rock River produces weapons for various government agencies, the particular bulk of their sales are to the civilian marketplace. Rock River Arms offers fifty or so models of weapons, but shoppers can make up their own configurations, using a great number of components substitutions - sights, rails, stocks, barrel length and contour, and more. Rock River will also include accessories like flashlights and red dot sights. Rock River Arms is like an a la carte workshop for weapons. Rock River doesn’t make numerous components on site. Rock River designs and specifications parts, then receive them, perform inspections, finish them, assemble them into weapons and ship them out. The Rock River Arms factory is complete with a buffing and blasting area, where raw forgings become finished parts. Rock River Arms is definitely a family business with the brothers Chuck and Mark Larson as well as their father and one of their sons working at the plant. Looking about the factory there were many boxes of rifle carrier groups, essentially the bolts of the rifles. Rock River Arms offers an almost countless number of chambering options for the basic AR platform. Once you own a lower half which consists of the stock and receiver, you can easily acquire upper halves (barrel, carrier group, and gas system) in all kinds of chambering and interchange them freely. There's even a company that offers a .410 shotgun upper half for the AR15 rifle.

Components are measured and tested as they come in to the production facility and at various stages during production. Tested for hardness, testing is done all the way down to the flash hider. All of the little sub assemblies - sights, gas blocks, carrier groups, safeties, and so on -- come together at the stations where the upper halves and lower halves are put together. Once at a work station the gunsmith assembles the upper half of what will be a future complete rifle. The gunsmith takes special care to assemble the upper with the silver tube running along the top of the barrel which directs gas from the gas block to run the action. During the upper half assembly, the headspace gauges are used to check the dimensions of the chamber. The bolt of a firearm should close up over the green “go” gauge but not close over the red “no go,” which is slightly oversized. Cartridges can rupture, sometimes dangerously, in an oversized chamber. Rock River offers the choice of a standard trigger or a two-stage National Match trigger for serious target shooting. A two stage trigger is the favored style for military rifle competitions such as the famous National Match at Camp Perry, Ohio. Pulling a two-stage trigger, you feel slack as the trigger moves a short distance, then a light, clean break. The Rock River Arms gunsmith will check the weight of the trigger pull by hanging a 4 1/ 2 pound weight from the trigger. If the weight doesn’t trip the trigger, he will file the trigger sear to lighten the pull. Lighter trigger pulls are also available from leading Rock River Arms dealers. Lowers also come with options such as an oversized winter trigger guard, originally designed for police officers who needed to keep their hands inside warm gloves but still be ready to shoot in cold weather. Winter trigger guards work perfectly for winter coyote hunters as well. As the final pieces are assembled into a lower half of what will be the final rifle, this lower half could also be matched to an endless combination of barrel lengths, barrel contour, hand-guards and calibers.

As uppers and lowers are joined by a master gunsmith assembler, the firearms are tagged and prepared for the test fire phase of the product.

In the shipping area, parts come in, guns go out. There seems to be no end to the demand. Rifles usually are sitting on dealers’ shelves for a few days before they’re gone. For dealers that take deposits, guns never even make it to the shelves before they are picked up by a local customer or shipped out again.

Preparation for the firing test begins with the loading of magazines which is a full time job. The finisher snaps 20-30 rounds into waiting magazines in preparation for the final function test

Several times a day, assemblers and rifle testers load the Rock River van with weapons and take them out to the range. Shooting from the back of the van, each and every rifle with sights is sighted in, and then test-fired for function. Testers shoot at least two magazines through the fully automatic guns. Who says semi automatics aren’t accurate? With barrels provided by Wilson Barrel, the main allure of Rock River Arms rifles is that they shoot considerably better than advertised.

The fit and finish of the Operator 2 firearms are good and emphatically a step above the standard, rack-grade, Parkerized mil-spec AR on the market right now, although they are barely more expensive than those lesser grade types. The Operators upper and lower receivers fit together so strongly I required a tool to work out the push pins. While the Rock River Arms Operators don't have pistons or monolithic fore-ends or flip-down rear sights, they have everything you need in an accurate, reliable semiautomatic rifle, at a price tag that sometime ago would have been unheard of. The Rock River Arms AR-15 AR-15 Model BB2522 Rock River Arms is created with a 16 1/2" Chrome Moly barrel for accuracy, Rock River Arms Tactical Muzzle Break with exceptional signature reduction, Flip forward sight, Rock River Arm Quad-rail hand guard and much more... The Rock River Arms AR15 Model BB2522 Rock River Arms also comes with such excellent quality advances as rugged fixed rear sight and flip forward sight to give a lot more resilience and cosmetic appeal. With the forward flip sight feature, the Rock River Arms AR15 BB2522 Operator 2 is ready for action to further add a scope or red dot.

The Rock River Arms AR-15 AR-15 Model BB2522 Rock River Arms rifle includes a Rock River Arms winter trigger guard and the ERGO Sure Grip. While I prefer a hard pistol grip, I have long touted use of pistol grips such as the ERGO that add a little material to the backstrap of the rifle. Standard AR pistol grips are too small for anyone who doesn't have child-size hands, and they encourage poor shooting technique by putting the second joint of the finger on the trigger. Upgraded grips such as the ERGO correct that drawback. The rifles are furnished with the RRA Star safety/selector, which sticks out a bit more from the receiver than a mil-spec safety. It is not ambidextrous. The safety worked just like it should, but I like the appearance of the mil-spec design better probably because its what I'm accustomed to. When I first acquired the Operator and tried out the trigger, I was really surprised. As a general rule, production line triggers on AR-15s are terrible. Not so the Operator trigger. Its crisp, light, two-stage trigger that breaks right at 4 pounds -not what I was expecting at all. This was prior to I realized that all the Operator rifles come equipped with Rock River Arms well-respected two-stage National Match trigger system, which includes a lightened hammer.

The first concern normally, with any kind of weapon, is consistency, my Operator functioned with not a hitch. I fed the Operator ammo from Wolf, Winchester, Remington and Black Hills, with numerous bullet weights and types, and the weapons digested it all. I used the supplied magazines for testing as well as quite a few surplus magazines I found available, along with a few MagPul PMags.

Here are the features when supplied from my web based dealer.

Manufacturer Rock River Arms
Model: Operator 2 Series
Type: direct-impingement AR semi auto
Capacity: accepts AR-15 magazines of any capacity
Caliber: 5.56 NATO chamber
Barrel length: 16-inches chrome moly, 1:9" twist
Overall length: 37 inches
Weight: 7.2 pounds (Entry and Tactical), 8.0 pounds ()
Hand guard: Half-Quad aluminum free float (BB2522)
Stock: RRA Operator CAR compartment stock, ERGO Sure Grip pistol grip
Sights: post front; wind age-adjustable rear aperture
Trigger: RRA National Match, 4 pounds pull
Sale Price: $1,000.00 , Retail $1,515.00



Most dealers in my area wanted retail plus which did not set well with my budget. I acquired my Operator from Class 3 Weapons in Houston Texas at a substantial savings of only $969.00 which included shipping.


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