Rock River Arms National Match A2
I picked up my Rock River Arms National Match A2 this last week and boy is it nice. I opted for the ½ X ½ rear sight, it has a Wilson air gauged stainless match barrel with 1:8 inch twist. It has the RRA two stage national match trigger, free floating hand guard and a .223 Wylde chamber.
This one has the compensator and bayonet lug attached, for that authentic “service rifle†look.
I took it to the range to sight it in and fired 25 rounds from a sandbagged bench at 50 yards and 100 yards. I am shooting Lake City surplus ammo M855 ball .223 62 grain. I first fired a three round group at 50 yards just to see where I was at. A nice 1†group but a little low and dead center, no windage correction needed, so I sent a five round group down to the 100 yard targets. The group size opened up a bit but still pretty tight, about 5-5 ½ inches, but probably a little bigger. I fired off the rest checking shot placement after every other one or so and was very pleased with the results. Then on Sunday, I went down to Port Townsend to shoot a reduced 80 round RMC with the Peninsula Rifle and Pistol Club. (great bunch of shooters) I had previously shot my old Garand with dismal results, I was classified as Marksman with a high score of 453. Well with my new RRA I was hoping to do better. My two sighter shots for the first offhand relay were low at 6 o’clock so I came up about 5 clicks. The next 20 shots offhand were a gentle reminder that the gun may shoot well but I need to practice more. My score improved but I was still all over the target. On the next relay I loaded 2 mags with 5 rounds each and tried to slow down and relax. I was about 20 seconds fast but I only had two rounds outside of the black, my next relay I got all 10 rounds in the black. Very happy with that. On the rapid prone I tightened the sling one notch and only dropped 1 outside the black. Extremely happy with that. I then decided to tighten the sling one more notch for the slow prone, I think that was a mistake, my hand started to go numb half way through the relay, but since I was shooting fast, I had a few extra minutes to relax my hand and shake it out. I use the Creedmoor single round follower in a 20 round magazine, the rounds line up nicely with the chamber and slide right in.
My overall impression of this rifle is very favorable, it fits me nicely and shoots nice and straight right out of the box. The two stage trigger is very nice and smooth. I did notice that the provided rear sight was much to small for me, I could barely see through it. It also has a plastic butt plate that I am not to keen about. I had already purchased the BJones sight system so I installed that before I went shooting. I like the options it provides, and it’s well built. I also installed the Tubb buffer spring and the CWS weight system in the bolt housing group, but since I did this before I fired the rifle I cannot honestly say there is a difference. I have a Turner 54†black sling that I like very much, very comfortable on the arm. All together this rifle is a shooter, it shoots better than I can so any problems will be because of me. I shot it again today from 100 yards, I fired 20 rounds of Lake city and 20 rounds of Black Hills match ammo. The Black Hills was a definitely tighter group, I will have to invest in some soon.
My scores went from a 453 to a 709, with practice I will see even better scores soon.
I picked up my Rock River Arms National Match A2 this last week and boy is it nice. I opted for the ½ X ½ rear sight, it has a Wilson air gauged stainless match barrel with 1:8 inch twist. It has the RRA two stage national match trigger, free floating hand guard and a .223 Wylde chamber.
This one has the compensator and bayonet lug attached, for that authentic “service rifle†look.
I took it to the range to sight it in and fired 25 rounds from a sandbagged bench at 50 yards and 100 yards. I am shooting Lake City surplus ammo M855 ball .223 62 grain. I first fired a three round group at 50 yards just to see where I was at. A nice 1†group but a little low and dead center, no windage correction needed, so I sent a five round group down to the 100 yard targets. The group size opened up a bit but still pretty tight, about 5-5 ½ inches, but probably a little bigger. I fired off the rest checking shot placement after every other one or so and was very pleased with the results. Then on Sunday, I went down to Port Townsend to shoot a reduced 80 round RMC with the Peninsula Rifle and Pistol Club. (great bunch of shooters) I had previously shot my old Garand with dismal results, I was classified as Marksman with a high score of 453. Well with my new RRA I was hoping to do better. My two sighter shots for the first offhand relay were low at 6 o’clock so I came up about 5 clicks. The next 20 shots offhand were a gentle reminder that the gun may shoot well but I need to practice more. My score improved but I was still all over the target. On the next relay I loaded 2 mags with 5 rounds each and tried to slow down and relax. I was about 20 seconds fast but I only had two rounds outside of the black, my next relay I got all 10 rounds in the black. Very happy with that. On the rapid prone I tightened the sling one notch and only dropped 1 outside the black. Extremely happy with that. I then decided to tighten the sling one more notch for the slow prone, I think that was a mistake, my hand started to go numb half way through the relay, but since I was shooting fast, I had a few extra minutes to relax my hand and shake it out. I use the Creedmoor single round follower in a 20 round magazine, the rounds line up nicely with the chamber and slide right in.
My overall impression of this rifle is very favorable, it fits me nicely and shoots nice and straight right out of the box. The two stage trigger is very nice and smooth. I did notice that the provided rear sight was much to small for me, I could barely see through it. It also has a plastic butt plate that I am not to keen about. I had already purchased the BJones sight system so I installed that before I went shooting. I like the options it provides, and it’s well built. I also installed the Tubb buffer spring and the CWS weight system in the bolt housing group, but since I did this before I fired the rifle I cannot honestly say there is a difference. I have a Turner 54†black sling that I like very much, very comfortable on the arm. All together this rifle is a shooter, it shoots better than I can so any problems will be because of me. I shot it again today from 100 yards, I fired 20 rounds of Lake city and 20 rounds of Black Hills match ammo. The Black Hills was a definitely tighter group, I will have to invest in some soon.
My scores went from a 453 to a 709, with practice I will see even better scores soon.
