“This thing feels great. Nice balance. Solid feel.” These were the words of inner-me as I picked up Rock River’s RBG-1S for the first time in a long time. If my recollection is correct, I first encountered this some four years ago or so during Ballistic’s Best competition for target bolt action rifles. I don’t think it faired too well actually but that was different time and I was a different precision shooter then. Looking at this rifle with a new set of eyes reveals things I may have missed before.
RBG-1S — The Action
If you’re over the shock that Rock River has a bolt gun with their name on it, let’s proceed to the details. The action is clearly one made by Zermatt Arms, once named Big Horn, and they make phenomenal actions that are insanely fast and smooth. Their action feel is like no other action on the market—I have two of them. Mine are the TL3 Model actions which are so fast, they can literally outrun the shooter. I believe the RBG-1S utilizes a defeatured version of the. I can’t be 100% model it is. They may be utilizing Zermatt’s top of the line TL3 but it does not quite feel like it. But I digress.
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On the Rock River website they have the RBG-1S action listed as “proprietary action”. If I were to have a discussion with their marketing person I’d recommend ditching that verbiage and adding something to the effect of, “Designed to Rock River specs by Zermatt Arms, maker of some of the worlds finest actions.” Anyone who knows anything about actions knows Zermatt is top tier wares. This admission would lend further credibility to those who can’t wrap their minds around Rock River ever making a bolt action that they could be even remotely interested in.
Lightweight Throw
That said this action with 90 degrees of lightweight throw is deceptively smooth and compliant. It must be felt to be understood. Regardless of which action of theirs that you end up with you get free floating interchangeable bolt heads with DLC coating, meaning with some barrel swapping you can go beyond the standard .308 (.475) bolt face, say down to a .223 (.380) on the same action (like this guy did) or even up to a 6.5 PRC with a Magnum (.535) bolt head. Same bolt, same receiver and chassis or stock.
Feeding & Ejection
The action also features controlled feed, grabbing each round and guiding it squarely into the chamber. It also features an enclosed mechanical ejector which some people love and some do not. With a mechanical style ejector, proper eviction of the spent case relies on the shooters ability to run the bolt with some umph. If you get into that lazy lackadaisical, slow-running of the bolt that fair weather precision shooters employ, your cases may just dribble from the ejection port like baby slobber, if they make it out at all. Like I said, you either love it or hate it.
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If that’s not enough the bolt body gets black nitride coating and, check this out—available in right and left handed models although I believe the RBG-1S is only offered in right handed models.
Features That Matter
This action is cut for AICS patterned magazines, utilizing Magpul versions and it comes with a 20 MOA base attached to give you a little extra wiggle room on your long range escapades. Again this action is strong and its attributes should be touted.
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The trigger is a Trigger Tech Special single stage. It’s adjustable and breaks clean. Barrels are available in 20, 22, and 24 inch variants and chambering is either .308 Winchester or 6.5 Creedmoor. These Wilson barrels are air gauged and cryo treated. The action has small shank threads thus takes Savage style prefits or shouldered barrels. So, you have options in chambering like mentioned earlier.
The Chassis: KRG Whiskey-3
The Remington 700 footprint of the action lets you take advantage of a slew of different chassis and stocks. Rock River made a solid call by going with the KRG Whiskey-3 chassis. This is a popular chassis for several reasons. KRG continually updates its design and are now on Gen 7. That being the case, I’m not sure what versions come on the Rock River.
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The back end is adjustable without tools so setting cheek height and length of pull is straight forward and quick. The cheek piece has some fore and aft adjustment if necessary. From a design standpoint the Whiskey-3 is excellent with solid aluminum bedding and aluminum body with polymer skins working together to complete the chassis. The result is something that looks good, with solid no-drama manners under recoil. The skins keep it from looking like it’s been dragged down a rough road while keeping it more temperature stable as well. Aluminum gets hot when it’s hot and cold when it’s cold. The polymer eases some of this. Rock River gives you three KRG colors, green, tan, and black.
It also features a bag rider in the rear, M-Lok slots up front for a couple of weights and M-Lok slots on the bottom of the buttstock as well. There’s a paddle style mag release and thumb rests to boot. I was impressed by how well the RBG-1S balanced when setup with optic. The gun felt good, heavy enough at 12.90 pounds although I typically prefer a much heavier setup. This thing is sitting right in NRL Hunter territory.
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Optic Pairing: NX8 Holds It’s Own
Speaking of optic, Nightforce provided their NX8 4-20x50mm in FDE. This optic is great on many levels—looks, function, performance, and price. I chose this optic because I typically run ATACR’s and wanted to try something different. I was at he launch event of the NX8 many years ago but haven’t had one in my hands since, so I felt the time was right and it didn’t disappoint.
Armed with a MIL-XT reticle which is one of the best in business, the glass was Nightforce-clear and I used it well into the evening on one of the outings, shooting at black targets without even resorting to the onboard Digillum Illumination which can toggle between green or red. The NX8 has a 30mm maintube and possesses excellent performance for the buck.
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The 30mm maintube was perfect for some new technology from a company called Magnetch. They have designed and released magnetic scope mounts. These mounts allow you to rapidly detach the mounted optic and move it from one rifle to another that has their magnet base attached. It’s quite a slick system and I will give it a full review soon. But for now I simply used it as you might any other scope mount.
Range Time
Now to the important part. How did the RBG-1S shoot? Rock River states on their website that the rifle shoots 1/2 MOA or better. As usual we must assume user and ammo combo will allow for that. I was never able to achieve 1/2 MOA. That said, I believe the rifle is capable of it. The barrel profile is pretty thin so 10 shot strings are the max before it’s blistering hot and mirage becomes a serious problem. I outfitted the barrel with a Dead Air Nomad XC suppressor with RecoilX suppressor brake to keep things quiete and to tame recoil.
I noted that after about 15 rounds the impacts started to move downward, which I suspect was due to heat and the weight of the suppressor out front. Even in the late-afternoon coolness, the barrel took a long time to cool down and seemed to stay hot longer than I’m used to.
All of that aside I did manage a sub-MOA eight-shot group of .77 inches and a follow up seven round group of .66 inches. The rifle clearly liked Hornady’s 140 gr. BTHP bullet the best because it even shot Hornady’s American Gunner, which is a budget ammo offering, at .536 inches for 4 rounds with a flier over an inch—but this was in the first 8 rounds of the new barrel. I do think it’s a true 1/2 MOA capable rifle.
Final Thoughts
This rifle actually uses rather premium bits an pieces to achieve it’s intended purposes. With a retail price of $4,880 it’s not cheap and is creeping into competition rifle prices. That being the case I’d like for it to be a little more buttoned down with a heavier profile barrel attached to help ensure accuracy guarantee on higher round count strings of fire. But as I stated, its weight would allow use in NRL Hunter matches as it sits.
All in all it’s a solid rifle and Rock River didn’t skimp on anything save for the barrel profile. If you’re one of the many fans of Rock River, and who hasn’t been at some point, you’ll be attracted to this if you want to dabble in bolt gunnery. If you’re not a Rock River fan but can recognize the Zermatt product for what it is, you may want to look closer at the RBG-1S.
Specifications:Rock River Rock Bolt Gun RBG-1S
- Type: Bolt action repeater
- Action: Short, 90 degree, two lug
- Caliber: 6.5 Creedmoor
- Weight: 10.5 LB
- Length: 43.5 inches
- Barrel: Wilson, 24 inch, SS 1:8
- Stock: KRG Whiskey 3 Chassis
- Trigger: Trigger Tech
- Magazine: Magpul
- Capacity: 10 Rounds
- MSRP: $4,880
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