Rock River Varmint Rebarrel

[james]

I have a Rock River Varmint rifle in 223 caliber with the factory 24 inch heavy barrel. I'm wanting to replace it with a factory RR varmint barrel 18 inches long. I'm not very savvy on AR's so I'm wondering exactly the parts needed from RR. Would appreciate some advice on this.

Thanks!

 

[Mark M.]

Does the new barrel take a rifle length gas
Tube? if it does and you're going to use the same hand guard you should be all set, the barrel should be all that you need, but if the new barrel takes let say a mid-lengh tude, then you'll need to buy one, A call to RR would be helpful

 

[Fast14riot]

^^ this. Basically, if the gas length changes (18" can be either mid or rifle length) you will need a new gas tube. However, I always recommend the gas tube be replaced with the barrel anyway, regardless if theres a system length change. Be sure the gas block diameter of your new barrel is the same and you will only need barrel and gas tube, not a new gas block.

FWIW, RRA uses Wilson blanks for their barrels, solid tubes, but you can likely find a decent barrel meeting your criteria somewhere else. White Oak does an excellent job (also uses Wilson [and Kreiger], but has some of the straightest chambers out there), Keystone Accuracy, Compass Lake Engineering are all the top 3 competitive AR Smith's in the country, and you'd be surprised at the price compared to some boutique smiths, too. Now that Camp Perry is over, give it a week before emailing (they all go and usually take the week after off) and they will get you squared away.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I recommend compass lake. Send your upper in and let them fix you up

 

[nicholst55]

^^ this. Basically, if the gas length changes (18" can be either mid or rifle length) you will need a new gas tube. However, I always recommend the gas tube be replaced with the barrel anyway, regardless if theres a system length change. Be sure the gas block diameter of your new barrel is the same and you will only need barrel and gas tube, not a new gas block.

FWIW, RRA uses Wilson blanks for their barrels, solid tubes, but you can likely find a decent barrel meeting your criteria somewhere else. White Oak does an excellent job (also uses Wilson [and Kreiger], but has some of the straightest chambers out there), Keystone Accuracy, Compass Lake Engineering are all the top 3 competitive AR Smith's in the country, and you'd be surprised at the price compared to some boutique smiths, too. Now that Camp Perry is over, give it a week before emailing (they all go and usually take the week after off) and they will get you squared away.

Hard to go wrong following this advice. Swapping an AR barrel isn't rocket science - the military trains teenagers to do it using hand tools - but you could also send it to one of the mentioned smiths.

 

[jepp2]

Would appreciate some advice on this.

I work on AR's a good bit. I also had a RRA 24" Varmint upper that I bought several years ago. I needed to remove the sling stud from the free float hand guard. A seemingly simple job. Well, the nut on the inside of the hand-guard, was a nylok nut. So it just turned, when I tried to remove the stud from the outside. I couldn't get to the nut. I removed the gas block and gas tube, still couldn't get to the nut to hold it with the tools I had on hand. (not much clearance between the hand guard and barrel).

At this point I should have just cut the stud off flush, but I persisted. So I started trying to remove the hand-guard from the barrel nut. Well, they had so much thread locker on it, it put up quite a battle. When I got it about half way off (using a heat gun), the barrel nut came loose, so I screwed it off together. Still had to get them apart to clean up the threads.

My point is, things can get complicated quickly. I wanted to change the gas block anyway to one that clamps on, not set screws into the barrel, and at this point, I changed to a different hand-guard that I prefer.

What do you need:
- new barrel
- are you intending to reuse your handguard and barrel nut? If not, you need a new one
- same for gas block and gas tube (I just looked and they don't see on their website which length gas system this barrel has).

Tools:
- a "block" to hold your upper in a vise (there are different designs)
- an armorers wrench to remove your barrel nut
- a strap wrench to remove the hand-guard (remember my story)
- roll pin punch to remove the gas tube from the gas block or install the pin in your new one
- proper grease for the barrel nut
- torque wrench to tighten the barrel nut properly

I use an aid to assist in the alignment of the nut, so my gas tube doesn't contact the barrel nut or upper receiver. I'm sure I probably left something out, since I am just writing this from memory.