Why is so hard for RRA to post any updates about there customers delays and what they are doing to fulfill their expectations?

No doubt-- everyone said better grab a lower, you
Can get the upper any time. Well got the lower January
And ordered the upper in early February, expecting another 6 weeks.
Then I had to find this sight to find out it was going to be 8 to 12 months.
And I haven't heard of anyone getting there's in 8 months.
The lar8 lower makes a damn fine doorstop.
I'm shure when upper comes in it will seam like nothing.
And I know rock river wants me to have my rifle.
But Dammit!!!

Most of what we build is not the standard configurations found in the catalog. The majority (by a large margin) are upgraded in some wa yfrom the norm. With few builds being the standard, and even fewer of the versions with upgrades being identical, it is extremely hard to do anything other than speak in fairly general terms. As a "build to order" manufacturer, we build individual rifles and uppers to order (based on component availability) ...we don't just decide that next week we'll build 1000 standard uppers of this sort or that type, and then find homes for them (either against pending orders or for sale on our website if we really didn't need that many fo rordrs).
When people (not necessarily us) were talking about getting lowers "now" and getting the uppers "whenever" they were speaking in political terms rather than physical terms. The lower receiver is the firearm, and whomever was making that type of statement was making tha point that the firearms portion could be banned at any time, but it is awfullly difficult to ban the upper half (except making certain features illegal) which, without the lower half, is esentially an ugly baseball bat.
Steve/RRA

I am getting really annoyed myself with the waiting. When I ordered both my rifles I'm waiting on (elite comp .223 ordered early dec and a coyote carbine 6.8 ordered after Christmas) the expected delivery time was 120 days I'm now double that. I know they are coming but I thought they would have been delivered within 6 months for sure. I check with my dealer every now and then but it's always the same he has no idea when they will show up. I wish I would get at least a updated ballpark every now and then.
I run a machine shop and I know getting certain materials is hard to do sometimes and orders are late occasionally but at some point the customer has to get updates.

Completly understandable, just not very realistic with the number of back orders and their almost infinite variety. If we were like some manufacturers and only offered approximately 10 models and they were built the way we wanted to build them and not the way the customer wants them, life would be much easier. We could batch build and assign rifles to orders raher than build to those orders, but that isn't how we operate. Even in the largest order surg ein the history on our industry, we stayed the course as a custome builder offering built to order rifles. As we get past soem of th ehuge order dates in Late december and early January, orders are catching up much more quickly. We might catch up by a month or two on specific models with a single batch of parts received, rahter than just part of one day's orders with the same quanitiy of parts when building against orders from some of those "big days". when we get bad parts, or even quaestionable parts, we're still rejecting them, rather than just using them to catch up more quickly. We're still commited to building your rifle as well as we can, rather than a whole lot of rifles that aren't quite what they should be, but they're out the door....
Steve/RRA

Hi Steve I'm at almost exactly 1 year now on an LAR8 HP predator, a catalog rifle except for the ambi safety. I know you can't offer a delivery date but honestly I'm considering a similar rifle currently available from another manufacturer. I would hate to miss owning my second rock river but with no more information how do I know it won't be 18 months, 2 years... Can you offer any sort of guidance?

I don't know anything about RRA's scheduling and deliveries, but if they know how many orders are fulfilled/delivered daily then they can ESTIMATE a complete rifle delivery based on the total orders divided by daily fulfilled orders because it sounds like a large portion of their orders are special orders.

So without the hem haw double talk just tell us what's the longest anyone has had to wait for an lar8 standard build rifle or upper half.
I been reading this 8 month to a year stuff for a while now ,but no reports of anybody getting one in less than a year.

I believe approx 16 months was the longest once we entered production. I don't know the circumstances of the build, so I can't tell you if it was stock or custom
A bone stock build will come in behind an earlier order utilizing the same primary components as long as both are buildable..

It isn't double talk to try to explain why product from RRA might take longer than a rifle from a numbr of other sources. We started the LAR-8s at an almost two year back order, had it down to about six months, and then got hammered (partly becasue we did have the lead time down to the least it had ever been), and then the post election and post Sandy-Hook surges came in (less than a year ago, making anticipating an outside lead time difficulkt because we are just getting to the shorter limit of the approximation we have been providing if pressed to provide one at all...the web site and general requests will only provide "indefinite").
Steve/RRA

Doesn't work with the way we build rifles...your older order may take longer than a newer order that takes a different barrel or receiver. Your 223/5.56 is almost certainly gogin to go before a comparable build in a different caliber, but not fdefinitely...
If we only solda handful of identical products, that type of estimating and planning would be pretty easy. As it is, it's a juggling act for the production controllers. We build and ship hundreeds of rifles daily. They aren't necessarily the rifles that we would like to get out (the oldest orders) but we build and ship whatever we have the parts to get out.
Steve/RRA

I am also curious about the reason other calibers take longer than .223. I am looking at it from a parts availability standpoint. If less rifles are ordered in other calibers, it "should" be easier to get the parts to complete those orders quicker because the parts will take less time to manufacture. I know some manufacturing facilities will not want to change setups from their bread and butter jobs (parts for the .223) to run smaller batches of other calibers. I am also unsure of what parts RRA manufactures themselves, and therefore has control over the time line of production. If parts are being built on a cnc lathe or mill and the parts are similar other than a few dimensions. Changing setups for an experienced machinist should be very quick, especially if programs are already created and proven. Material availability is also an issue you guys probably have issues with. I recently had to wait 4 months for the material for a certain job. most of the time its not that bad but a month is pretty common.
I understand that RRA makes and outstanding rifle and that is why there is such a long wait, but it is still frustrating for the customer to be left in the dark after the order, but from what you are telling me there is no way to inform us with any accuracy. and from what you are telling others i won't have my 6.8 for hunting season this year being my .223, that was ordered almost a month earlier, still hasn't arrived. oh well.

I know everyone is anxious to get their rifles..... heck I ordered a new magpul buttstock and by the time it arrive 4 days later I was jones'in with anticipation..... but I think RRA is doing the best they can. Plus, wouldn't we all rather our rifles be late and eventually arrive as a high-quality product rather than RRA push product's out as fast as possible and produce crappy rifles as a result?

You can always do what I did..... hunt around and find a place with the RRA rifle you want in-stock. It will take some time and effort, but you'll find one. If anyone is in the Louisville KY or Southern Indiana area send me an e-mail and I'll tell you where to find some RRA rifles.

We understand the frustration. Really, We do.
Unfortunately, some of the easier methods of coming up with an anticipated lead time don't work with custom-production.

If we built in batches, or only had a small number of models and only built those models as they are cataloged, it would be much easier...we woul dhave pretty close to excat knowledge of when the necessary components woudl coincide (assuming all deliveries-internal and external supplies- were on time) and could say that we're goign to build X number of this particular model on this date, which should get us through orders received fo rthis specific model received prior to 2:15 PM on such and such a date. But it doesn't work that way when you have amultitude of vendors, unequal demand for the same components, unequal demand for different components (ie we need thousands of some barrels and handsful of others, but the economy of scale and the reality of production say that we have to run hundreds or thousands of th esame barrels either at the same time or constantly), and other issues that come up in the production model in use.
Steve/RRA

Ordered mine (Elite Comp) eight months ago. No changes to the basic set-up, exactly same as advertised on website (nothing custom). I'm sorry, but there is no excuse for not being able to provide an ETA eight months after I placed my order. Someone should be able to look at orders placed and determine how many are left before mine is built. Looks like bad business organization to me.

It never hurts to ask how long a wait will be.
I have spent the last few months calling and emailing anyone who had a RRA Mid A2 upper listed in their online catalog. I finally had to break down and order one direct from RRA.

So....

My order number is 204555


Can you give me a ball park?

Hit my 8 month order anniversary for a PRK E-Hide today. Considering this gun is only available as a standard build, it would seem that at the very least I could be informed what order date they've shipped through. On a side note, most LAR 15's are now available on the auction sites and are going for 10% to 20% below list. I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to trend lower as builds from the order "tsunami" earlier in the year flood the market.

I fully agree. I would rather wait than receive some rushed out the door piece of junk.