The Rock .57 Review - An Affordable .57 Pistol
The 5.7x28mm round dropped into this world with a splash more than a ripple, but that splash died out quickly. At least until recently. Between CMMG, Ruger, and now PSA have entered the market with new 5.7 weapons. PSA has come into the world of the 5.7 with the new Rock pistol, and they are likely to dominate this market with the Rock pistol and its affordable entry point.
The Rock .57 Specs and Features
Caliber: 5.7x28mm
Capacity: 23-round 5.7 Magazine
Comfortable Frame Texturing
Excellent Ergonomic Profile
MSRP: $549 Optics Ready, $499 Standard
The 5.7x28mm round is interesting. It's not quite a pistol round, and it's not quite a rifle round. It is somewhere in-between rifle and handgun rounds. The 5.7 round was designed to be used in personal defense weapons, and PDWs became popular in the 1990s when NATO went looking for a weapon between a rifle and a submachine gun. It's perfect for intermediate ranges, and even from a handgun like the Rock, the weapon can reach out to 50 yards with relative ease.
It's a weird round but does fairly well inside of a handgun. The Gathering event allowed us to finally get some range time with the Rock and see if PSA's 500 dollars 5.7 pistols can keep up with the big boys. Ruger and FN both sell a rather standard pistol in 5.7x28mm, and are priced around a grand for the FN and 700 for the Ruger.
At the Range with the Rock
The guys at the PSA booth were more than generous with their ammo and time. At the far end of the range sat a little gong that I zeroed in on. With nothing more than iron sights, I range that dang gong continuously. The Rock is not a small gun. It offers a full-sized grip that is surprisingly ergonomic for the 5.7x28mm round.
It allows me to get a rock-solid grip on the gun and control it with ease. The 5.7 cartridge isn't a heavy hitter in the recoil department. The Rock hardly recoils, and that makes those fast follow-up shots easy and sweet. The trigger is very nice, with a crisp striker-fired design that offers a short and light trigger pull with a short and tactile reset.
The flush-fitting magazine holds 23 rounds of ammo. That's awesome. That's a ton of ammo, even for a full-sized handgun. The pistol wears a modern design with a small, lightweight slide, a polymer frame with a rail, and a set of three-dot iron sights.
I already mentioned the ergonomic grip, but it's worth a go back. The Rock 57 might be the most ergonomic of the 5.7x28mm pistols out there. The 28mm length of the 5.7's case and the projectile delivers a rather long overall cartridge length. This often results in a pistol having a grip more in tune with a 2x4 than a handgun.
PSA must've made a deal with the devil to figure out that a 5.7's grip doesn't need to be a dang board to work. It fits right into my hand and is effortless to control under rapid fire.
At 500 bucks for the standard and $549 for the optics-ready model, you are getting a lot of gun for very little money.
