Hey Gun Tests readers, this is Todd Woodard, editor of Gun Tests magazine. I’m here with Jon McClain, product training manager for Armscor. He’s going to tell us about a brand new shotgun that the company just rolled out this year. It looks like something special.
Jon: Thanks! You know so about a year and a half ago we released the VR60, which is a box-fed semi-auto gas operated shotgun, and it was an all polymer body. Broke into the shotgun market with that and it hit really great. I mean, we we saw some really great numbers with that.
So we figured, how are we gonna up the game with that kind of a model and that kind of an idea? So what we did was we came up with the VR80 here.
So one of the biggest differences that you’ll notice is that it’s an all aluminum body as opposed to the polymer body. So now we’ve got the aluminum body. It still comes with the removal choke tubes; it comes with the two gas rings for light loads and heavy loads depending on if you’re gonna be shooting some like 3-inch turkey – you know, something that’s hot and really kind of beefy – or if you’re gonna be shooting the three-gun birdshot loads that I typically do out on the range when I’m competing.
Some of the changes that we made from the VR60 to the VR80 that were very positive for me is that the charging handle can actually be removed and placed to the other side of the receiver, so now you can adjust it-
Todd: It’s ambidextrous?
Jon: Yep, whether you’re left-handed shooter or right-handed shooter. It comes with flip up sights – those come included with the firearm. And then it will also come with an ambidextrous safety.
T: So would you shoot slugs with this?
J: You can, yeah. I mean, for a three-gun pistol or for a three-gun match, or a three-gun set up I’d put a red dot on it as opposed to running the irons but you can shoot slugs and whatever you’d like with it.
So you have some of those upgrades and options and stuff to you. And even then with everything that comes with it, it still retails for $699. Again, just like with the VR60, it’s a gun that you can actually tell your significant other the price of, as opposed to telling her what you’ve paid for.
T: So, what consumer do you think is gonna buy this gun?
J: Honestly it’s kind of a gun that anyone – if you’re a gun lover, if you like to go out and shoot, you like to collect them or anything like that – I feel like this is the perfect gun for you. It can be used for anything – for home defense, competition; I know some guys have even gone out and bought this gun specifically to hunt hogs or turkey with and stuff like that. So it’s really an overall gun, especially with the price point for it, it’s kind of a thing where it’s like, “well, you know, why not?”
The other thing to keep in mind: just like VR60 and VR80 here, because it’s got our name on it, it comes with the limited lifetime warranty. If anything ever happens to the gun you just send it back to me. If I can’t fix it, I’ll replace it – period, end of story.
T: So when will these be commercially available?
J: They are available now actually. We started shipping out in January for Davidsons Exclusive, for January and February, and then come March it’ll be available for any other distributor out there.
T: So you quoted me the MSRP a moment ago. What would you expect to be a reasonable counter price for somebody who might go out to buy the gun?
J: I’m gonna assume that probably out there in the retail stores and whatnot you’ll probably be able to find it for about $622-$650, probably.
T: Sounds like a bargain.
J: Yeah, absolutely. It will also come with two five-round mags, but we also started importing and getting nine- and nineteen-round mags available for this baby.
T: Nineteen rounds is a lot of shootin’.
J: Yes it is, and it sticks out about this far – but man, it’s fun to sell. You start pulling the trigger and the next thing you know, you’re like “huh, when is it gonna run out? Okay, there it is eventually.”
T: Jonathan, thank you very much. It looks like an exciting product.
J: Well, let’s say we, uh, let’s get some rounds in this bad boy and let you try it out so you can tell everyone else yourself.
T: I wanted to do that.
J: Perfect. Okay.
