Americans love their tactical shotguns. I think there’s a whiff of buckshot embedded in our collective DNA. As a country, we’ve carried them in every battle and police action over the last two-and-a-half centuries. They ride in our squad cars and guard our hearths and home. When the fighting gets close in, there’s still nothing more devastating and demoralizing than a fast volley of 00 or No. 4.
But something new is in the air. This year is turning out to be the year of the detachable-magazine, tactical shotgun. Mossberg and Remington modified their existing pumpguns, but not Armscor USA, which just unveiled a serious looking 12-bore AR.
Meet the Armscor VR-60, made in Turkey and imported by Rock Island Armory.
To three generations who’ve grown up with AR variants, the black VR-60 will prove to be a familiar beast. The stylized look is familiar. The controls are familiar. The feel is familiar. But it’s a 12-gauge with a 20″ barrel, a 3″ chamber and dressed out with removable choke tubes — IC, M and F to be exact. With a modest MSRP of $499, it’s a very appealing “big-bore AR.”
The VR-60 looks massive, like an AR10 on steroids, but don’t let the look fool you. The one-piece buttstock, lower receiver and sights are polymer. The deep forend is polymer, sporting not one, not two, not three, but four Picatinny rails for any mix of accessories. A red-dot and a flashlight would fit nicely.
What’s not plastic? Well, the receiver, bolt and fire control system. The bolt, by the way, features a vertically operating lug locking into the steel barrel extension plus a generous buffer pad mounted at its rear.
