GUNS Magazine Rock Island Armory VRBP-100

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Rock Island’s 12-gauge bullpup is an attention grabber, especially when fed from a 19-round magazine.

Bullpups are a fascinating breed and they’ve charmed shooters and weapons’ engineers for decades. It’s no accident in an era of highly mobile, mechanized combat in which you often find yourself cramped inside a combat vehicle, chopper or boat loaded down with body armor, full pack and ammunition, a compact weapon is a distinct advantage. Looking at the current military application of bullpups, four variations immediately come to mind — Austria’s Steyr 5.56mm AUG, the British 5.56mm L85A1, the French 5.56mm FAMAS and Israel’s Tavor series of rifles and shotguns.

The design makes a lot of sense. By virtually eliminating the buttstock and replacing it with the receiver, the compact design shrinks the overall length of a rifle or shotgun by 7″ to 10″. Currently, we are seeing an interesting spillover of the military bullpup into the civilian market with models like the semi-automatic versions of the IWI Tavor, FN PS90, the Steyr AUG and now the newly introduced Rock Island Armory VRBP-100, semi-auto 12-gauge

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Bullpup guns are typically set-up for right-handed shooters with
the charging handle placed on the left side.

A Lead Firehose

The VRBP-100 is a mean-looking bullpup hungry for 2.75″ and 3″ shells from five- and nine-round magazines, and if you’re going into a fight, there’s an extended 19-round magazine strictly for 2.75″ shells. It takes two hands, two thumbs and time to load 19 rounds of 12-gauge, and the loaded magazine weighs 4 lbs., 2 oz. when you’re finished, bringing the weight of the gun up to 12 lbs.

Yes, the VRBP-100 looks a bit weird and unbalanced with an 18″ magazine hanging out there. It’s not hugely practical and darn awkward to load. You could swap out two 9-round magazines and have a better-balanced, more practical package and think of the firepower! Let’s see, 2.75″ buckshot shells are available with nine pellets of 00 buck, 27 pellets of 4 buck and Winchester’s PDX1 loading of a 1-oz. slug partnered with three pellets of buffered 00 buck. With 19 shells at one’s disposal, the payload amounts to 171 pellets of .33 caliber 00 buck, 513 pellets of .24 caliber 4 buck and 19 1-oz. slugs partnered with 57 pellets of 00 buck sizzling downrange.

The best part about the 5-, 9- and 19-round magazines is they are made of real, heavy-gauge steel. You could run over them with a truck, and they would still keep shucking shells. What’s nice about a shotgun accepting detachable mags is the reload is snappy fast and you can mix your loads — buckshot in one mag, slugs in another.

The VRBP-100 is a gas-driven auto, which, fortunately, is easy to disassemble and clean. In fact, the step-by-step pictures covering the disassembly, adjustment, cleaning and reassembly contained in the owner’s manual are absolutely first rate. I wish other manufacturers would follow their lead. I mention “adjustment” because the auto comes with two pistons, one for 2.75″ shells and another for 3″ magnums. In short, it’s not a self-regulating gas system, but swapping out the pistons is simple, if inconvenient. In addition to the extra piston, the VRBP-100 comes with three choke tubes cylinder, modified and full, plus a wrench.

The VRBP-100 is a composite gun with an aluminum upper and polymer lower. The upper features a full-length Picatinny rail mounted with a set of plastic AR sights. There is also a short 45-degree, 5″ rail on the right side of the forend which would be handy for mounting a weapon light. The VRBP carries a 20″ barrel and measures a compact 32″ in overall length. As a basis for comparison, my conventional tactical pump sports a 19″ barrel with a 39″ OL so the VRBP has a 1″ longer barrel but is 7″ shorter. Therein lies the real beauty of a bullpup.

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Because of the distance between the trigger and sear, bullpups typically have heavy trigger pulls.
A vertical pistol grip with its improved trigger-finger position helps.

No Southpaws

The Bullpups, with few exceptions, are usually set-up for a right-handed shooter and this is true of the VRBP. A forward-mounted, non-reciprocating charging handle is mounted on the left side of the gun while the ejection port is on the right. If you switch the gun over to a left-handed position, the ejection port is staring you right in the eye — not good! On the other hand, both the magazine release and the safety are ambidextrous, and the ejection port does sport an AR-type, flip-open cover.

This bullpup’s buttstock is canted down slightly, a feature I like because it gives one’s cheek a little bit more room to get down on the comb behind open sights. There is also a fully-adjustable cheek rest to position your face vertically when shooting optics. The buttstock also sports three length-of-pull spacers totaling 1" which provide an LOP between 16" to 17".

Bullpups of every pedigree routinely have heavy triggers. The challenge is mechanically linking a forward-mounted trigger with a rear-mounted sear while still maintaining an acceptable pull. The VRBP was no exception, averaging 11 lbs. on a Lyman electronic scale. However, the improved trigger-finger position made possible by the vertical pistol grip makes it feel lighter.

Rock Island Armory recommends a minimum break-in procedure of shooting 50-rounds of 3-dram, 1 1/8 oz. loads so I ran through a couple of boxes of Fiocchi high-velocity field loads before switching over to 3" Remington No. 4 buck (41 .24 caliber pellets at 1,225 fps) — a sensational coyote load and a sound home-defense choice. The full-choke, zombie-killing pattern delivered at 25 yards was impressive.

At 25 yards with No. 4 Buck, the VRBP-100 launched a zombie-shredding lethal pattern.

A Real Character

Recoil with a bullpup is straight-back and moderate. Bullpups are a bit noisier than conventional firearms because your ears are about 10″ closer to the muzzle, but otherwise I enjoyed working with the VRBP.

Rock Island’s VRBP-100 has character to spare. Bullpups are so unique just owning one brings with it a certain level of satisfaction. It’s not a gun for quail covers but for home-defense and (with tweaking) competition, it would be right-at-home.

www.rockislandarmory.com

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Rock Island Armory VRBP-100

A bullpup with plenty of teeth!

A Lead Firehose

No Southpaws

A Real Character

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