Rock Island Armory VR80

The second AR-style shotgun we tested was the RIA VR80. Last year we tested the VR82 in 20 gauge, which came in second overall, so we had high expectations for the same gun in 12 gauge. Unfortunately, at the start of the testing we switched the charging handle to the other side and put it in upside down. Apparently that is a no-no because it started jamming. Then we accidentally loaded the wrong magazine into it and had to pry it out. Eventually we corrected our mistakes and the gun functioned much better. We should have known it was operator error because the gun functioned flawlessly on the first day of testing. The ambi safety, oversize bolt catch and mag release were all nice features. It had nice, light trigger, last round bolt hold open, and the recoil wasn’t bad. I think it scored unfairly low simply because it was improperly assembled on the second day of testing. Overall, I found it to be very reasonably priced, and a lot of fun to shoot.