Firearms

Rock Island Armory VR80 · Deep Dive

Rock Island Armory VR80

The patent always cited as “the Foster slug patent” claims an aluminium-cored slug — and the “high-velocity” slug in this gun's own record trails the ordinary one on every number its maker publishes past 25 yards.

The Turkish-made, AR-pattern 12-gauge that Armscor sells as the RIA VR80 — its gas system and upkeep from the maker's own manuals, which AR parts fit, and a white Stormtrooper-edition gun set up as a smooth-bore slug gun with a rifled choke and a 1-6× optic.

Photo: Derya MK-12 by VedatKurucay · CC BY-SA 4.0

Search every volume:

    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 Who Makes It — Armscor, Derya, and a White Shotgun Called Stormtrooper A Philippine brand, a Turkish factory, a distributor's colourway, and three published weights for one gun
    2. Vol 2 The VR Family and the AR Question — From the VR60 to the VR80, and What AR-15 Parts Fit A box-fed shotgun that moved its gas system onto the barrel, took on AR takedown pins, and still keeps its own trigger
    3. Vol 3 How It Works, and How to Keep It Working — Gas System, Break-In, Field Strip, Maintenance and Repair A ring piston on the barrel, two interchangeable pistons, a load floor in writing, and a manual that stops at step twelve
    4. Vol 4 A Slug Through a Smooth Bore — Foster's Patent, the Rifled Choke Tube, and the Sabot Alternative What the 1947 patent actually claims, what three inches of 1:35 rifling can do to a soft lead slug, and what nobody has measured
    5. Vol 5 50 to 150 Yards — the Slug Ballistics, and Why a 1-6× Fits What the makers publish to 125 yards, what their own tables reveal about the 'high-velocity' load, and what an optic calibrated for a rifle does on a slug gun
    6. Vol 6 The Gun Documented Here, and the Rules It Hunts Under A white VR80 as configured in September 2026, the parts source that disappeared, and why five rounds plus one is exactly Michigan's limit