This is my personal review and the issues Ive had with this weapon. Last week, I purchased the Rock Island VR 80. At first look, I thought, this weapon has such great potential and could be a good weapon. Next , I thought who in their right mind would put such a goofy looking stock on this weapon. So I decided , that I had to do something about it. I did some research online and found out this weapon has a commercial buffer stock and standardized grip. So with that in mind, I decided to remove this hideous stock. Luckily, I had some left over commercial stock and handgrip. With two bolts, this finger hold California importer looking stock was off and my spare parts on.
The next day, I just had to shoot it. Reluctantly, in disappointment it wouldn’t function correctly out of the box. Immediately, I called the manufacture which they said it needed to have a break in period. Big hog wash!! That’s crazy!! Never , in my lifetime have I broke in a weapon. Be mindful, I did follow the general rule of lubing a weapon prior to shooting. Which is expected and only is needed straight out of the box. After my first shot failed it to extract and load the second round. Strangely , I immediately thought this has a gassing issue. Which I’ve experienced with many suppressed rifles. Instead of returning it to the manufacture for several weeks, I decided to tear it down for further diagnosis. Ironically, I found out this weapon doesn’t have anything that I have seen. This rifle did have a gas system which looks like a direct injected gas system that expends gasses directly from the barrel into a sleeve bushing system. Which pushes the bolt back. Which you find out when you have the bolt to the rear and you hear an annoying rattling sound.
After tear down and close inspection it appeared from the factory these holes were never cleared therefore caused the problem. To remedy the problem, I took a small punch and removed all of the milling debris. Which did open up all the holes. It appears due to all of the debris, it wasn’t allowing all of the gas into the sleeve and not cycling the bolt correctly. Unfortunately, i feel this could be potentially a problem if not cleaned properly. After a good strip down of all components and degreasing of this weapon it finally fired and cycled properly. I also polished the feed ramp which it too was a problem. I found it helped and prevented the rounds from becoming jammed when cycling rounds from the magazine and into the chamber. I’ve attached the before and after picks of my rifle with the standard commercial AR parts which does fit this rifle.
