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During the factory tour, I took a look at some of the weapons we’d be shooting the next day at the range. Vltor has an extensive weapons library/collection, both for the fun of shooting, and also for research and product development. Recently, they purchased pretty much the entire line of FN weapons, so it was good timing for me to visit. I got the chance to shoot weapons that most civilians would never have the chance to.

On Saturday morning, Eric and I met the fellows at Vltor, and loaded up a large enclosed trailer (complete with tables inside), with all sorts of machine guns, spare barrels, and can upon can of ammunition. Vltor doesn’t have gun safes – they have walk-in gun vaults/rooms. I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun loading up weapons for a shoot. I was thinking to myself, “Wow, I’m carrying a Mk46 in my left hand and a Mk48 in the right. This is SO cool.”

Note: I’m not going to go deep into the technical details and descriptions of each weapon featured here simply because I’m not intimately familiar with them; I’d only be parroting what information I found. I’ll provide additional links that I find relevant, for further reading and information. I’m writing from a weapons enthusiast/layman’s point of view with limited (or no) experience with some of these weapons when I share my impressions of shooting these weapons.

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Back in November, I spent a weekend at Vltor Weapon Systems/Abrams Airborne Manufacturing Inc., in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve known Eric Kincel, general manager for Vltor, ever since Vltor introduced their modstocks to the market a few years ago when I became one of their first customers. Vltor was started by Eric and investors in Idaho, and Vltor was bought by Abrams Airborne in 2005 and moved operations to Tucson, AZ. Abrams is a designer, manufacturer and fabricator of all kinds of commercial, military and aerospace products, with almost every manufacturing process available in-house, including CNC machining, sheet metal bending and stamping, welding, dip brazing, bonding, metal finishing…the list goes on. With all these resources available to Vltor, Vltor has been able to greatly expand its product line and capabilites.

Eric’s a genuine ‘good guy’ and in my personal opinion, currently one of the most innovative and knowledgeable weapons designers in the industry. He draws from his passion for the study of firearms technology and history, and years in the firearms industry, some of them spent as a writer for Gun World magazine, and designer/product developer at Knight’s Manufacturing Company and has worked with Reed Knight and Eugene Stoner. Vltor’s designs are ones that I can get genuinely excited about, and I’m always bugging Eric to let me in on what’s new on the drawing board. Ever since Vltor moved to Tucson, Eric has extended an open invitation to me to ‘come on out and shoot’, and I finally had the time to take him up on his offer in November.

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