Visit to Vltor ‘Photo essay’ Part 1
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.