REVIEW: 2016 Remington V3 12 Gauge Autoloader Part Four

It has been rainy and windy in northern Illinois, a far cry from a year ago when it was a pre-Super Bowl blizzard. Despite the wind, there had been enough interest in video coverage of the production Remington V3 that it was time to load up the dog and head down the to the pond anyway. The “wind reduction” on the camera removes most of the roar, but also yields old AM radio sound: it was the lesser of two evils.

 

With 1 oz. 1180 fps #7-1/2 Federal Top Gun shotshells, the V3 has essentially no felt recoil. You can just barely feel the action working and that's about it. There isn't any recoil to talk about with 1-1/8 oz. loads, either. With 1-5/8 oz. 3 inch 1350 fps #5 lead loads, there is certainly is more recoil, as you'd expect. Yet, it wasn't at all punishing and the V3 scales well with load intensity, far better than most other gas autoloaders and wildly better than inertia guns.

All shooting on the video was with the Remington factory “Full” Remchoke, .694 inch exit diameter, .033 inch constriction. As you can see, the V3 shoots to Point of Aim at 35 yards, with roughly a 55/45 pattern that is pleasingly dense. Many of the shotguns I test shoot nowhere near Point of Aim, so this is remarkably good . . . the reason I'm remarking about it.

Currently, the tested example (26 inch black synthetic) has an approximate street price in the neighborhood of $725. At this price point, Remington is going to sell hundreds of thousands of these guns. It is a enticing, practical workhorse of a do it all type of shotgun at an equally appealing price level.

Remington is going to have to work hard to keep up with the demand for this model, for the V3 is the best new shotgun from Remington since the 1100 that was introduced a very long time back, in 1963. After fifty-three years many will say, “Good. It's about time!” I'm quite happy to just say, “Good!” This is a Home Run for Remington.

Note: Remington has done a very good job with the V3 owner's manual, as you can see here as a PDF: V3 Owners Manual. Whatever questions might be left are well-explained in the manual, with photographs as opposed to the older line-drawing style.

 

Copyright 2016 by Randy Wakeman. All Rights Reserved.