30 year old tactical shottie – Viking SOS
Its taken me well over 20 years to land the shotgun I wanted since the late 80s, and a bucket load of cash.
I first spotted this gun more than a year before I got my hands on it. Not many of these guns made it out of England, though a few of the semi-auto variants did, but the pump versions with the carry handles really didn’t ever seem to show up.
After looking on line for years one of the carry-handle pump versions came up in the UK, and at what seemed a bargain price. After contacting the seller, confirming they would export, I decided that since you only live once, I would buy the shottie I had always wanted.
The Viking SOS was a collaboration between Viking, a British company specialising in supplying various items for law enforcement in the UK, and Fabarm. The gun is for all intense and purposes just a Fabarm with a different barrel, stock and sights. Fabarm assembled the guns, and Viking sold them in the UK, aiming sales at police, military and corrections services. Sales were not exactly brisk by north American standards, and the net result is that the guns come up rarely.
The guns come in a few variations, including pump and semi, with or without the carry style sights, and with a variety of stock patterns. There are conventional stocks, pistol grip, smooth, and grooved stocks.
The pumps, to the best of my knowledge all came as 8 shot, 3in guns.
The idea behind the stock and sight combo was to produce an accurate-ish shotgun, with lower perceived recoil, and faster follow up. The pattern was following the AR/M16 family, with the idea being to put the centerline of the bore low on the shoulder, making muzzle rise less pronounced. The idea was to also make the gun more universally shootable for a variety of users, regardless of their size.
By comparison to Remmy 870s/11-87s, Winchester 1300s, and even Ithaca tactical shotties of the time the Viking SOS stood out as something unworldly. At that time a hunting shottie with a folding stock was considered as tactical as you could get, by comparison the SOS just seemed amazing.
After years of looking I found this one, with the carry handle, and pump. The gun falls roughly into the British Prohibited category. The result is the price of these guns is ridiculously low, about 425$ was the asking price. A deactivated gun will sell for almost 3 times that.
The downside was that while the gun was cheap, exportation and transportation fees drove the cost to the 2000$ range. The dealers fee for handling the paperwork on their end was more than the cost of the gun, and the licenced courier needed for transport to the airport, and plane trip to Canada came in at more than a return ticket to London on Air Canada, so while it looked tempting up front, and indeed a bargain for a Fabarm, the end cost was only justifiable to me based on how badly I wanted it.
The entire process took almost a full year, it was literally a few days less than a year. Permits, bureaucracy, etc burned up a lot of time, for what is actually a pretty easy process. Customs Canada agents were very helpful in pointing me towards External Affairs, who were as equally genial and helpful. The process from the UK side requires an Authorised to Import permit, assuring the UK you can indeed receive the gun legally, and from the Canadian side, other than the customs fees and taxes when it gets here, that was it. From the UK side an end/user form needed to be signed, and then it was just the months waiting for them to decide if I could have it, and eventually clearing it for shipping.
Like I say, 2000$ all in (I don’t want to really add it all as it would be depressing), and a 30 year old shottie from the early 1980s showed up. Immediately I noticed the amazing condition, the barrel looked to have had less than a box of shells through it, the receiver (mismatched serial numbers) looked unfired.
My suspicion is the gun came from law enforcement somewhere along the line, explaining the unused condition.
The quality of a 1980s Fabarm doesn’t exactly leave me in awe, but its good enough, silky smooth, and reasonably blemish free. Sadly the gun didn’t come with the front sight/muzzle protector (due to the long barrel), which often shows up on drawings of the gun (making the front sight look even larger), but did come with the handle undamged (held in by two screws inside the receiver), and the full 24inch barrel, which may get trimmed to look a little better.
Sadly the sights, though often described as AR style, are not in reality, in that they are not adjustable.
Its taken me well over 20 years to land the shotgun I wanted since the late 80s, and a bucket load of cash.
I first spotted this gun more than a year before I got my hands on it. Not many of these guns made it out of England, though a few of the semi-auto variants did, but the pump versions with the carry handles really didn’t ever seem to show up.
After looking on line for years one of the carry-handle pump versions came up in the UK, and at what seemed a bargain price. After contacting the seller, confirming they would export, I decided that since you only live once, I would buy the shottie I had always wanted.
The Viking SOS was a collaboration between Viking, a British company specialising in supplying various items for law enforcement in the UK, and Fabarm. The gun is for all intense and purposes just a Fabarm with a different barrel, stock and sights. Fabarm assembled the guns, and Viking sold them in the UK, aiming sales at police, military and corrections services. Sales were not exactly brisk by north American standards, and the net result is that the guns come up rarely.
The guns come in a few variations, including pump and semi, with or without the carry style sights, and with a variety of stock patterns. There are conventional stocks, pistol grip, smooth, and grooved stocks.
The pumps, to the best of my knowledge all came as 8 shot, 3in guns.
The idea behind the stock and sight combo was to produce an accurate-ish shotgun, with lower perceived recoil, and faster follow up. The pattern was following the AR/M16 family, with the idea being to put the centerline of the bore low on the shoulder, making muzzle rise less pronounced. The idea was to also make the gun more universally shootable for a variety of users, regardless of their size.
By comparison to Remmy 870s/11-87s, Winchester 1300s, and even Ithaca tactical shotties of the time the Viking SOS stood out as something unworldly. At that time a hunting shottie with a folding stock was considered as tactical as you could get, by comparison the SOS just seemed amazing.
After years of looking I found this one, with the carry handle, and pump. The gun falls roughly into the British Prohibited category. The result is the price of these guns is ridiculously low, about 425$ was the asking price. A deactivated gun will sell for almost 3 times that.
The downside was that while the gun was cheap, exportation and transportation fees drove the cost to the 2000$ range. The dealers fee for handling the paperwork on their end was more than the cost of the gun, and the licenced courier needed for transport to the airport, and plane trip to Canada came in at more than a return ticket to London on Air Canada, so while it looked tempting up front, and indeed a bargain for a Fabarm, the end cost was only justifiable to me based on how badly I wanted it.
The entire process took almost a full year, it was literally a few days less than a year. Permits, bureaucracy, etc burned up a lot of time, for what is actually a pretty easy process. Customs Canada agents were very helpful in pointing me towards External Affairs, who were as equally genial and helpful. The process from the UK side requires an Authorised to Import permit, assuring the UK you can indeed receive the gun legally, and from the Canadian side, other than the customs fees and taxes when it gets here, that was it. From the UK side an end/user form needed to be signed, and then it was just the months waiting for them to decide if I could have it, and eventually clearing it for shipping.
Like I say, 2000$ all in (I don’t want to really add it all as it would be depressing), and a 30 year old shottie from the early 1980s showed up. Immediately I noticed the amazing condition, the barrel looked to have had less than a box of shells through it, the receiver (mismatched serial numbers) looked unfired.
My suspicion is the gun came from law enforcement somewhere along the line, explaining the unused condition.
The quality of a 1980s Fabarm doesn’t exactly leave me in awe, but its good enough, silky smooth, and reasonably blemish free. Sadly the gun didn’t come with the front sight/muzzle protector (due to the long barrel), which often shows up on drawings of the gun (making the front sight look even larger), but did come with the handle undamged (held in by two screws inside the receiver), and the full 24inch barrel, which may get trimmed to look a little better.
Sadly the sights, though often described as AR style, are not in reality, in that they are not adjustable.
