Has anyone had experience of using a non VR 55-200 dx lens on a nikon d3000?

Is there much difference using VR or not?
How does the big zoom cope?

The main difference is that you will need to remember the old rule of thumb, shutter speed=focal lenght. In other words, at 200mm you will need to shoot at 1/250 at least.

Used to have this Non VR lens on a D70s and then on my D300. Think it was a 5.6 F stop? Not used the D3000 but it worked fine on the D300. Have sold it now. I agree with shutter speed comment. If it is the 5.6 then you may need to up the ISO and that in turn could mean more noise in your shots. That was partly why I switched to the 70-200 2.8 and 24-70 2.8 which are both brilliant. The larger one has VR and the samller one does not… I will be paying for them for years!

Providing the shutter speed is high enough you should be fine with that lens albeit with a longer depth of field than you might like. With a crop factor of 1.5 the 200mm lens will be more like a 300mm.

I've used a 500mm non-VR lens on a D40 and shot hand held. You need to use a fast shutter speed to minimize camera motion blur if you hand hold. Since your 200mm lens has the same field of view as a 300mm lens on a 35mm camera, you will use the old rule of thumb of shooting at 1/300 (closest setting on your camera is 1/320) seconds shutter speed if hand holding the camera.

The VR feature gives you about 2 to 3 stops advantage. This allows you to shoot in lower light conditions, slower shutter speed, and/or smaller aperture as compared to a non-VR lens. It can make a difference depending on your situation and how steady you can hold a camera.