Miss Voodoo Piston arrived!

[WHSmithIV]

As some of you know, I won the Modern Musket design competition from Gunstruction last August. After 7 months of patience the Voodoo Piston rifle has arrived here to Idaho. Gunstruction sent the rifle to CIV Tactical for receiver accurizing and blueprinting.

Adams Arms has now started to offer piston driven rifles based on the design. This is a very awesome rifle.

The specifics of the Modern Musket design that won the competition folllow. Note that the Phase 5 billet receiver set and the Vortex Strikefire II and 3x flip to side magnifier were mandatory to use for designs because they were donated by those companies.

Built on the Phase 5 Weapons Systems billet Pistol lower receiver and mated with the Phase 5 weapons systems upper receiver. The Barrel is the Voodoo Innovations 16½ light weight barrel with a rifle length gas port. The gas block is the Adams Arms piston rail height gas block with the Adams Arms rifle length piston system. Internally, the rifle has the Adams Arms low mass bolt carrier and a chromed bolt from ARFCOM. Also, there is an advanced combat trigger from ALG defense tuned by Geissele. That trigger is really sweet. I designed the rifle with Surefire 45 degree offset iron sights. They are really nice and it is ver comfortable to use them. I was quite surprised with how easy and comfortable the are to use when I tested teh rifle the first time.

Gunstruction sent the rifle to CIV Tactical for receiver accurizing and blueprinting before it cam to me here in Idaho.

There is a Troy Industries QD end plate and all furniture is Magpul. The stock is the Magpul STR stock It really is comfortable to use and has storage for batteries. The pistol grip is the Magpul MIAD grip and it came with a little plastic bottle that fits inside the grip for gun oil.The handguard is the Magpul rifle length handguard and there is the Magpul angled fore grip.

The iron sights are Surefire 45 degree offset iron sights. Absolutely, this rifle is an amazing combination. I put some rounds through her last week when we had a warm spell. She fires and cycles beautifully.

Last, but most certainly not least is that Allstar Tactical corkscrew flash hider. This is more dangerous than a bayonet. Our Marines need these flash hiders on their rifles. Out of ammo - stick the enemy in the belly with the barrel, twist the rifle 45 degrees and pull the guts out.

I have to admit that I feel a bit proud that my design was chosen as the best design as the Modern Musket. It hurt like hell to selll the AR I so painstakingly built and selling my Marlin 30/30 lever action saddle rifle with it. It was only after I was notified that I had won the Gunstruction competition that I could sell my AR. This AR will never be sold. My wife can't complain about it either. My cost for this rifle was my time to design it and $20 for the FFL transfer.

Over the next few weeks I'll write some reviews for the companies that made this rifle happen. There is so much I love about this rifle and she fires and cycles absolutely beautifully

To design such a rifle we have to think out of the box a bit. No gas gets back into the upper receiver. There is no gas blowback to my face. The gas block is self cleaning too.

So, without further ado, here is miss Voodoo Piston.






I have written many words, yet I still feel at a loss for words. I still don't believe that I won this rifle even though she is here at home in my rifle rack. I hope you enjoy the photos and the info. I'll need to run several hundred rounds through this piston rifle before I will know for certain if a piston system is better than a straight gas system. My initial tests though have been very positive. The rifle fires very smoothly and beautifully.

The picture with me in it was taken 10 yards from my front door.

CThe completed rifle weighs exactly 10 lbs. I weighed her on a postal scale.

[WHSmithIV]

Forgot to mention that Miss Voodoo Piston will go on a journey to BDL Custom for her custom camo job that was included with the win of the modern Musket.

This is her Gunstruction rendition and how she will look when she comes back home

[Thompson]

Good stuff Will. Yeah, I remember this competition way back when and I remember seeing this as the winner. Didn't realize it was you til you told us. Glad it was a WEVO member!

Solid bunch of parts you put in too. Can't wait to see what BDL does to it! I'm sure that animation will not do Mike justice!

[UWone77]

Looks like a lot of wide open land to stretch her legs out.

[Guinnesseb]

She's a beauty Clark!!! Congrats again on winning the contest!! You put together a nice rifle.. Got me back thinking of my next build..

[WHSmithIV]

Looks like a lot of wide open land to stretch her legs out.

Yes Uwone. Wide open land there is a great deal of here. There are also dangerous critters. Wolves, mountain lions and bears will happily kill us. The Idaho tourist board tells everyone that if they go wander around the mountains to see the beautiful views, don't go do so without a gun.

I know that in many parts of our country guns are necessary for self defense - especially for LEO's. Out here in the mountains of Idaho guns are necessary tools. Just like my swiss army knfe and my leatherman that I have had for over 20 years in my pocket and on my belt. I even have fixed a Boeing 777 with my swiss army knife so the plane could take off long ago.

I only have a couple more parts to buy for the WEVO 7.62x39 pistol. The enhanced firing pin is on its way.

I have to figure out what to use for a saddle gun. Based on how i can make a new scabbard for my saddle it looks like the WEVO pistol will be the new saddle gun.

Honestly UWone, I am still very much in shock with what has happened for me during this last year from the generosity of the gun community. I never anticipated that anything like this would happen for me in my life and now that it did happen I find myself at a loss for words to express how I feel.

I wil always help to give back when I can and have something I can give.

I'm a Navy vet who got spit on when I came home. I'm a vet of another service I can't discuss. The gun community has done a great deal this past year to make me feel appreciated for how I have risked my life to help protect our country. I survived though with some scars. Some of my friends died.

I am on the side of all LEO's - I did some of my time in the Navy as Shore Patrol.

For lack of better words, all I can say is Thank You Guys.

Will

[DutyUse]

Glad she finally made it to you. Congratulations


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Deadwing]

Very nice! Congratulations to you, Will! She's a real beauty! Can't wait to see her with her camo.

[Uffdaphil]

Congratulations. Looks like Miss Voodoo has found the perfect home.

[Tyrannosaur]

Congrats on the epic win man. Nice shooter, love the muzzle device, Allstar is located down the street from me. They've said they're leaving NY though due to Unsafe act. Thank youbfor your service too.

[toolboxluis00200]

congrats and man that is one sweet looking rifle enjoy it

[WHSmithIV]

Thanks Tyrannosaur. That corkscrew flash hider is really amazing. It is more amazing than I thought it would be. Allstar Tactical made something that is absolutely brilliant. I'm not surprised that they're looking at moving their company out of NY. We'll welcome them here in Idaho. We would certainly help them get back in business in Arco.

That rifle was definitely an epic win. Nothing like that has ever happened to me in my life. My wife and I don't have a TV - we have no interest in sitting in front of a boob tube. During that competition my daily entertainment was designing rifles. I have great respect for the guns I have and I do admit that there is something special about each of them. I worked a lot designing the rifles for the competition. Working with the rules of the competition was challenging. I know why this rifle design won. The task was to design the 'Modern Musket' within the parameters and the $2500 budget. The rifle won because it was designed with all the cutting edge technology. I submitted 54 entries to the competition. The Voodoo Piston was the last one 2 days before the competition ended.

Gunstruction did a fantastic job with this and I knew I would need to be patient and that it would take time. I really like that US flag mag wrap. The President and owner of Gunstruction sent that to me a month and ahalf before the rifle arrived along with a the last of the serialized Gunstruction AXTS Raptor charging handles and three Strikefire Industries custom Gunstructino Ultimate Dust Covers. Those dust covers are very neat. No C-clip used to install them. The rod compresses like the wrist strap pin of a watch does. Also, the little ball bearing that keeps it closed on the upper receiver can be adjusted using a tiny screw driver. It is superbly an efficient design. I'm glad I was able to share two of them with a couple guys here in WEVO.

The ALG Advanced Combat trigger is really a joy to feel. The break is really clean and crisp and the reset is just spot on. Firing the AR with that trigger is even better than my 1911 .45 and That trigger is superb. I have more testing to do and I most certainly need to start writing some reviews and post them on the company websites who provided the parts for the rifle. From my first tests I am quite astounded at the quality of this rifle.

The Adams Arms piston gas block is self cleaning. No need to ever take it apart. CIV Tactical did a wonderful job with the receiver accurizing and blueprinting. The rifle cycles flawlessly. The piston system is extremely smooth and there is zero gas blowback to my face. The Adams Arms low mass bolt carrier is super. The rifle came with 3 new 30 round Hexmags. One of my Magpul P-mags had 3 failures to feed. Not the Hexmags though. After examining the P-mag it looks like there is a glitch with the follower.

The furniture on the rifle is all Magpul. The Miad pistol grip is very comfortable in the hand and came with extra parts. The compartment in the pistol grip includes a small bottle for gun oil and I have the allen wrench for the Vortex optics in there also. The Magpul STR stock has a very comfortable feel and cheek weld. Additionally it has two storage compartments - one on each side.

The angled foregrip I put on the design has exceeded my expectations. My forward hand feels very comfortable with it - far more than I thought it would.

The rifle weighs exactly 10 lbs. I weighed it on one of my customers postal scale.

To the sights.. The rifle has Surefire 45 degree offset iron sights. I was very curious to find out how these would feel to use. Again, I was astounded. It's so very simple to use them and they are spot on plus have the windage and elevation adjustments as well as the two view apertures. Switching from using the optics to the irons is a breeze requiring less than a second. Flip up irons would take a lot longer.

On to the Vortex optics. I've been doing some work with the installation of the optics to get them lined up and tight on the rifle and set them up to what feels good for my eyes. With my initial testing the red dot was two inches off the mark to the right at 75 yards. I'll correct that next time I go to the range. Flipping the 3x magnifier to the side its a both eyes open to use the red dot well. With the magnifier in use it's one eye. The optics certainly are nice and clear and there is 5 levels of brightness for the red dot. The battery life is rated at 1700 hours. The downside with the Strikefire II is that if you don't turn it off it will burn up battery juice for a several hours before it turns itself off. I'll get a spare battery or two and put them in the STR stock compartments to be on the safe side.

The Phase 5 billet receivers have a beautiful finish to them. I am superbly pleased with the rifle and it really is a joy and comfortable to use. My real test for it will be next hunting season. I'm going to buy some 77 grain cartridges for hunting season. I don't want an animal I shoot to suffer and my .303 Lee Enfiled has been very good at preventing suffering from happening. I think the AR with 77 grain bullets will do the task also very well and it will be good for my elderly .303 to have a rest. Besides that, .303 cartridges aren't cheap. Next hunting season is going to be interesting for sure.

There is one addition I do have to add to the rifle - I have to add a short rail section to the handguard to mount my QD forward sling mount so I can put my sling on the rifle. Miss Voodoo Piston has the Troy Industries QD sling mount endplate and the Magpul STR stock also has QD sling mount places. I need the forward mount. I couldn't add it to the design because that would have gone over the design budget. I'm going to wait until the camo job is done before I buy and add that rail section.

Ultimately, I will build an AR 10 for hunting. However, that is in the future.

The 7.62x39 WEVO pistol I've been building is very close to done. That will have my ultrafire 600 lumen tac light on it and it will be my goto gun for getting out of the house fast on the dark winter nights when our dogs tell me that something is bothering our sheep. A year ago I had to go out at 2 AM on a pitch black night and all I had was my 1911 .45. I put a round in the ground near the shadow of the wolf or coyote that was interested in my sheep and scared it off. However, I was not happy with that. I hated not being able to clearly see the target in the dark. So, I have designed to prevent that problem. I found that .45 casing 6 months later too when I was tilling our field for planting. I have it as a memento and reminder. I was quite surprised when I saw that casing on the ground. It had landed in a lot of snow when it was fired.

This has been a long post and I have to go buy dog and cat food today so I'll check in again later. 5 weeks without comms online has hurt me badly. I just paid $600 to get communications back and my phones still aren't working - only the DSL is.

[WHSmithIV]

Good stuff Will. Yeah, I remember this competition way back when and I remember seeing this as the winner. Didn't realize it was you til you told us. Glad it was a WEVO member!

Solid bunch of parts you put in too. Can't wait to see what BDL does to it! I'm sure that animation will not do Mike justice!

I really want to see what Mike will do for it too Thompson. I know I'm going to hate that the rifle is not in my rifle rack when I send it to Mike too and will be anxiously waiting for it get back home. I will most certainly post pics of her after Mike does his magic. Ahh, sweet agony. Gunstruction has told me that they will cover all the shipping costs also.

[SwissyJim]

Sweet looking gun, Will! Glad it finally got to you. looking forward to more reports

[alamo5000]

I don't know anything about the contest but CONGRATS!!!! That looks great.