AR-15 newbie

[Hellcat706]

So I went out and purchased my first rifle and I was attempting to get a little insight from more experienced people about the gun I’ve recently gotten. This is my first AR and I just wanted to know if it was a solid gun. It’s the adams arms voodoo dark moon 5.56

 

[HansGruber]

Looks like a nice rifle.

Adams makes pretty good stuff; I’ve been running one of their piston conversions on one of my rifles for years, very happy with it.

I believe @Bassbob is running a Voodoo Witchdoctor(?) and is pretty happy with it...

 

[Hellcat706]

I can’t seem to find any reviews on YouTube. I feel as if it’s a very little known rifle

 

[TacticalPirate]

So I went out and purchased my first rifle and I was attempting to get a little insight from more experienced people about the gun I’ve recently gotten. This is my first AR and I just wanted to know if it was a solid gun. It’s the adams arms voodoo dark moon 5.56

I'm going to ruffle feathers in some brand purists, but outside of a couple of trash companies (American Tactical, Delton) you can get a very respectable and reliable mil spec AR style rifle from a bunch of manufacturers, and they incestuously all use the same group of OEMs for after market parts (Magpul, Troy Industries, Geissele are on budget rifles and premium rifles) and only about three companies are manufacturing barrels for the whole industry at that.

Your rifle looks nice, is probably at least mil spec, and you can now customize the heck out of it with triggers, grips, stocks and accessories as you see fit.

The beauty of the AR platform is you can buy a basic but well made rifle for 600 to 800 bucks and turn it in a 1500 to 2000 gun in upgrades on your own.

If you own a Smith & Wesson M&P, Springfield Saint, Ruger 556, Anderson Manufacturing, Adams Arms, Geissele, Daniel Defense, Colt, Knight's Armament, Sons of Liberty, Armalite, IWI Zion, Radian, LaRue, Sig Sauer, Windham, FN and a few others I'm forgetting, then you have a good rifle.

It's a fun hobby, I think you'll enjoy it.

 

[C. Sumpin]

Durn near any AR is a solid gun. Whether by choice or chance you done well as an
AR as a first rifle. With experience and expertise you can incorporate some features
of a handgun, shotgun, and rifle into this single purchase. If I was limited to one
choice of a firearm it would be an AR........or any other choice I had budget for; owning
something is better than owning nothing.

 

[TacticalPirate]

I just looked up your rifle's specs, it's mil spec. Looks like you have a magpul after market stock on it, you buy it used or did you do that yourself?

• Manufacturer: VooDoo Innovations
• Style Number: FGAV-00020
• Model: Dark Moon
• Caliber: 5.56 NATO
• Barrel: 16" Parkerized M4 Barrel
• Twist Rate: 1:7"
• Muzzle Device: A2 Flash Hider
• Gas Block: Low Profile
• Upper/Lower Receiver: Forged 7075-T6 Type Ill Class II Hard-coat anodized finish
• Rail: Ergonomic Free-Float M-LOK
• Trigger: Standard G.I. Trigger
• Pistol Grip: A2 Grip
• Stock: M4 6-Position Adjustable
• Weight: 7 lbs
• Overall Length: 33" (collapsed)

 

[Hellcat706]

Yea I bought a few accessories for it before I got it. I thought the stock it came with looked uncomfortable so I did some research and found the magpul ctr at a store near me. I’ve been eying the bcm complete uppers and I eventually want to make this setup have a complete bcm lower and upper but they are currently out of stock.

 

[Hellcat706]

I'm going to ruffle feathers in some brand purists, but outside of a couple of trash companies (American Tactical, Delton) you can get a very respectable and reliable mil spec AR style rifle from a bunch of manufacturers, and they incestuously all use the same group of OEMs for after market parts (Magpul, Troy Industries, Geissele are on budget rifles and premium rifles) and only about three companies are manufacturing barrels for the whole industry at that.

Your rifle looks nice, is probably at least mil spec, and you can now customize the heck out of it with triggers, grips, stocks and accessories as you see fit.

The beauty of the AR platform is you can buy a basic but well made rifle for 600 to 800 bucks and turn it in a 1500 to 2000 gun in upgrades on your own.

If you own a Smith & Wesson M&P, Springfield Saint, Ruger 556, Anderson Manufacturing, Adams Arms, Geissele, Daniel Defense, Colt, Knight's Armament, Sons of Liberty, Armalite, IWI Zion, Radian, LaRue, Sig Sauer, Windham, FN and a few others I'm forgetting, then you have a good rifle.

It's a fun hobby, I think you'll enjoy it.

Thanks man, I know I’m probably not the first one to say this but all the groups on Facebook are filled with rude people that never give you any insight or constructive criticism. I appreciate the advice bro

 

[HansGruber]

Yea I bought a few accessories for it before I got it. I thought the stock it came with looked uncomfortable so I did some research and found the magpul ctr at a store near me. I’ve been eying the bcm complete uppers and I eventually want to make this setup have a complete bcm lower and upper but they are currently out of stock.

There’s nothing magic about a BCM lower or upper...you’d just be paying for the roll mark.

(Edit—that’s assuming you’d swap your current upper/lower receivers for BCM receivers, but keep the other components—barrels, etc. If you were going to swap your upper for a complete BCM upper, that’s a different story)

 

[TacticalPirate]

Thanks man, I know I’m probably not the first one to say this but all the groups on Facebook are filled with rude people that never give you any insight or constructive criticism. I appreciate the advice bro

It's fun, I took two basic well built M&P rifles and put Geissele full auto bolt carriers and Rare Breed triggers in them, and they replicate full auto weapons in terms of their rapid rate of fire if you finesse the trigger correctly.

My upgrades to the guts of the M&Ps, as well as Magpul grips and Magpul stocks made the guns as nice or nicer than a Daniel Defense, and it was more fun to build the rifle and customize it.

Beyond well built fundamentals, some gun snobs can be like wine snobs, that get snippy you don't taste the charcoal and Faberge eggs in their special vintage and that you are genuinely happy with a mid priced wine.

 

[Bassbob]

So I went out and purchased my first rifle and I was attempting to get a little insight from more experienced people about the gun I’ve recently gotten. This is my first AR and I just wanted to know if it was a solid gun. It’s the adams arms voodoo dark moon 5.56

I've had the Witch Doctor for about 8 months now. There are a few more reviews on them now then when I bought mine, but not many. If you Google it the thread here I made about it is one of the first things that comes up.

First off, it is a solid rifle. Accurate and not a single failure of any kind. I'm not sure how many rounds I've put through it exactly, but it's up near 1000. I haven't been shooting it enough with the ammo prices.

The lower is an Anderson AM-15 with no logo. AA put their logo on them. The barrel is one of their Voodoo Innovation barrels, 1:7. Full auto BCG, everything mil-spec. The difference between yours and mine ( stock) is simply the full length pic rail on yours. I bought mine in August 2020 from Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore for $800. I liked the way it looked better than the Dark Moon, which was also available. So far I have endeavored to keep mine stock, although at this point I'm considering putting the Magpul MOE grip and whichever Magpul stock it is that has the storage compartment and QD swivel mounts. I need to see those things in person though because I really like the way this rifle looks and I want to keep everything on it really close to the same shade of black. The stock that came on it is fine, but some rubber on the end of it would be nice. I also put some Feyachi steel flip up BUIS on it, which are much more black than the MBUIS. They have worked out great. Also a Romeo 5 sits on the receiver and a Viridian HS-1 green laser hand stop under it. I put a pic rail QD mount on the side and a Magpul MS-1 sling strung across the butt of the stock.

I think it is an excellent out of the box rifle and would be a good starting place for someone to put together a more custom rig, but I am leaving mine as is. The way I see it for $800 it runs like a champ and can be tossed behind the seat of my truck with no worries about scratching it or whatever like you might with a Daniel Defense or BCM.

I am right now starting to put together parts list for a " Roll my own". I got a buddy in Kansas who is sending me a stripped lower, but if he don't get off his ass and send it pretty quick I'm going to buy either an Anderson or a PSA stripped lower and go from there. I'd like to do all BCM or something, but I think I will concentrate the money where it matters with this one. Barrel, BCG and trigger. And even the barrel I think isn't terribly important. I might just buy a PSA upper.

In short, yeah I am really happy with the AA Witch Doctor and when I bought it the AR snobs all told me what a pile it was because I didn't spend 2k on it. Blah, blah, blah. I can still put one in your eye from 100 yards with it and it never, ever fails.

 

[Bassbob]

Yea I bought a few accessories for it before I got it. I thought the stock it came with looked uncomfortable so I did some research and found the magpul ctr at a store near me. I’ve been eying the bcm complete uppers and I eventually want to make this setup have a complete bcm lower and upper but they are currently out of stock.

If you do that it isn't even the same rifle. Literally. Different lower and different upper ? So you're just scavaging furniture off the Dark Moon at that point. Leave it alone and buy the upper and lower you want and put together another one.

 

[Bassbob]

Thanks man, I know I’m probably not the first one to say this but all the groups on Facebook are filled with rude people that never give you any insight or constructive criticism. I appreciate the advice bro

You definitely aren't. In fact if you Google Voodoo Innovations a thread I made here will pop up where I point out the very same thing. I made a similar thread about the AR " Builders" over at the XD forum. Ya know if you didn't drop a couple grand on it then it's a piece of crap. I'll tell you right now I would take one of these Voodoo rifles over an M&P Sport or any other rifle in the same price range. Although the IWI Zion is on my short list, but I am a fan boy for Israeli Engineering and have some IWI stuff already.

 

[Hellcat706]

There’s nothing magic about a BCM lower or upper...you’d just be paying for the roll mark.

(Edit—that’s assuming you’d swap your current upper/lower receivers for BCM receivers, but keep the other components—barrels, etc. If you were going to swap your upper for a complete BCM upper, that’s a different story)

Yea I my bad I meant to say that yes I’m gonna get the bcm complete lower and complete upper and put it on this rifle

 

[Bassbob]

Yea I my bad I meant to say that yes I’m gonna get the bcm complete lower and complete upper and put it on this rifle

Actually you're not. A complete upper and a complete lower makes it a completely different rifle. And at that point you would very nearly have 2 complete rifles. See where I'm going with this ? I mean which parts off the AA are you going to be putting on the BCM ?

 

[ddeuce22]

@Hellcat706 I think what Bassbob is saying is if you are going to buy a BCM complete upper and lower, you essentially have another AR, why cannibalize the complete you purchased when you would have the parts to build a 2nd AR? To which I would concur with.

Keep the Voodoo as is and just add small parts/accessories to it to get it where you want it and build an entirely new AR with the BCM upper/lower completes you wanted to purchase. Boom, 2 Rifles.

 

[BangBang]

The term “Mil Spec” gets taken out of context. Ar’s whether it be you putting one together from an upper and lower or just buying one from a company such as Anderson to Knights will vary. If you run them head to head you will see a difference. If your looking for a range gun a S&W will be fine, nothing wrong with that, at all. I’ve got a lower “Tier” AR and I have a higher “Tier” AR.

This may not be what you are looking for, but you will not go wrong with the major tier one lowers. In no particular order:
Colt, LMT, BCM, Daniel Defense, Hodge, and apparently SOL(GW).

The lesser brands: Bushmaster/Windham, RRA, DPMS, Eagle, Anderson, even S&W all have presented repeated problems to me on the work bench.

When people state: "They are allowed made by 4 and it is just a name stamped on the side with different finish specs/tolerances, the latter is the thing to focus on. Those 4 forge companies can make any grade of product. They charge according to quality. If company A wants tier 1 quality with commensurate QC/QA they will pay more, and consequently charge more for the lower they spec'd out.

On the other hand, company B wants to corner the sub 60 Dollar market. They will not be checking magazines to assure they drop free, or checking every 25 th lower to make sure the receiver extension threads are correctly timed.
You get what you pay for.

Consider also that the lower is likely the longest lasting part of your weapon. Do you want to base the next 3-5 barrels and an expensive trigger on the cheapest lower you can find?

The lower is what you will put a magazine in thousands of times. It is what you will put an expensive trigger in, based on existing FCG pin holes.
It is what holds the receiver extension on.
It is what retains the upper, and aligns the magazine with the feedlips of the upper/barrel.
It needs to be right.

If you decide to manufacture a SBR lower on a Form 1 that goes 10x.

Remember, the AR is a system of parts. All the parts have to be within tolerance to work optimally together. Ideally, all the parts are near the middle of the tolerance range.

Buy quality. Quality is rarely "on sale" or "clearance priced".