Folks, I am in need of amusement, what are your Hesse/Vulcan horror stories?  Remember, no bashing, facts only.  We want to stay within the rules, don't we?

You are already outside the rules. Only bad stories about Olympic allowed here... [:D]

A short time ago I purchased a Hesse from a reputable gun dealer (my first AR) and took it to the range to zero it in at 100 yards. Long story short I couldn't get it to hit the target. I thought it was just me and my inexperience so I had my neighbor have a go at it (he is a ex Ranger/sniper and was also on the army's shooting team) and he gave it a try and could do nothing with it. His advise, get rid of it as soon as possible. Luckily for me the gun shop where I bought it gave me the full price for it on a trade for a new Bushmaster (XM15-E2S) which we are going out on Thursday to put it through its paces. I wish I would have done more research and asked around before I bought the Hesse, a mistake I will not make again.

See sig line. Ask him. He's a big fan.

"Hesse, unsafe at any speed" -Troy

Hesse lower in action!

Hey notack,

I'm no fan of the Hesse, but look at the top of the Buffer tube ring. Looks like something whacked the hell out of it. (small semi-circular marks). Something may have been "fugly" with the upper installed on this one. Maybe short buffer (?) installed or something.

To be fair, I think any cast reciever would break in the same location if hit hard enough in that same spot.

But I could be wrong....
[;)]

Its not my picture. I pulled it off Gunboards.com.[;)]

That's exactly what happened. Can't blame this on Hesse, but there should be plenty of other stories around.

So because I have one that hasn't broken in half yet I'm a big fan?!?! Jeez... I must be maniacly happy with my other rifles then... :)

Wow!  With a photo like that, all you have to say is, "Need I say more?"

I hate to dig this up again, but I'm seriously interested in TRUE stories of problems with Hesse. I still have an AR-15 that seems to do well, but would be interested in knowing what I should be looking for as far as potential problems go. It just seems strange that I've heard such terrible things and a thread like this goes by with zero valid responses to it...

Vulcan Arms indeed. I bet Spock wouldn't even buy one. I owned a Hesse Arms CETME.

I can honestly say I have since never seen a rifle that malfunctioned as much as that CETME with it's Hesse Arms receiver. It was a study in how to manufacture a receiver from a known good blueprint and completely obliterate all specification to the point where it could almost be classified as a non-gun by the BATF.
Looked nice, that was about it.

2 Guns, 1 Story. Believe me, it's true.

Before I done my homework and found this website, I purchased a HESSE from FAC. Put 34 rounds or so through it and the bolt broke. Sent it back, they sent me another one. (Gave them benifit of the doubt.)

When I looked at the second gun, you could see that where the gas tube came through the handrail and into the receiver, it was obviously out of line. When I pulled the bolt back and let it back easy, it too was hitting wrong. The "splines" on the bolt were not going in the groove of the chamber smoothly. They were hitting which is what caused the first one to break.

Long story short. After 6 months the price of the gun, $20 non-refundable shipping, $23 shipping for sending the first gun back to FAC, all the gas that I ran out going back and forth finding boxes and picking guns up I had in that gun what I finally bought a Bushmaster for.

HESSE/Vulcan......Don't do it. I've got pictures to back it up.

After buying an AR50L, my FFL wanted to get into .50 shooting. He asked me what I thought about Hesse. I told him that everything I had read was other than positive. I told him that he would be better off buying something else.

Well my advice was ignored He ordered the Hesse, it took three months to arrive after he was told that he would have it in 4-6 weeks. It arrived with a canted muzzle brake and something that looked like carpenter's glue between the action and the stock. He sends the riffle to a local gunsmith to have everything straightened out and to have it beaded.

His first trip to the range was a disaster. On his first shot the bolt handle sheers off....well, so much for a trip to the range. He takes the gun back to the gunsmith for repairs again! He gets the gun back and has not shot it since.

Why? what's wrong with it?[:D]

No great story here but this is my own true experience.  I used to be a dealer and just as I was getting out of the business I picked up a Hesse STG-58 and a Hesse Garand figuring they would be inexpensive shooters I wouldn't mind bashing around.

The STG-58:  Suprisingly, this one works 95%.  It was put together with used parts of course, and the finish was horrible though I expected that.  It had a SINGLE set screw muzzle brake, which I foolishly forgot to tighten and loctite before shooting.  The muzzlebrake launched itself downrange during the first or second magazine fired, never to be seen again.  I called Hesse up wanting to purchase another brake of the same type (I was confident I could fix the long peel from the one hole and departing screw).  They told me so many had been returned that they would not sell a brake to me and that I had to send the entire rifle back whereupon they would weld a new one on.  I did not want to risk a butcher job and have a barrel ruined to a nasty weld job of which I have seen on other Hesse products that went through my dealer hands.  The barrel is still plain without any attachments to this day.

The Garand:  The receiver looked beautiful (to the untrained eye).  It failed to load after firing a shot, and would not eject the clip.  I had the gas port opened to maximum but even after many break-in rounds, it would rarely fire more than one shot causing me to manually chamber almost every round.  It sometimes would feebly eject the clip (barely).  I though with more break in, it would cycle better.  THEN DURING ONE PARTICULAR SHOT, IT ALMOST DISSASSEMBLED ITSELF!  THE OPROD CAME OFF THE RECEIVER ENTIRELY.  THAT WAS THE LAST SHOT THAT RIFLED HAS EVER FIRED.  I took it to my old gunsmith who works for another store now.  I asked him what to do, and he said "Simple, throw that receiver in the trash and get a GI (milspec) receiver as all you have is a parts gun."  He went on to let me know that his shop has sold 4 Hesse Garands and every one had been returned as non-functional.  They stopped selling Hesse guns.  I myself stopped selling them after the first two I sold were returned to me by my customers, but I thought I might get lucky when I got two for myself.  I DID luck out with the STG-58.  However, I do not have the balls to sell someone the Garand knowing it doesn't work, so it just sits there now in my safe - a parts gun.  I am waiting till someone pi$$es me off enough to screw over, then I'll sell them the Garand.  BUWAHAHAAHAHA!!

I made the mistake of buying a Hesse stripped lower.  

I can't believe any person in their right mind would sell something as crappy as this unit was.

A normal quality forged lower takes about 20 min to assemble. This puppy took 3 days. When I was finished I felt like I should have been able to grind the serial number off and put my own on, because this sucker felt like an 80% lower.

I had to finish drilling all of the holes deeper. The take down pin holes were drilled at a cant so one hole had to be relieved (oval shaped) in order to fit the pins in. The top of the receiver had a large gouge in it so there was a visible gap between the upper and lower. There was a notch taken out of the magwell that looked like someone dinged it with a sawblade, and there was a chip in the lower were the grip attached.  This was one poor quality ugly lower. I was very disappointed and it would have cost way more than a good quality one if I would have tried to send it back or replace it.


I finally got the thing together and shot it. It shot good probably because none of the other parts were Hesse.

I got rid of the rifle as fast as I could. I sold it to a guy for a REALLY good deal and told him the lower was basically crap and that is why I'm giving him such a good deal. I said give it a try and see how long it lasts, and let me know if you have any problem and I'll help you pick out a good lower (RRA,PWA,Bushmaster, etc) and we'll put it together.

Never again. What a nightmare. I felt bad enough selling the AR like that, I can image claiming to be a manufacturer and selling junk like that.

I've also seen a lot of the other Hesse clunkers, HK, AK, etc, and they look like crap too.

I made the mistake of buying a lower from him a few years ago, too.  I haven't assembled it into a working rifle yet because I found this site shortly after I bought it.  The short story is that I tried to sell the receiver back, & I would have gladly taken a loss, but he wouldn't even buy it back at any price!

[LOLabove] Typical.

Wouldn't buy it back at any price. That shows some confidence in your own product.

Kind of like their warranty, huh. I wonder if the new Vulcan has a similar one.

"Hey Jethro, we got rid of another one of them lower-like-products, quick shut off all contact, those suckers."

I have a Hesse built AK-74 and the only thing that bothers me is that the front trunion is welded on instead of riveted and I can understand why they did it this way, to keep the original headspace intact, fine. Anyway I have shot it and it shoots fine. The only problem I have is fit with certain bakelite magazines and some are different than others believe it or not. Nothing a little trimming can't fix. Other then that, no problems. Oh and I knew about Hesse's reputation before I bought the rifle. I purchased it at a gunshow and the guy gave me 100 rounds of 5.56 Hotshot, 2 40 round clips, 100 rounds of 5.45 and the rifle as a package for $350.00 after haggling with him for a while. Think he wanted to get rid of it? Who knows. I figure if the weld ever breaks, the receiver can be re-used and re-riveted. And as far as the AR cast lower above goes, it's cast and cast parts are easily broken when stressed, no matter if it's from Hesse or Olympic.

I was going to buy one from a local dealer. I had never heard of them and was not associated with this web site then. Any way, my turn off was the warranty. They told me that Hesse offered no warranty but that they would give me a year. Nothing in print just their word. Needless to say I did not buy one from them. Now I am so glad that I didn't. [8D]

[LOLabove] Whoa! What warranty?  Sure, there is some print to that effect but after you filter through it there is almost nothing left covered.  That is a WHOLE other story.  It's been printed here on the boards before, too long for me to write about that, and you see how long my usual posts are...

You know, I am a real cheapskate. I will buy a rifle if there is ANY WAY POSSIBLE it can be repaired, if the price is right. But trying to fix a Hesse or Century arms rifle, where the receiver was made by them (not imported and stamped with their name) is like trying to build one from scratch, in fact starting with a good blank would probably be much easier. I learned the hard way, but I marvel at some of the garbage they still put out. It's a wonder how they stay in business at all. They can change their name, but the poor quality still follows.

well I am not going to say much here, except OMFG!!!!!!![:O] I was at a gun show today and seen some of his products     makes me embarassed to say he is from my home state, I'm glad I own DPMS's and Armalites [8D]

One of our local gun shops got stuck with a Hesse stripped lower when the buyer that they special ordered it for never came in to pay for it (long story on why they ordered without prepay).  Anyway, being the local AR junkie, they asked me if I needed it for anything, and offered it at a VERY good price.  I declined, but my buddy, despite my warnings, did buy it about three weeks later at an even better price.  And then the problems started.  Receiver wasn't tapped correctly...couldn't screw in the receiver extension.  Trigger pin holes fine, hammer pin holes not aligned properly...off by about half the hole's diameter from each other.  Buffer detent hole not deep enough.  Takedown detent hole not drilled all the way through to the pin's hole.  Mag catch hole not big enough for the button to go into.  Well, to shorten the story...two orders from Brownells and about seven hours of work and an Aluma-hide marker later, we had it good enough to work, but that's about it.  He still has it sitting there as an assembled lower half...he says eventually he's going to convert it into a cutaway AR receiver because he doesn't ever want to shoot it.
Sluggo

When I first saw his rifles at a gun show, I wasn't too impressed.  As a result I steered clear of them and bought a RRA.

A friend of mine who works for the county is friends with Mr Hesse and bought a rifle from him.  He originally got a 14.5 inch M4 with the polymer upper and lower.  Not too long after he got it, the upper receiver cracked.  He then got a forged upper.  I think he also had a problem with the mag well being too tight.  

He now has a 10.5 inch barrel and hasn't had any other problems.  I think the only thing is it cycles a little fast on full-auto.  He still has the polymer lower.

Also, what I've heard from a couple other  Class 2 firearm manufacturers in the Twin Cities, is that Hesse is very intelligent when it comes to manufacturing and design.  Except, I think they are lacking in quality control becuase they've got too much going on and not enough help.

Amazing how the pic of the broke Hesse is still getting around. If anyone is interested, I was the shooter of that rifle. It was properly built with ALL the proper pieces. Rifle failed after 2 rounds. Not 2 case, 2 magazines, I mean 2 rounds. I cannot explain the ding on the the top of the ring. It does look like the key hit it. FWIW, the parts and upper now reside on a Rock River lower with a coupe hundred rounds through it, and no failure. The broke reciever resides in the Dallas, Texas area, and is available for inspection by anyone. Scarey part is that the other Hesse reciever bought at the same time is on a 7.62X39 upper, and is functioning fine. Crap shoot anyone?

here's one for sale if anybody wants it...cheap!
http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=11034301

[url]http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=11034301[/url]

I think the guy is smoking banana peels if he thinks someone is going to pay for a  broken piece  of shit lower.......but then he might find some moron to buy it......he would have to PAY ME 100 bucks just to take that low quality scrap aluminium garbage.

there was someone who had a web site with pictures of a hesse RPK, and a warning not to buy a hesse product........ the receiver on this RPK was twisted.

Yup; you're wrong [:D]  The marks are nothing more than rub marks from the bottom edge of the bolt carrier, when the action is being opened or closed, and the upper/lower fit at that point is very close, or the crrier is a couple of thousanths too long. Hitting it with something hard enough to cause that break would require a whack that would have seriously dented the ring at that point. Those two separate marks are where the bottom of the carrier, on either side of the notch in the middle, slightly scraped the lower.