Buck,
I see I'm a little late on the post here but for what it's worth, here is a copy and pasted story that I gave another guy back in June when he was asking about VULCAN Arms.
You can still see their statement about their WARRANTY (NOT) on their new website, www.vulcanarms.com
Here is what I told the other fellow AR15 person. Hope it helps.
"Garyd,
You can do a search on Vulcan on this site even for the last 30 days and you will only get one hit, YOURS!! There is a reason.
You can ask ANYONE on this board about VULCAN also previously known just a few months ago as HESSE ARMS. They will tell you, run, run as fast as you can, THE OTHER WAY!!
Dude, I'm not shooting you a line here. I purchased one BEFORE I done my homework and came across this board. I had two of them. The story on them.
The first one. Had shot around 30-35 rounds through it and the bolt broke. YES, the bolt. It was not closing correctly and finally broke the little splines around the firing pin hole. Sent it back to Federal Arms Corp. They sent me another.
The second one. When I got it, I noticed that it too, the bolt did not close well. It was hitting the inside grooves of the barrel. Not sure what they are called. I also noticed that where the gas tube comes down the handrail and through the collar, it was obviously not straight. It was bent to compensate for the everything else being out of line so it would go in the upper. Never even shot it.
PLEASE, do yourself a favor. Stay away from them. They only have a one year warranty and are a pain in the ass to get a hold of let alone talk to. That's why they changed names from HESSE to Vulcan. Hoping the "newbies" would not recognize the name.
Yes, they are cheaper than others but let me give you a run down here.
$560 for the gun and original shipping on November 13th, 2002. Paid to have it shipped back on December 5, 2002. Got second gun 4 weeks later. Waited for UPS shipping label 4 days. Had to go to town and find a box to ship it back in and back home. Then had to take it to UPS. Had to wait another 2 months before they told me they didn't know when they would get in Olympic Arms in and I asked for my money back. They sent me a check for the gun, MINUS original shipping cost.
Here tis:
$630 (For the Gun and Shipping)
$23 (To ship the first one back USPS)
$40 (Total in gas going back and forth finding boxes and going to post office and then to UPS and back)
$$$$ ( Having $650 tied up in a gun that I did not have in hand for 6 months.)
Total $693 and 6 months of aggrivation, phone calls and a lot of run around.
Don't do it, take my word and everyone elses. Just ask around on this board, you'll find out, really quick.
Good luck."