Purchased an STG 58 that is not headspaced correctly.  Tears shells in half.  Receiver is manufactured by Vulcan Arms.  Know they have a reputation for crap.  Want to see if I can salvage the situation before buying a new receiver.
Think SumoJ used to work with these things....HELP!

Yes I know I have built numerous FALS over the years, your receiver may be the problem however Vulcan / Hesse is not known to be the best in the world as you know. I have the pin gauges as well as the headspace gauges. the problem the Vulcans is they are often out of spec in the locking shoulder area. You can try removing the locking shoulder and then heads spacing to determine the proper locking shoulder size, but like I said the geometry on the Vulcan / Hesse guns is often at fault.

I have the gauges and Pins from my building days too... If your headspace is excessive you may be able to fix it with a bigger locking lug.  You could also get a new receiver and rebuild on that, but you will very likely need a different lug to headspace that.  You can file down a lug to correct inadequate headspace.

Thanks to both of you for your insight.  Any videos on how to do it?  Should I just sell it for the parts?

AGI has a video on how to do, So does gun plumber.   If you decide to try to re headspace gun things and Arizona Response Systems will have locking shoulders of the right size. If you need one. but again I highly recommend looking at your receiver as I feel it is probably suspect.

falfiles.com might offer some info...

I seem to recall the dissatisfaction with the Hesse receivers were the difficulties with building, not that they were unsafe.  The really scary receivers were the aluminum ones made by Williams, they would kaboom...

I bet you could get it working with enough tweaking.


mixed reviews here

The Williams Arms receivers were made in very small numbers before being being discovered to be unsafe, if you look through the archives on Fal Files you will find tons of information about them. I was an active member at the time when the controversy took place and a friend of mine who is deceased was one of the people who was one of the individuals who had one that failed after doing a build on a WAC alloy FAL receiver. RIP FWRA, The HESSE receivers depending on what generation can be made to run with some work/ modification and some can not be made to work economically. Meaning that it might end up being cheaper to just buy another receiver. Hesse made at least some of the CAI cast receivers for a while as well. Some of the issues can be improper locking lug geometry, where the upper mates to to the lower this can be rectified by re cutting with a file and is not an issue. However out of spec geometry in the locking shoulder  area is another issue and can cause locking shoulder fitment issues and cause improper lockup of the bolt.This can not be easily corrected with a file by the home builder. Making sure that the locking shoulder is not over clocked causing a had space issue and lock up issue in your rifle will be very critical to a safe rifle.

It is why I made my comments earlier.

For sure I would recommend running it by a gunsmith, particularly one experienced in the FAL rifle, if you are not entirely comfortable with the rifle and DIY gunsmithing.  Hurting yourself trying to save a little money is no savings at all!  

A new receiver is running around $300-$350.  A new DSA rifle is right at $1700 (Gasp, these things used to be cheaper!) so maybe a new receiver and a trip to the Gunplumber would be a reasonable way to go.

The one local guy I knew who was really good with FALs (Pete McGuffey, who ran the battle rifle matches at TCGC) has passed on too.

Sorry for the late response, have been away from the computer for a while.

The guys above got it.  I don't have pins any longer, those days went by when the prices of ammo and good kits went nuts.

Being a STG 58, if it is a Austrian brl and all I would suggest pulling the Vulcan receiver and look for a DSA/Coonan/Imbel and have Sledgehammer (Randy Kline) down in TX or one of the guys here that have the tools to help you out.

Thanks Sumoj,    
Finally got a rifle for a price I could afford.  Sounds like I could invest another $300 and come out pretty good.  
Have done some smithing on HKs, Mausers, ARs, AKs and Stens..... Just thought I could add FALs to the list also.  
Appreciate all the help guys!

Shameless plug....but.  have opened up a full auto rental business....if anyone needs the stress relief!

Where is the FA rental at?