Hesse Arms .223 AK

[ezln]

Does anyone have any experience with the Hesse Arms .223 AK? Ive found a used one, but have heard some bad things about their AR15 clones, so I was wondering if anyone knows firsthand about their AKs. Thanks!

[KernelKrink]

A friend bought one in .7.62X39. Mags would not lock in place, the magwell was too short. Retracting the bolt felt like the rails were coated in sand. After some grinding and general smoothing of the action it hand cycled OK. Never shot it, AFAIK my friend never has either.

[bsn]

Unless you can get it for a really good price let it go. Consider it more for parts than as a gun. Hesse AK's are normally welded together.

[ezln]

its $330.00, comes with 10 bulgy waffle mags, 4 red plastic mags, and it has plastic furniture, which id probably put on my 74 instead.

[H1S1K]

I would buy it , You can always chop it down and built it yourself. .223 ak parts are few and far between and when you find them there costly. A nice little collection of magazines too. Are the waffles converted 5.45x39 mags? If they are orignal .223 mags you could sell them and make up about $100 - $150 of your inital cost of the rifle and just use converted black bulgy 74 mags. I say go for it and if not let me buy it

[bsn]

$330 would be a good price because of the mags, just be prepared that you may have to tweak it to get it to be reliable.

[Cowbilly]

I have one I bought about 4-5 years ago from CDNN. Mine was built off a Bulgarian .223 kit, the front trunion was welded and not riveted, rear trunion was riveted however. The .223 parts and the mags make it worth it for around $300 in my opinion since Bulgarian .223 kits are hard to find and expensive. It should come with a .223 AR15 Mag adapter which originally aided in the parts count. So check for 6 US parts if the adapter is not present. Mine functioned fine but was'nt to my liking appearance-wise so I turned it into a project of love and had it un-Hessed.

I sent mine off to have the front trunion riveted, refinished also remilitarized with a new gas block and front site/bayonet lug as the original front site was mounted with a cant to the left (check that). I paid $300 for it originally and put another $250 in it to fix the dang thing (this was before Ak kits and parts were everywhere). Now it is a beauty and works fine even with the AR mag adapter which is kinda cool. I use the Bulgarian 5.56 waffle mags though, they are the best.

Check your parts count and it should be good. Should come with a black US/Hesse 74 look-a-like handguard no cleaning rod/ US pistol grip and a non slotted/non cleaning kit buttstock (which I replaced with a K-var 74 set/ and cleaning rod).

Turned into my favorite AK, but it took some work. Hesse is not the greatest name in firearms manufacturing but fortunately an AK can take it.

IGF or Magnum Gunsmithing(Whom I Highly Recommend) can fix anything and make it new again (IGF if the price it right, he's kinda of pricey right now).

[ezln]

someone already bought it :(

[JJH]

Feel lucky, go buy a lottery ticket. All kidding aside, Hesse is not worth it, the person who sold it to the dealer with all those mags knew that and that is why he got rid of it. I have bought a few Hesse parts for my FALs years ago and none worked without a lot of extra work. There are other AKs out there that are decent and for not much more money than that Hesse. My 2 cents.