need help guys i got a hesse ar-10 lower need mags ?

[bertinotti66]

i should of did resorch before getting this thing i cant find mags for it ? everthing i read about it thay say its a P O S lower .what to do now ? thanks

[tiger222]

I had one and it was not bad. I ran mine with a special original AI AR-10 magazine. IIRC it could use both the SR25/DPMS and M14 style mags.

[bertinotti66]

thanks tiger222 i will give that a try someone siad armilite mags ? but havent found one to try yet thanks

[Japedo]

I won't be able to get mine out until the weekend. I got my rifle complete from a guy in Texas, it came with a magazine. He stated the shop gave him only that one. It is a modified Fal magazine which there are an abundance of. A notch is cut out for the mag release and the "lip" is ground down that runs along the front of the magazine. I showed it to the good people at Entreprise in Irwindale and they were able to make me a couple more. I haven't tried any other magazine but the Fal ones work pretty good. If you are really interested, let me know and I'll post some pics.

[C.G.]

They take DPMS mags (and AR-10 mags with some modding to stop the loose fit, although they should function even without the mod) If you use DPMS mags and a regular AR-10 upper you will either have to trim the DPMS mags or remove the shelves on the upper. If you have a Blackthorne/Vulcan/Hesse upper it is probably modified to take DPMS already and will not accept AR-10 mags.

There were two problems with Hesse .308 lowers:
1) often there were machining marks all over
2) buffer detent pin hole was often out of spec

Outside of that there were no other issues I know of.

One member here had a Hesse .308 complete rifle that used FAL mags. I am not sure what had to be done to make that work.

[bertinotti66]

I won't be able to get mine out until the weekend. I got my rifle complete from a guy in Texas, it came with a magazine. He stated the shop gave him only that one. It is a modified Fal magazine which there are an abundance of. A notch is cut out for the mag release and the "lip" is ground down that runs along the front of the magazine. I showed it to the good people at Entreprise in Irwindale and they were able to make me a couple more. I haven't tried any other magazine but the Fal ones work pretty good. If you are really interested, let me know and I'll post some pics.

yes please when u get a chance thank u

[five.five-six]

SR-25 mags work

[bertinotti66]

They take DPMS mags (and AR-10 mags with some modding to stop the loose fit, although they should function even without the mod) If you use DPMS mags and a regular AR-10 upper you will either have to trim the DPMS mags or remove the shelves on the upper. If you have a Blackthorne/Vulcan/Hesse upper it is probably modified to take DPMS already and will not accept AR-10 mags.

There were two problems with Hesse .308 lowers:
1) often there were machining marks all over
2) buffer detent pin hole was often out of spec

Outside of that there were no other issues I know of.

One member here had a Hesse .308 complete rifle that used FAL mags. I am not sure what had to be done to make that work.

i got a armilite upper so i am not sure on that thanks

[bertinotti66]

SR-25 mags work

were do i find sr-25 mags ? thanks guys

[C.G.]

were do i find sr-25 mags ? thanks guys

Real SR-25 mags are difficult to find and if you do find them they are expensive; best bet would be AR15.com and you would still have to mod them. Or go with DPMS, but then you will have to modify either the mags or the upper. Not sure what modifications would be needed for the FAL mags, but Japedo could tell you whether the shelves have been removed from his upper or not,

[Japedo]

I actually would not have any idea. I could compare it to mine, but I have the Hesse upper (I think, it doesn't have any markings, but I saw a pic some time ago of an upper side by side comparison and mine looked like the Hesse.) The Fal magazine mod is actually pretty easy if you have the tools. It just has a notch cut out for the magazine release, and the front grounded down so it will fit in the mag well.

Even though I received my rifle complete, I still had to do some dialing in to get it to work properly. It's funny I didn't know about the buffer detent hole's being off. My detent pin was glued in with loctite. Entreprise shaved the pin down so I could take the buffer out. I don't know what the pin is made out of, but I couldn't drill it the rest of the way out.

Real SR-25 mags are difficult to find and if you do find them they are expensive; best bet would be AR15.com and you would still have to mod them. Or go with DPMS, but then you will have to modify either the mags or the upper. Not sure what modifications would be needed for the FAL mags, but Japedo could tell you whether the shelves have been removed from his upper or not,

[C.G.]

I actually would not have any idea. I could compare it to mine, but I have the Hesse upper (I think, it doesn't have any markings, but I saw a pic some time ago of an upper side by side comparison and mine looked like the Hesse.) The Fal magazine mod is actually pretty easy if you have the tools. It just has a notch cut out for the magazine release, and the front grounded down so it will fit in the mag well.

Even though I received my rifle complete, I still had to do some dialing in to get it to work properly. It's funny I didn't know about the buffer detent hole's being off. My detent pin was glued in with loctite. Entreprise shaved the pin down so I could take the buffer out. I don't know what the pin is made out of, but I couldn't drill it the rest of the way out.

Sounds like the upper shelves were removed on yours. If you take your lower to AR15barrels he could probably fix that detent hole. (I think you would have to be present while he is working on it, I don't think he's an FFL). If I recall correctly he's done it before.

BTW, the DPMS mags you only have to shave the forward edge of the mag to make it flush.

[Japedo]

It has been a while since I have handled this rifle, I forgot what it looked like.

These are regular Fal magazines for comparison.


This is a pic of the back "lip" shaved off so it will fit in the mag well.


Pic of the mag catch cut out


Pic of front catch ground off


Rifle Pic


From my understanding Hesse was one of the first/only OLL companies to import to California, when the movement started. People were receiving complete lowers with magazines epoxied in and a screw installed. I'm not sure what kind they were or if they worked, I didn't have to deal with it. If they did work, someone here probably knows about them.

Any more Q's or pics let me know, I got my rifle working, and I know others have as well. I know how it is trying to get a problematic item working that no one wants to deal with. I still have a POS Vulcan V62 AR/AK hybrid thing I have to get working on.