B-west aks-762

i have a fired but really nice B-West aks-762 spiker (fixed stock) that a friend wanted me to clean up for him. seems to have very low round count from the lack of wear inside and out but it had some minor surface rust and was not cleaned well from the guy he got it from which is why i'm cleaning it up for him. my question was if someone could refresh my memory about the problem batch b-west rifles. i can't remember if it was both stamped and milled rifles that lacked the heat treating on the receiver or which particular models. please chime in w/ any info. he got a steel on this thing too. $550 for the rifle and 1K of ammo. i know, i hate him too!LOL also what would a good condition specimen go for? no box or anything came w/ it. i promise i'll post a pic when it gets cleaned up. thanks in advance.

B-West stamped receivers made in USA are a no go.
Chinese made Norinco stamped receivers imported by B-West should be good to go.

I have one that was rebuilt on an Armory USA reciever, and its been a great shooter.

I have one just like yours. I havent shot it yet, but it was fired before me around 500 rnds. Looks fine but idk for sure. Yes it the stamped usa recievers that had problems. I also got mine in excellent shape for $500!

thanks for the help guys. it's stamped "AK47S762x39 made in china" and "imported by B-WEST" so it should be a good one, right? it doesn't say anything about norinco though and it has no stamps on the trunion besides the ser# which is 4 digit and pretty low.
*edit* to correct marking, i forgot the 47 in there.

If it says made in China- it is probably good to go. My understanding and recollection from the time was that the post ban B-West recievers at issue were marked made in USA, Take off your lower handguard and see if anything is on the barrel.

I think these B-West guns got a bad rap, I have seen old threads from a long time ago where a guy said he shot one and the rivets fell out, I am calling Bullshit on this. Even poorly installed rivets would not fall out, they may come loose. but A guy on AKFILES actulaly used toothpicks to hold a trunnion in place and shoot the rifle just to prove the force is held by the lugs not the rivets. SO BULLSHIT!! I have owned B-west guns and had no trouble with them. There have been thousands of home built guns that are still running, many with no heat treat at all. Just a case of computer-shooters running off at the keyboard who most likely never owned one. The bad part is the folks who own these guns get beat up when they go to sell them because someone posted these bullshit stories about them, I have never been able to find any pics anywhere showing a receiver that blew apart or even had severe wear on the rails. If anyone has some photos post them.

Here is an interesting read on B-West rifle that has shot possibly 10,000 round with no ill effect

http://www.akfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71998

The last U.S. made B-West stamped reciever I saw with chinese parts installed had either 2 or 4 set screw looking things on the left side of the receiver. Apparently they were for installing a scope mount or something.

It was a made in USA bwest reciever and everything else was a chinese red bakelite side folder with black bayonet.

A friend of mine owned a rifle with a BWest made (actually made by a an unlicensed sheet metal shop down the road) receiver many years ago.
The receiver didn't blow apart.
The "rails" didn't wear severely.
In fact, I've never seen anyone make those claims.
What DID happen is that the hammer and trigger axis pin holes egged and the ejector began to peen.
Whether you or anyone else wishes to believe that this happened or not is entirely up to you/them.

You should calm down a bit and reduce the drama. There is a problem with B-West USA made AK receivers not being properly heat treated and they were stopped from illegally outsourcing the receivers from an unlicensed shop. I bought one in 1994/5 from a private individual for a good price ($350 cash) at the gun show in WPB. It looked great and shot fine, but when I did research (mostly telephone back then) to make sure it was not an illegally converted post ban, I found out about the heat treating issue and I decided to sell it. I took it back to the same gun show the next month and traded it to a table vendor and $300 cash for a pre ban Norinco 56S-1 that I still own. No one said they will blow up. The FCG pin hole issue associated with the failure to heat treat is an issue that impacts their expected lifecycle and value.

You may be right, but i still wasnt taking any chances. If nothing else, I know I have a high-quality ak built on a high-quality reciever. For me, it is well worth the piece of mind!

here are the pics of the spiker. it could still use some touch-up here and there but it looks way better than it did when i got my hands on it. thanks again for the input guys, sounds like he got a great rifle for the price.

Well, actually you are GTG!! Your rifle appears to be IMPORTED by B-West, not MADE by them. Only the the ones that are marked MADE in USA are the questionable ones!

That's a real nice looking gun.

To be clear, i would still buy a B-West USA made reciever gun, but I would factor in the price of a new reciever when deciding to buy it.

I DO NOT BELEIVE EITHER OF THESE GUYS POSTS IN THE LINKS BELOW


Here is the link showing the quote THAT A GUY DID SAY ONE BLEW UP ON HIM AND CALLS THEM BOMBS ON STICKS: http://www.ak47review.com/gear/Gear_Review_Detail.php?g=gear1141107723


And here is the one with a guy claiming he worked at b_west and the rivets would come out: I dont beleive it either http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?t=79362

But ak47mays you are lucky, you have a completely chinese built gun and are lucky to have picked it up. And as far as the trigger and hammer holes egging out, I can beleive that would happen on any ak receiver that was not heat treated properly.

You have no idea what you are talking about, and you are just dumbing down everyone else who happens to read your post.

I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

Show me the evidence...............................yeah thats what I thought, there aint none!!

i didn't mean to start a pissin' match guys. i thank you all for the input and links. i've saw many u-tube KABOOMS that were not b-west rifles and if the pin holes on my rifle start to egg out it will be obvious before it causes any real issues. i was simply just trying to refresh my memory of which batch had this common issue. thanks again guys.

That is a fine Polytech your friend got. . from the non checkered pistol grip. . it should be a plant 416 gun. . .looks factory to me all the way down to the threaded barrel nut. . it looks like an early import. . a PWxxxx series. . .it also would not have the spring loaded firing pin that the later factory 386 had. . . nice find indeed. I know I love my Polytech AKS sidefolder like no other. . .

Your AK is Chinese made and properly heat treated. You should hav no FCG pin hole issues.

i have not seen a plant # stamp anywhere to speak of but you nailed the rest of the details to a T . it is PW series under #0050. and non spring-loaded FP. i'm trying to work up a trade for this thing but he really likes it and i can't blame him there. i'll keep working on him.LOL

And here is my B West Polytech. Got it for $500 a few months ago. Supposedly has around 500 rnds fired through it...which I believe. Its in excellent shape. This one does indeed have a Bwest USA reciever. So far shows no signs of any reciever issues....except maybe with the ejector(ill try and get a pic of it). This is a beautiful rifle tho

It would seem a good thing for several knowledgeable comrades to collaborate on a sticky related to B=West rifles. Said sticky would serve as a buyers guide.

Just a thought.

I'd be willing to work this project with a moderator acting as editor.

Can you take a closer pic of the ejector tip?

I can try. You might be able to tell, but the tip looks its being flattened out.

That does look nice. I would pay $500 for that. I would also pickup a backup NoDak Spud receiver and probably put it aside and only switch it over if I had any issues.

Ill provide pics of mine if you want

Yup, and also the wear pattern on the top rails looks a bit suspect. Not that your rails would rot out on you, but I'd keep a close eye on that ejector...

It doesn't just look like the ejector is peening, it is. That's a sure sign that the ejector isn't treated.

Anybody got pics of a normal polytech ejector? I would like to compair

Here's mine-NIB, bought new when B-West was still making them. This one,as the AK Files thread talks about, has a very low,hand-stamped serial number.

Picked up a Bakelite furnished, US-made B-West the weekend, it has a low serial, and appears to be hand stamped. Checked the extractor and hardness against my Polytech and it looks fine; still going to look for a backup receiver.
I've noticed that all of the non heat-treated guns I've seen have had wood furniture; Does anyone know how early in their production run B-West was using Bakelite furniture or when they stopped using it for that matter?

According to the manual that came with my B-West, those tiny screws on the receiver are for a scope mount (K-LOC,I think it said, without digging it back out again)

Here is a post i recently made on another AK Board.......its a interesting discussion and arfcom will allow i will link the thread....... in the mean time here is my post with some pics :

I dont usually pick up the thumbhole guns.....but this one seemed interesting........its 100% NIB

I know being made in China i should be fine as far as receiver issues......


What im wondering is if its possible that this rifle was imported before the ban and put into sporter conversion some time later....

If you notice it was from when B-West was located in LA California, and not later on when they moved there operation to AZ .

Does anyone know of a time frame when they transitioned ?

I would love to be able to legally put this back to preban configuration.......or what do i have to do to make it 922R compliant...? i dont think i have any postban AK's, maybe a SAR 1 and thats it....

Notice its marked 386 ( usually polytech guns) and marked Norinco......odd. Has spring loaded firing pin as well....

Mint Red Bakelite handguards, same shade found on Poly para sidefolders...

Someone posted on another board they had the same gun markings right in my serial # range....but not aware if considered preban or not .....

Yours is a post-ban; note the lack of ground off bayonet lug. Here is a picture of an early model with the bayonet lug and original stock and grip:


This should help if you have further questions:
http://chicom47.com

Thanks Bud, but mine is not ground off, it accepts Type one bayonet - slide on type, still intact.......

I have the one you pictured there...... Thats a Norinco 56S3, i have it here : second from bottom right.

The B-West thumbhole you pictured there didn't have a bayonet lug that I saw, unless the Type 1 lug is different than all the others; which is entirely possible because I've never inspected a type 1 bayonet...

Yep, it accepts (still will) a Type one Bayonet.


Thanks

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