I just bought a B-West, Inc AKS in 7.62x39 that was on consignment at my local gunshop.  It is like new in the box with 3-30 rd mag, a 5 rd mag cleaning kit and bayonet.  Can anybody give me an idea of the value of this rifle?

I paid $500 plus tax.  Seemed like a good deal since the new vectors retail for $499.

Apparently B-West  built receivers before the ban and have since gone out of business?

thanks for any information.  This is my first AK

Steve

Their receivers are pure crap, hate to say. Not hardened, they tend to self-destruct.

Quoted: Their receivers are pure crap, hate to say. Not hardened, they tend to self-destruct.

ISTR that if the rifle was built in China, it's fine. It was the 'made in AZ' receivers that had the soft
receivers.

This one says the receiver was made in AZ.  

Well shoot it at your leisure, if you decide you don't trust the gun or just plain out don't like it. Sling it over your shoulder next gun show and put the 500 dollar sticker on it. Just keep all of your goodies you got.  Somebody will buy it. Alot of people are out there buying up all AK goodies lately. Scared of the possible return of a ban or change in politics......frankly I don't blame them.

Does anyone know if all of their receivers were crap or was it early models or later production?  The Serial number on this one is BWA 08xx.  I saw another one on a gun auction that showed a Serial number of BWC 08xx.  Based on this I assume they recycled their numbers and changed the third letter.  

Anyone else have information?

Technically, the receivers aren't crap dimensionally.  They did not heat-treat the receivers at all, so the pin holes elongate and the ejector gets peened.  You can fix this by heat-treating these areas yourself, or have a competent AK smith do this.  The price you paid is about on-par with what they bring.  There was one at the Memphis, TN show this weekend that the dealer had $595 stuck on (I'm sure $500-$525 would have bought it).

I've had a couple B-West MAK-90's (actually BWK-92 was their model number) that were nice.  I've had 1 AKS built on their "made in Arizona" receiver and the barrel was improperly head-spaced - to the tune of about 1/4" too much headspace.  This was many moons ago, back in my college days.  I had the guy I bought it from set the barrel back, but I was scared of it and traded it off for a Norinco M-14.  

To heat treat the rceiver would mean disassembling the trunions and barrel first.  right?

No, just take out the FCG, remove the PG, stock, and heat treat the FCG holes.  You can read about it in the build it yourself section.

I think Bwest is just the importer.

Seems to me that Bwest might be the importer that brought a lot of AK's into the US in the mid 90's.  All went through ATF inspection, but a batch slipped through that had the 'third hole' drilled and simply plugged with a pin.  Might want to check on that before you get into a costly situation....the third hole is right above the selector stop if you don't know.

Quoted: I think Bwest is just the importer.

B-West imported complete rifles AND had their own receivers made and assembled rifles from Chinese parts, too.  They got their pee-pee slapped because they had a sheet metal shop making the receivers, but the sheetmetal shop didn't have a manufacturer's license.

Quoted: .  There was one at the Memphis, TN show this weekend that the dealer had $595 stuck on (I'm sure $500-$525 would have bought it).

Oh yeah that was Ray from Ray Guns, as for the counter offer, that is not likely knowing him.  I have seen me screw many people in the past, I'm surprised he doesn't leave out a can of CRISCO so that you can lather yourself up when you try to make a deal.

many moons ago I had a USP in 9mm that was in excellent condition, and at the time I was hunting a 228, well he had one that was used, and when I inquired about trading, he offered me $150 of the USP stating that he can't sell HKs.  Did you notice how many he had this past weekend? Plenty!