I have the same rifle. Got it back in 1990 the day I turned 18. Went into the shop looking for a Ruger Mini-30, walked out with the B-West AK-47S instead. Something like $450 out the door, with some ammo. Pretty sure I have a transitional model, too, where the receiver was properly heat treated. Receiver and rails look great after however many thousands of round I've put down the tube over all these years.
I owned a rifle identical to yours, unfortunately mine was one of the soft receivers. After about a hundred rounds or so both trunnions began to shoot loose from the holes enlarging themselves. I traded it to someone who thought they could fix it. This was in the 1990s.
You have one of the soft receiver from B-WEST if I was you get a Childers Norinco receiver hell you can even get the Norinco logo engraved on left side of receiver that's what I would do don't wait just transfer over all the Chinese parts call it a day. Due to the infamous 1989 Bush crime bill all of B-WEST imports they had coming in then had to be destroyed so B-WEST had no alternative but to cut the original receivers to make kits to meet the law or lose all money on these guns so he had a company make the receiver's. I forget who built them back up back then ? But who ever it was made pretty good looking receiver's they just didn't heat treat them probably from plain ignorance of the AK platform. If it says Made in the USA its a bad receiver if it says China your good ALLL USA made ones were not heat treated I get you got a 1000rnds down range but it wont last forever.
This one has almost 2000 rounds down the pipe, I believe I got lucky and the its one of the ones that had a heat treated receiver. One day Ill take it and get it hardness tested to be sure! Its kind of a cool piece of american AK history so I may just keep it with the original receiver! Thanks for watching!
Actually, John's explanation in the video is accurate. Mine is BWD103210 and has held together nicely. I bought it used and put thousandS of rounds through it myself. Mine looks exactly like the one in the video and yes, made in USA.
I was considering getting the psa version of this but it requires so much fluff and buff to get working at 100 percent
I have the same rifle. Got it back in 1990 the day I turned 18. Went into the shop looking for a Ruger Mini-30, walked out with the B-West AK-47S instead. Something like $450 out the door, with some ammo. Pretty sure I have a transitional model, too, where the receiver was properly heat treated. Receiver and rails look great after however many thousands of round I've put down the tube over all these years.
Also, noticed your rifle has a 6 digit S/N. Mine has a four digit. Any idea how many were imported?
My Chinese spiker is probably my favorite one in my collection my 84s is pretty close behind.
I owned a rifle identical to yours, unfortunately mine was one of the soft receivers. After about a hundred rounds or so both trunnions began to shoot loose from the holes enlarging themselves. I traded it to someone who thought they could fix it. This was in the 1990s.
You have one of the soft receiver from B-WEST if I was you get a Childers Norinco receiver hell you can even get the Norinco logo engraved on left side of receiver that's what I would do don't wait just transfer over all the Chinese parts call it a day. Due to the infamous 1989 Bush crime bill all of B-WEST imports they had coming in then had to be destroyed so B-WEST had no alternative but to cut the original receivers to make kits to meet the law or lose all money on these guns so he had a company make the receiver's. I forget who built them back up back then ? But who ever it was made pretty good looking receiver's they just didn't heat treat them probably from plain ignorance of the AK platform. If it says Made in the USA its a bad receiver if it says China your good ALLL USA made ones were not heat treated I get you got a 1000rnds down range but it wont last forever.
This one has almost 2000 rounds down the pipe, I believe I got lucky and the its one of the ones that had a heat treated receiver. One day Ill take it and get it hardness tested to be sure! Its kind of a cool piece of american AK history so I may just keep it with the original receiver! Thanks for watching!
Actually, John's explanation in the video is accurate. Mine is BWD103210 and has held together nicely. I bought it used and put thousandS of rounds through it myself. Mine looks exactly like the one in the video and yes, made in USA.