PWA Lowers?

[Dave Berryhill]

Many moons ago when the PRK first started passing assault rifle legislation, I picked up a couple of PWA lower receivers in the 419XX serial number range and stashed them away. I had forgotten about them until I recently discovered them them, along with a Bushmaster lower, in a box of stuff.

Can anyone tell me more about them? Are they cast or forged? How do they compare to some of the other quality lowers available today. In other words, are they worth building a serious self defense carbine on? I have never heard much about them and only bought them because at the time it didn't appear that any AR's would be available in CA again.

[Nitrox]

PWA is PacWest Arms. It was partially owned by Karl(C?) Lewis of LMT. When PWA ceased to exist the tooling went to Lewis of LMT. As far as I know LMT owns the rights to PWA and has turned out some of the PWA marked receivers since. The older receivers like you have are of pretty good quality and should be good enough for any build you would consider a similar high quality lower for. PWA receivers are forged.

[VA_Dinger]

I have always had great luck with PWA lowers. I've owned two; one preban that I owned for 4-5 years and one postban that I registered SBR. The older PWA had one of the smoothest stock triggers I have ever shot. I ended up trading it away (Fairly) to a guy living in an AWB state (NY). I know it was the right thing to do, but I kind of wish I had held onto it.

[M4arc]

Nitrox covered it well so I'll just add that I have one and it's perfect. No tooling marks, went together well and runs great. The picture I have posted in the Mid-Length thread is built on my PWA lower.

[BravoCompanyUSA]

I have a good number of my personal stuff built on PWA lowers.

At this time I believe LMT owns them. LMT will not currently sell stripped lowers; their LMT brand name lowers are always complete lower receiver groups. If you want a stripped lower from LMT - it would be PWA. They are forged lowers and look identical to my LMT lower (other than the roll mark).

It is kinda like Christmas is July when you go to the back of the safe and find a box full of goodies in the that you forgot you had . . . .

[Dave Berryhill]

...It is kinda like Christmas is July when you go to the back of the safe and find a box full of goodies in the that you forgot you had . . . .

Woo Hoo! Merry Christmas to me! I found an Imbel FAL receiver too. I guess I'm going to have to build a rifle. It's been a long time since I wrenched on an AR, I hope I remember how to to it. The bullet comes out of the skinny end, right?

Thanks to everyone for the info.

[DrMark]

The bullet comes out of the skinny end, right?

If you've built it correctly, it does!

[Not_A_Llama]

My rifle's built on a postban PWA. It's just like an LMT, down to the funny way my TD grip mounts.

I'm not a massive fanboy of the make, though I do like my lower a lot. It's not particularly well made, and there's quite a few flaws in it, as compared to lowers from Mega, RRA, etc. I have little gaps in the forging, the rear "strap" isn't particularly elegant, the finish isn't all that thick.

Still a very solid lower, though. Aaaand, where else could you find a lower that's so plainly logoed, with model "COMMANDO"?

I'll be keeping mine.