I have beside me on the desk as I type this, the original sales page that came with all of the 500 GO Wholesale rifles produced in .280 Remington. The header on that full color page reads: "World CLASS RIFLES brought to you from GO WHOLESALE Billings, MT. Meridian, ID" Beneath a color picture of the rifle (with cartridges), it reads: "Includes 80 rounds of Federal Premium 150 gr. Nosler 280 Nickle Plated Ammo" and "Limited Edition Sako" "Only 500 Available". (The serial numbers were 001-500.) The remainder of the page prints the rifle's specifications, and a comparison of the .280 and the .270 (with a comparative ballistics chart).Footnote: I found a post from an SCC member back in 2008 who was from Montana and said that he had purchased two of the GO Wholesale .280's. He also said that GO Wholesale was located in Billings, Montana. However, another SCC member in a different thread cited Boise, Idaho as GO's location. It is possible that GO had multiple locations, but which might have been the home office seems lost to history.
Each of the GI Joe's stores in the NW received 5 of the rifles, and in two of those stores I talked to managers who both said that GO Wholesale was disposing of the remainder of the special-order rifles. I visited 5 of those stores on one day (320 miles on the odometer) and looked at every one of 25 rifles. I bought the one with the best wood in a store south of Portland, and returned to Eugene to call a friend who went to the Eugene store and purchased the rifle I had laid away. I presume that wildcountry4me purchased one of the remaining 4 rifles in Eugene. I still have the rifle, and the 80 rounds of ammo which came with it. I believe this special run of rifles pre-dated the appearance of the AV Hunters and influenced the features of those rifles, though, as stonecreek says, the shorter barrels of the AV may not be as desirable for the shooter concerned with ballistic performance.