Extremely odd rifle help. Caliber .30 A.O.A

[billfrombyron]

This is my most eccentric rifle, a Gold Wolf in caliber .30 A.O.A. It chambers and fires .30 carbine, but it shaves the brass at the rim a bit so its not quite right. As if the rim is too thick on a regular .30 carbine round.(Yes I have tried quite a few types and brands)

It cocks on closing and seems to take a AMT Auto mag 3 magazine, but honestly the mag was lost in the California desert long ago in 1992-1994ish.

Yes I know I need to do a chamber cast, but between deployments, then exiting the military and taking my contract here I haven't had the time.

The rifle weighs 6.5 lbs, FLAWLESSLY balanced and had a 10 round mag if I remember. It is an absolute tack driver to 100M you can take it out to 150M with soft points.

My goal is to find out what the heck it is, what caliber it is actually(Cerro cast coming in May) and Who actually made it.

The background on the rifle as it was when it passed into my fathers hands in 1992 was that it had been taken from a gentleman boarding a plane, through whatever stroke of luck and fate wound up at a PX gun store right before AAFES stopped selling guns and was bought in lot by Weisser Sporting goods in San Diego, Ca where it was given to my father. (How much of this is true and how much of it is the owner bsn'g my dad is speculation.)

I was posting this up to see if someone here may be familiar with it, or its maker Either Goldwolf or YSS.

The SN on the rifle ends in 0001 so there aren't too many of them running around from what I'm guessing.

I'm interested in knowing what y'all may know about it.

Enjoy the pics! I cannot get any better photos until May when I fly home to get them.

Gunsmiths.....Can this be converted to use a Blind Mag if all else fails?









We have been trying to figure out this enigma ever since. Any help would be appreciated.

-Bill

 

[dejr2000]

Doing a quick search found me reading your post about this rifle back in 2006, hell I'm no help.:banghead:

 

[billfrombyron]

Yep our info still hasn't changed much since then.

Ive tried several sites in the past looking for an answer to this odd ball.

I love shooting it though!

To the MODs, I am sorry about posting in the wrong spot. Im still somewhat new here. Thank you for placing it in the right spot on this great sight!

-Bill

 

[Sam1911]

So you're shooting it with .30 Carbine ammo?

Aside from shaving the rim, what do the fired cases look like? Are they fire-forming up to a different profile? Splitting?

Is the cartridge headspacing on the mouth? Or just being held against the breech face by the extractor?

EDIT to add:

To the MODs, I am sorry about posting in the wrong spot. Im still somewhat new here. Thank you for placing it in the right spot on this great sight!

Oh, you didn't really post it in the wrong spot. No worries. I just thought it might get more traction down here in Research where the "Great Minds" come to contemplate such things.

 

[billfrombyron]

Cases looked perfect when extracted. No splits, and no indication upon resizing cases in my dies that anything odd was happening.

Just some brass shavings on the extractor.

We were informed by the smith at the shop where it was given to my dad that it was safe to shoot and that the only thing that matched was .30 carbine.

Assuming its like the howa .30 AOA, then its a .30 carbine for sure. Maybe a one off or prototype rifle?

I have kicked around a lot of theory on this rifle in the past.

Thanks for the help so far, I know we can figure it out!

-Bill

 

[Jubjub]

About all I was able to find by Googling is a bit of info about the AOA marking.

AOA is the headstamp of a Japanese ammo manufacturer called Asahi-Okuma Arms Co. Ltd. They manufactured .30 Carbine ammo headstamped .30 AOA. Their name changed to Asahi-Seiki Manfacturing Co. Ltd. in May, 1961.

Howa manufactured a commercial sporter variant of the M1 carbine called the Model 300 around that time with the barrel stamped .30 AOA.

As to your bolt action I have no idea, other than it might well be Japanese, or Korean, or who knows, but it's definitely .30 Carbine.

 

[justashooter in pa]

the stampings were obviously done by hand, so this is prolly a one-off someone had a brilliant idea about one day...

don't recognise the action, except to say that it looks oddly japanese in design, with heavy cocking piece, cock on closing, oversized bolt handle...

 

[rmfnla]

100 meters with a .30 carbine..?

 

[billfrombyron]

Yep and not much farther.

-Bill

 

[KodiakBeer]

I can answer the caliber question, but I can only guess at who made the rifle.

.30 AOA is the designation for .30 carbine soft-point sporting ammo made by Howa in Japan.

See Link: http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_Howa.html

The Caliber .30 AOA Howa Autoloading Rifle Model 300
The Model 300 is a sporterized hunting version of the .30 caliber M1 carbine manufactured by Howa. Information about this model has come in small pieces from a number of different sources, Howa included. What follows are the sources and their information.

As for the rifle, I'm thinking that in both postwar Japan and Korea (a Japanese ally) there were plenty of 7.7 Arisaka rifles and/or parts lying around - 7.7 is .303 caliber which is close enough for .30 Carbine use. I'm guessing some small company (YSS) tried cobbling together a .30 "AOA" for the bolt action market using rechambered 7.7 barrels and whatever other parts they could use.

Hope that helps!

 

[billfrombyron]

Thanks to all who have responded!

When I get home I will slug the barrel and take a chamber cast. Those will tell all I hope.

Now to locate a mag.....
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=522105
On my road trip thread Im hoping to hit a few gun stores along the way looking for a AMT auto mag 3 magazine that will hopfully work so its no longer a single shot.

Would it be:
A) easy
B) cost effective
C) doable

To convert to blind magazine? (Please correct terminology if wrong) As in typical bolt gun internal magazine. Like a savage 110.

-Bill