Suther,
My friend bought the Axis as his first bolt target gun and bought 10 boxes of Aquila .308s. Lots of light primer strikes and frustrated him. So he bought himself a Tikka T3x A1 Tactical going from a $350 gun to a $3500 scoped gun. He gave the Axis to my 15 year old who took it all apart. Lots of crud inside the bolt which was cleaned off. We have shot 150+ rounds of LC FMJs, misc factory ammo and reloads with CCI primers. No more light strikes. Nice little gun which my son will use as his primary hunting rifle. Only complain is the stock. Recoil felt is equivalent to my 7mm Rem Browning A Bolt. With the FMJs its even harder. I also have a 30 year old sporter VZ24 in a unknown synthetic stock which has less recoil.
Glad you were able to fix the light strikes. Cleaning the bolt didn't help mine though. I even deprimed a few of the rounds that didn't go off with the CCI primers and whacked the primers with a hammer, they went off just fine so it wasn't a bad batch of primers...
Is your Abolt in a wood stock by chance? The Axis is a pretty darn light rifle - weighs under 6.5lbs without an optic, and mine comes in just over 8lbs with a scope, sling and 4 rds in the magazine.
I would highly recommend epoxying the trigger guard in place with the factory stock. It really helps stiffen up the wrist area.
I did some dry fire with my Savage 110 Elite Precision 223 last night, paying attention to bolt life. I'm still somewhat new to the world of bolt actions, but I would not declare this bolt heavy to lift after pulling the trigger. I don't think it is any heavier than my T1x or RPR in 22lr or 17hmr or 223. I felt like I was able to run it fast while staying on the comb and looking through the scope.
The Savage 110 action is entirely different from the Axis.