Savage Axis negativity?

I have the stainless .308 axis. It's a great gun to not care about and its as reliable as the sun. I did some trigger work to it to drop in to around 3lbs instead of the 6lbs that it comes with. IMO it beats any of the other options at this price point.
 
I was shocked how accurate they are. I loaded up a ladders test and the first 3 shots grouped less than half an inch with a 1.5 gr difference in powder.

I moved the target to 200 yards, shot 10 rounds and they grouped about 2.5 inches with a 17% difference in powder.
 
razorbeck said:
I have had 3 savage axis a 270, 243 and a 223.

The 270 I sold to a co-worker as a favour so he could get out deer hunting on a budget his wife would approve of, it is 5 years later and it still wears the "cheap" Bushnell scope that is completely useless and breaks after the first shot.

The 243 I gave to my brother to make room in my gun safe and yeah its still all original as well

The 223 was my truck gun, is my truck gun except I have fewer trucks and more guns, it will never belong to another


Does anybody remember what they were called before they became Axis?
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Weren't they called Edge?
 
c-fbmi said:
OP, take a good peruse through the Tradex sight here on CGN. One can, many times, find rifles like Husqvarnas in 30-06 for the same or less money than the Axis, and you have an honest to God quality rifle. Sure it's used and might have a few scars on it but you are truly starting with quality. A fiberglass stock may be purchased down the road to assist with weather resistance if a person wants, and there are no end of upgrades and accessories for the 98 Mauser. But let me assure you these rifles come ready to shoot (I have a couple) and they generally shoot quite good.
I dislike the Savage on many levels and believe those who purchase them are throwing money away, but that is just my opinion. They have considerable issues, not all, but more than the norm. Seriously have your young followers take a good look at the Tradex sight and get into a real rifle which if they like can upgrade and keep for a lifetime of service and PRIDE
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The Tradex thing is fine if you are a long experienced shooter, and know the ins and outs of 96s, 98s, 1600s and so on. It's easy to get a rifle you can't scope at all, or can't scope without ultra-high rings, etc.

There is no point in trying to get a "good" first rifle, fishing rod, tennis racket, pogo stick... You don't know a darn thing, so you're not going to get anything that will please you once you know shoot from shinola. I advise people to buy something cheap and cheerful.
 
Bartledan said:
The Tradex thing is fine if you are a long experienced shooter, and know the ins and outs of 96s, 98s, 1600s and so on. It's easy to get a rifle you can't scope at all, or can't scope without ultra-high rings, etc.

There is no point in trying to get a "good" first rifle, fishing rod, tennis racket, pogo stick... You don't know a darn thing, so you're not going to get anything that will please you once you know shoot from shinola. I advise people to buy something cheap and cheerful.
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Agree and disagree Dan, the guys at Tradex are extremely helpful and will walk you through everything start to finish.....
 
Lots of people saying, "good gun for the money".
If it were a good gun, they'd say it's a good gun. Good gun for the money, means it's a cheap gun.

The Axis is a cheap gun. It's entry level and marketed as such.

Good on Savage for putting guns in the hands of the financially embarrassed. We need to shoot too.
 
I've had 3 of them. 2 .223's and a 22-250.

All were good shooters with factory ammo. All needed their triggers worked to be acceptable to me. All were weak in the wrist of the factory stock and would flex on the bench, not an issue to me anywhere else. I never had a mag issue personally.

I just recommended one in .223 to a buddy. He topped it with a 4-12 Banner and put the factory 3-9 on the 10/22 he bought the same day.

It took very little time to dial in the Axis and he's very happy with both irons and how it all turned out.

If I needed a mag fed budget rifle that I wasn't afraid to hurt, I would have another one...though I would prefer an XS7 with a magazine :)
 
petew said:
It is fashionable to bash the Axis, this shows everyone that you know what you are talking about. Make sure you bash the trigger too, and get in there and improve on it.
Oddly enough they sell a lot of these rifles and they seem to function quite well and account for a lot of dead critters. The knowledgeable predicted it would be discontinued after the first run of production. Not sure what happened with that.
It isn't a high end rifle and personaly I don't like anything with plastic, rough finishes or stainless , but this is just my personal taste, it has nothing to do with function.
As a budget rifle it seems hard to beat . Lots of comments about the clip, but those that load and remove it without force and using a bit of care seem to have no problems. Take it out, put it in, don't rip it out and slam it in seems to work well for most owners.

It's accuracy seems to well documented to the dismay of many, but fact is, the axis shoots despite what the experts say.
Evaluate it for what it is, don't expect to find a thousand dollar rifle in an Axis box. If it was anywhere near as bad as many of the the forums claim it is they would be selling for $75 to $100 .
Botttom line the Axis is a good shooting budget rifle that works as intended.
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This is true. The Axis is the base model F150 of rifles. A good starter rifle, before a shooter has any idea what they actually want to carry for years. It is a first girlfriend, not wife material.
 
9x19p said:
Lots of people saying, "good gun for the money".
If it were a good gun, they'd say it's a good gun. Good gun for the money, means it's a cheap gun.

The Axis is a cheap gun. It's entry level and marketed as such.

Good on Savage for putting guns in the hands of the financially embarrassed. We need to shoot too.
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Preach it brother!! A $3k rifle and scope combo doesn't put a moose or deer down any faster.
 
Mine is awesome.
Got her second hand used for under $200 in .223 Rem

It's accurate, goes bang every time, has a removable magazine and is dirt cheap so I can beat the hell out of it and if it breaks or gets scratched up and filthy then who cares.
It's a great beater bush or truck rifle.
A cheap utility rifle that simply can and does and nothing more. If that's your style then it's well worth the very low price to try it out.
At the end of the day a projectile into a deer out to 300 meters is the same from a $300 gun as it would be from a $2,000 gun.

If you're looking for a match grade rifle carved out of unicorn bone to compete in matches against the worlds best marksmen then no it's not that.
There's a lot of people sizing the Axis up within those brackets and obviously being disappointed but that's because they're idiots.
 
Bartledan said:
The Tradex thing is fine if you are a long experienced shooter, and know the ins and outs of 96s, 98s, 1600s and so on. It's easy to get a rifle you can't scope at all, or can't scope without ultra-high rings, etc.

There is no point in trying to get a "good" first rifle, fishing rod, tennis racket, pogo stick... You don't know a darn thing, so you're not going to get anything that will please you once you know shoot from shinola. I advise people to buy something cheap and cheerful.
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Ever try and put a decent scope on an Axis with the 2 piece bases? The bases are so far apart you need extension rings.....makes no sense why they drill them so far apart on a solid top receiver. The action is basically magnum length for all chamberings....
 
I have an Axis in .270 and it is very accurate. I also changed the scope, The trigger, The stock and put a bipod on it. For the initial cost of the rifle and the upgrades, I could have bought a decent used rifle. Problem as I saw it was, Would it be accurate, What is the potential for someone selling a rifle that may have issues. For that reason, I started with a cheap rifle and made it better.
 
Bought a youth axis in 7-08 for the wife. put a 2x7x32 prostaff on it with a good base and a good set of rings. She has a real decent rifle that is very light and shoots well. There is no way I could have gotten her hunting with anything even close to that good for the price I paid ($450). She may never shoot anything with it, but it's good enough for moose and elk and it got her out hunting which is what they are meant for.

Come to think of it she already shot a couple coyotes with it.
 
I had one in stainless and there were three or four serious issues with it - no one has been talking about real faults here.

It would frequently fail to fire - light strikes every second or third attempt.
The clip would drop out upon firing - this gets old fast.
The bedding arrangement was bad - while pulling the trigger, the crosshairs would lift - a lot. When pulling the trigger, it required that I lift my head to keep my eye in line.
There was something else - but these three issues are each deal killers.

I like stainless - cheap and plastic is fine - everyone should have at least one loner rifle for the kids or visitors - but this will not be mine.

Yes, I fixed all the issues - but who will trust a gun with that many failures? A hundred dollars more will buy a much better gun.
 
I will be honest.... What I see from Axxis owners are, for the most part, new hunters that bought their first rifle and then were so enthused they passed their PAL and got their first gun then went on line and joined the forum.... then they find it hard to accept that there are many other better options in the price range....

Again, if it is all you can afford and need it to get you into the woods, do it....
 
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