Like moosemike, I too bought my first Axis when it was called the Edge. It was a .223. Yep, my trigger pull was very heavy too. Tweaked the trigger getting it down to around 3 1/2 lb. It shot decently for accuracy. With only a firm/quick pulling of the bolt handle, will it eject spent brass from the receiver. With a slow pull, spent brass will fall off bolt face inside the receiver. Also, I shoot just from bench rest at range I'm a member. Discovered my Edge/Axis stock would flex in area where rear of trigger guard piece joins the stock.....had scope cross hair movement upward 3/8" or more on a 100 yd target when pulling the trigger. My flex problem went away when I made by a wood stock rifle for my Edge/Axis. Bought one of the heavy barrel Axis II 6.5CM rifles a couple of months ago. Has basically the same design stock as my original Edge/Axis, but it seems to me that Savage has beefed it up internally, so to speak. It's stock still flexed too when I shoot from benchrest, but not as bad as my original Edge/Axis stock. Again my flex problem went away when I made a wood stock for this rifle. This rifle has the accru-trigger, so its not anywhere as bad as the standard/original Axis trigger. Despite the problems I mentioned, both rifles shot decently for accuracy out of the box for me.
Oh, by the way. I encountered this problem when I rebarreled my .223 Axis to 6mm223 aka 6x45. A gent I shoot with has rebarreled several Axis rifles. He likes the low price of an Axis and thinks its action is good to build on when he wants a rifle with a more exotic cartridge. We both encountered this problem. Neither of us had a problem breaking free the Axis barrel nut enough to remove the barrel from the receiver. However, removing the barrel nut from the factory barrel to reuse it again on the new barrel proved to be a pain in the butt. Neither of us ever had this problem with other non Axis Savage barrel nut rifles. Seems in their Axis metal prep, Savage bead blasts the metal and those beads manage to get in the barrel nut's threads. Took me less than a minute to remove my Axis barrel from receiver, but about 45 minutes to remove the barrel nut from the Axis barrel, because of those darn #$@## beads stuck in the threads. Told my self I'd have a new barrel nut handy next time I rebarrel an Axis.
