Flyer from Cabelas, they have Savage Axis rifles for $219 ($269 with $50 rebate) this weekend. Various calibers.

Thoughts?

How could you go wrong at that price?

Bet it shoots well, too.

Calibers listed are:

223, 22-250, 243, 7/08, 308, 25-06, 270, 30-06.

This is a Savage company rebate, $25, $50, or $75 depending on the model, good till Dec. 31, 2015.

http://www.savagearms.com/promotions/

oh boy! and I need a 223 and a 25-06. momma is going to kill me.

Dayum. A new trigger for the "assault weapon" 223 or a Savage haw...uh, i mean hog killing machine. Darn.

Wonder if as a after market you could add the acc trigger ?

Save your money. Spend it on something that's not a piece of crap.

depends on the twist.

How many have owned? How did they do with Handloads? How many rounds did you put through them?

Dink

Just took possession of a Savage Axis I (with the regular trigger) a few weeks ago - in .308 Win.

I like it very much - for the price mentioned, I get a .223 to accompany it, in the second.

those rifles shoot with anything factory on the market. trigger is the only bad thing.

This is a great loaner gun for the guy at work, the guy next door, grandkids, etc. hand it out and if u never get it back you're out two bones and no hard feelings.

amazing that folks can ding a rifle that shoots well enough to get the deed done.

Guess I'm a dummy for having a few 788s, the axis of the day... not sure we ever paid over about 90 bucks for em.

Shot great. Ugly as sin, triggers sucked beyond belief...

I am thinking the same thing and in the same boat. Cheers NC

You might try looking around on the net a bit and checking out the problems associated with these rifles, of which there are plenty. A friend bought one for his kid. Had a headspace issue. He bought a Ruger American and never looked back.

Thanks for the details. That really helped me make up my mind.

The 788 was a great value and had a nice, crisp, trigger. The Axis is, to me, the current version of Savage's 340 series, right down to the crappy trigger. I don't care for the stock ergs of the Axis when compared to the other rifles in its market niche. I think that I'm going to miss the Marlin X guns.

Wish I'd have gotten those nice crisp 788 triggers on ours.

The ergo of a stock is an individual fit thing.

RE the headspace, I had not heard of that, but I've seen that on all kinds of guns, simple head it back to factory and correct IMHO. Just like we did with a Ruger 77 for a friend and one of the junky Win 70s of that certain era where they were sloppy...

There are also ejection issues. Also magazine issues. The Harbor Freight tool of rifles. A 788 is a pretty big step up, as is a Ruger American.

wouldn't give a dime for a ruger, but I might have to buy an Axis just to see if all the crap mentioned is true.

Shame it would take a long drive to go get one, that I dont' have time to do right now.

I'd play with a 223 in a heartbeat to see...

Buddy spends money like water, high end electronics, expensive cars/trucks with ALL the options, etc....but always goes for the cheapest rifle available, why the lack of priorities I'll never understand.

So you never owned or shot one?

I guess you get all your experience on net?

Dink

Life is to short to Hunt with a ugly Rifle...I got two of them on a gun trade a few years back, new in the box!!!I traded them off..Looked and felt like cheap junk to me.

Have you owned one? I have, and it's a MOA rifle all day long with factory ammo. Would be interesting to see what it does with some good handloads, and mine's one of the older ones without the Accutrigger.

My brother runs a 6mm 788 and it's bad medecine on whitetails. Very accurate and I've never heard anybody really badmouth these rifles. Guys in the know seek these out due to their penchant for shooting itty bitty groups.

I can't disagree on the Ruger-that's a very good rifle. Two guys I hunt with run those are very happy with them.

When I first started playing with mine, I had a little trouble getting the mag in. It was just a matter of learning a new rifle. I will say that I don't like the plastic release lever on the magazines-seems like it could/would let go somewhere along the line. I always carry the spare magazine with me, and have had no issues with it once I got used to the "nature of the beast."

I had a Savage Scout rifle back in the day. Nothing wrong with most of it, tho I found the muzzle blast out of that 20" (??) barrel to be a bit much.

What did suck on mine was the magazine, of apparently cheap construction and the source of occasional misfeeds. I googled up some Savage Axis evaluation videos and they gave it high marks, but I did cringe when they would pull out the mags and put 'em back in.

Other than that, the reported headspace issues in any rifle made today is a puzzle to me. I would have thought in an age of precision CNC machining the parts oughtta fit pretty well.

Birdwatcher

How do you run a gun? Is that like shooting one?

The Axis rifles are good shooters with a heavy trigger, a strange grip angle and a flexxy forend. The trigger can be made manageable with a $1 spring fix and the forend is a nonissue unless you plan to use a bipod. If so, the frowned can be reinforced with a bit of epoxy and a wire rod or carbon arrow.

I view the Axis as a beginners rifle for someone who can't afford a really nice rifle, or as a backup/loaner rifle. I tuned the trigger for a friend on his .223 and it shoots well under an inch. I bought a left hand .270 just to have a rifle to swap barrels on. Right now it is a .243 and it shoots well with a 95 grain BT.

There are a lot of folks who are buying them and then adding a $100 trigger and a Boyds laminate stock. With that they have more in the rifle than it is worth, but I have no business telling them how to spend their money. There is another group that buys the rifle solely for the action and then upgrade the trigger, barrel, and stock to have a match rifle. Supposedly there is a slight advantage in stiffness with an action that had only a loading port.

Aw garsh.....I wonder.......

I don't like magazines unless its a "tactical" gun and what is that good for, other than matches really.

I've shot 2 Axis and find no issues with them, but then I"m not all that picky about things, being a service rifle competitor for years, we had to make what we were given, fit and work. If I were a match rifle shoooter I might have been more picky.

As to the Ruger being better, I've heard that, but JES refuses to work on them rebore them, as I asked. Can't stand ruger anyway, and have that american in 270 now has to be going on 3 years, in the safe still in the box. Keep wanting to take it out, load for it, put a cheap zeiss on it and have it as a loaner, but just cannot make myslef touch it since its ruger. Evidently I"m having a tough time dealing with the old hate I have for bill and his anti gun greed years ago. More so than I thought.