Does anyone have any recommendations for stiffening the front end of a Axis stock?
Cheapest and most effective is to buy a Boyd's laminate stock.
ER SHAW builds all there custom rifles around the Savage action that should say something.
It says they want to cut corners.
Yea whatever
Do you own one a Shaw Mark VII? They're charging $490 for a Savage action, but what work has been done to it, has it been trued in any way? The stock looks suspiciously like a run of the mill Boyd's because the prices match up closely, and they don't currently offer a synthetic version. Sure you can get a helical fluted barrel and some other options like a muzzle brake but you're nearly $1K into the base model rifle that probably won't shoot any better than a factory Savage.
I can pick up a Savage rifle with a $50-100 rebate, drop it in a Boyd's stock, and have it shoot as good as the Shaw MKVII and save an average of $300. Or I can skip the Boyd's stock and drop the barreled action in a McMillan for the same price as the Shaw, or if I buy a long action then I can use a B&C Medalist and save about $200 on the MKVII.
I really have a feeling Shaw isn't doing anything special to the actions and just assembling a rifle with off the shelf actions and calling it a custom. The way I look at it I can buy a Kimber Montana for the price of a base model Shaw and if I don't like it get my money back. If I buy a tricked out MKVII I'm almost the cost of a new Barrett Filedcraft, and I again know which I can get my money back out of it.
There is nothing wrong IMO opinion if a guy wants to have Shaw assemble a rifle for them in a cartridge that isn't standard offering. However with patience a guy could assemble the same rifle for less money with better options. I'm just over $1100 into my build I posted pictures of with all the work shown and started in August of 2016 when I bought the barrel. It then took me until Feb 2017 before I found the right deal on a Savage action.
I paid $250 plus shipping and transfer for the used .223 Savage Accustock with DBM, I sold the barrel for $75, scope for $35, and extra youth stock for $35. So after buying the recoil lug, bolt handle and lift kit that leaves me about $200 into the rifle. 6X45mm X-caliber barrel $300 on sale, action work, barrel, and bolt fluting was $332, Cerakote, engraving and Hydrodip on the stock was another $300. I have $450 that I spent for the scope, rings, and bases that have yet to go on, but that puts me at a total of $1582 in my build, to get something close to what I did from Shaw will run $1300 without scope.
