Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles tell me all about Savage rifles.

I just picked up a pair of Savage Axis II's in .223 & .270. I happened to be perusing Cabela's website online and saw they have a wood stocked Axis model now.

So then it also happened that they had them on sale from $479, reduced to $299.

The hardwood stock is a Boyds Classic apparently, the recoil pad is marked Boyds. There is quite a difference in the wood stocked version compared to the Tupperware version, it feels like an altogether different gun.

The gun comes with a Weaver Kaspa 3X9 scope with ballistic plex recticle, supposedly already bore sighted, but I'll check it.

So the gun with Weaver Kaspa scope, Boyds stock and accu-trigger was on sale for $299, then a $50 rebate from Savage, 10 dollar off coupons compliments of Cabelas made them $239 out the door from the Delaware store since there is no sales tax and no NICS fee.

Certainly not the greatest guns in the world, but pretty hard to beat for the price, and the wood stock makes quite a difference in the feel of the gun, I must say.

And those have the AccuTrigger that wasn't a deal .......................................it was a steal.

Cheapest and most effective is to buy a Boyd's laminate stock.




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.

We know the barrels are made in house but the actions are not. So why would ER SHAW just slap one of there barrels on somebody else's receiver without truing it first? I'm certain this question has come up more than once. ER SHAW has been in business for a long time. They would b the one to ask first before spewing out such statements before knowing. I'm assuming they do but it's a question I will be asking them soon.

Didnt Lazzeroni use Savage actions on their rifles?

I have a savage American classic in 308 very accurate gun and not too ugly

We know the barrels are made in house but the actions are not. So why would ER SHAW just slap one of there barrels on somebody else's receiver without truing it first? I'm certain this question has come up more than once. ER SHAW has been in business for a long time. They would b the one to ask first before spewing out such statements before knowing. I'm assuming they do but it's a question I will be asking them soon.

The ER Shaw contours have a shoulder on them and they fit up to and headspace at the recoil lug, the nut does not fit nor is it needed. the recoil lug we use have both surfaces trued and are a .250 lug instead of the factory .188 lug. We also true the receiver face, bolt face and lap the bolt lugs for engagement. All of the parts that make up the receiver are polished and hand fit. The threading, chambering, and crowning of the barrel are also all done by hand. The synthetic stock is a contract stock that we use, I assume it is made by Butler Creek, or six Enterprises, or one of the other injection mold companies, nothing fancy, press checkered, std 1" soft recoil pad and we bed the recoil lug area of the stock, further bedding would have to be done by the end user.

The turnaround time to manufacture and assemble a Mark VII rifle is in the 10 to 12 month area right now. Since these are a hand assembled rifle the Mark VII's are billed up front before the order is submitted for manufacturing.

I don't know much about gunsmithing,but I was under the impression that Savage's floating bolt head negated the need for truing an action.

The floating bolt head may make sure the lugs both seat. But how does it then make sure the plane of the bolt face is perpendicular to the center line of the chamber/bore? What does it do to ensure the bore and action are coaxial?

^^^^^^^^^This. Savages have never been a bargain, They initiated the current run to the bottom with their line of Axis rifles.

I have 2.... One is a 16 Lightweight Hunter in 243 and the other is an Axis 223... The Axis serves its purpose as a truck gun that shoots cheap fmj ammo fairly well. The LWH has been a big disappointment though.. It will be for sale shortly. Id have already posted it but I will be gone for 2 weeks and am just going to wait til I get home. From the rugh bolt to the cheap stock to the not consistent accuracy... color me not impressed. I hope the others perform much better than the one I have. Might be something as simple as torque sequence on the stock but Im over it. Only accurate guns are interesting.

The floating bolt head may make sure the lugs both seat. But how does it then make sure the plane of the bolt face is perpendicular to the center line of the chamber/bore? What does it do to ensure the bore and action are coaxial?