Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Range Report Savage Edge

Now known as the "Axis." I bought one in .243 on an impulse buy Wednesday because while I wanted a cheap, lightweight truck gun, whatever that term means.

Tastes are personal, of course, but this one is likely the Ugliest Rifle of the current century. The finish looks to be a spray-on nuke-proof paint of some sort, Gun Kote or something like that. The stock is pretty cheesy feels sold, and fits me just right. It's thin around the wrist and in the right places for a light-recoil gun. Weight is 6.5 pounds without the scope. It's got a 22" barrel, which seems shorter for some reason. No irons, of course. The magazine is detachable and is "adequate." It's steel, but pretty thin steel and you wouldn't want to stomp it in the ground, if you felt so inclined. Lockup of the magazine takes a nice bit of pressure to obtain, but when locked it's secure. It has a tang safety, which is positive and blocks the trigger.

Now that trigger. It's not the Accu Trigger. In fact, it's pretty awful. The pull was a measured 7#. I called Savage to ask if this immovable object was normal and was told that their triggers run between 5-7 pounds. So it was at the top end of "acceptable," by their standards. It felt like pulling a mule along with your trigger finger.

Thankfully, the LGS I bought it from adjusted it to a still-bad 5 pounds. It's got a bit of creep, a very small but predictable amount before the hammer falls. It's not as bad as most 788 triggers as far as creep goes, it doesn't "roll off," is the most charitable thing I can say about it.

I mounted an old Tasco World Class 3-12 scope on it I bought for $20 back when Tasco folded. It's showing its age but, while no Leupold, its adjustments were true enough and it held zero.

Took it to the range with handloads of 38 gr. of 4064 behind a 80 gr. flatbase hollowpoint match bullet.

The first group I shot, my zeroing group, was 3/4" for three shots. Range was 100 yards. It was way high, and the remainder of my scant rounds were used to zero it and fine tune the zero. I only had enough rounds for one other 3 shot group, which was an inch. I reloaded the rounds when I got home.

I took it to the range today to reconfirm my zero. I shot a pretty fast 12 round group to see how the skinny barrel would do under pressure. That group size was 1.5", with 8 falling into 1/2". There was about a 1" flyer on round 4, and the last three opened the group to 1 1/2.

Now, I don't believe necessarily in "flyers." Maybe they happen, but I don't see why a rifle shooting pretty well will suddenly defy logic and throw a round out. In other words, I don't blame the rifle, I blame me. Especially toward the end of a fairly large string when my eyes get tired, which accounts for the last 3 rounds.

Overall, for a considerably-less-than-$300 rifle, it's outstanding. I think it will shoot an inch or an inch and a quarter most any time for a 3 shot group. I trust the trigger will get slightly better, or I will get slightly more used to it as it gets shot in. It's not an easy rifle to shoot with the trigger, takes extreme concentration to get moderate groups, but then I've seen worse from far more expensive rifles. The barrel doesn't seem to be awfully heat sensitive and it's lightweight and makes a great kick-around rifle.

One of the dads at deer camp bought the exact same rifle for his ten year old son. I think that is another great application for this gun. The clip was easy for the young fella to handle and we were able to keep positive track of where all his bullets were all the time. Oh yeah he could shoot the thing pretty darn good as well.

Does the Edge/Axis barrels attach with the customary barrel nut? Sounds like a good, inexpensive rifle to have around.

Yes, it's got the barrel nut.

You may be interested to know that Rifle Basix has modified their Savage trigger to fit the Edge. Cost is $85. Sort of defeats the purpose of a cheap rifle, but if it makes it shoot to its potential it might be worth it.

http://www.riflebasix.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

Bought one of these in .270 when they first came out. Intended it to be a "back up" at deer camp. Hung a $60.00 4x12x40 WalMart Bushnell on it, gets constant 1" to 1 1/2" groups with Hornady 130gr SST's. So far 7 different guys have put down 11 deer with it--but you are correct--that trigger is way past bad. Buddy took it apart, and managed to get it down around 4 1/2 to 5 pounds. Sure nothing "special" about these rifles, but for the money they do the job, and I guess in the end thats all thats necessary.That Basix trigger just might elevate its function to the point that a person might over look the butt ugly part--maybe!

Buddy of mine came over to the house a couple weeks ago with one in .223. I cut a coil and a half off the trigger return spring and took the polishing wheel to all the contact points. In less than an hour the trigger was exactly 3#s and more than acceptable. He had some factory Hornady fodder and I loaded him some Hornady 75 HPBTs over some RE-15...

It ran the factory fodder well under an inch right out of the box... in the .6's if I remember right. The 75s cut a nice 5-shot ragged hole that was right at .5". Nice to see a .223 with a 1:9" barrel for $250 that'll shoot like that. I think I'll pick one up next week... if it'll shoot the 75 AMax.

What's the going rate on these rifles right now?

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=202308104

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=202617221

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=202529772

and the new and improved Axis http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=202718416