Savage Axis and Axis II – trigger discovery.

As posted in another thread, I recently acquired a couple newbies to have some fun with. I got a .223 Axis II and a SS 270win. Axis.

Years ago, Famous Grouse was setting up an Axis for prairie dogs and I followed in similar fashion. He replaced his trigger assembly, I replaced the spring. His is no-doubt better, but mine was still vastly improved from stock.

I first compared the Axis II, which comes with Accu-trigger against the old dogger .223 and was totally shocked to feel very little difference. The Accu-Trigger was better, but not by much. The difference was pretty subtle. Next, the new Axis .270win SS. To my surprise, it broke easier than the Accu-Trigger!

So what’s going on at Savage??? I have other Accu-triggers that are far better than this one and this new standard Axis performing even better than the Accu-trigger design has me baffled.

Are they changing up their trigger design? Are they ripping us off with “sub-Accu-trigger” construction? I haven’t contacted them about this but is anyone else running into characteristics that make no sense in their Axis line up???

Manufactur d to a price point

My father bought his grandson a Axis in 243 for deer hunting and wondered why they couldn’t hit squat. I bought a Timney trigger and now that rifle is well under MOA at 100 yards. I shot it twice at 100 yards and had the holes touching. He got a really nice buck that year.

Savage quality has been going downhill for a few years. I bought one of their BMag 17WSM rifles and I was far from impressed, trigger wasn’t terrible but the accuracy was not acceptable, at least my nephew’s axis had a good barrel.

I do have an older bolt action Savage in 223 and that is a decent rifle, good trigger and accuracy

stillakid2 wrote:

So what’s going on at Savage??? I have other Accu-triggers that are far better than this one and this new standard Axis performing even better than the Accu-trigger design has me baffled.

Are they changing up their trigger design? Are they ripping us off with “sub-Accu-trigger” construction?

I suspect you are on to something and that there are A and B grades of the Accu-trigger.

I bought an A17 to have a rimfire with a little more reach. It has the Accu-trigger, but it’s quite obviously not as good as the Accu-trigger on Savage’s upper-level rifles. Pretty crude imitation.

As I’m sure you will contact Savage, please share with us how this ends. Personally, if I sent a rifle in, I’d mark the trigger assembly so I could tell if they replaced it when the rifle was returned.

Grouse

I’ll be happy to follow up FG…. I ordered a trigger scale to collect data and enable (hopefully) a better argument based on measure and not “feel” or “impression”.

The price difference between the Axis and Axis II is about the same as buying a Timney replacement trigger so my head expects a higher grade accu-trigger than the one they’ve supplied. If they don’t do anything to “give me what I feel I paid for”, I will be more than happy to let them know that Ruger just won me over. I have an American in .243 that I set up for 55-58gr. varmint loads and it’s far more impressive than the Axis II, which is more expensive!

Last year I took that American out to the prairie poodle pastures and did some belly crawling with it. Very pleased! Adequate trigger and phenomenal accuracy, easier bolt operation, comparatively speaking.

Maybe it’s one of those “I’m weird” things, but the only reason I pick up these base rifles is because the price is just too good to resist the impulse. Some of them have been great shooters with very little modification, like the original Axis .223. I’ve doubled at over 500yds on the prairie! Not every time, but it happens and it just creates giggles when you know you didn’t spend a lot to see it happen.

Jeremy wrote:

Savage quality has been going downhill for a few years. I bought one of their BMag 17WSM rifles and I was far from impressed, trigger wasn’t terrible but the accuracy was not acceptable, at least my nephew’s axis had a good barrel.

Jeremy,

I have one of these as well, refitted with a Boyds laminate stock and the best I can get it to do is about 70yds and it’s a tumble fest from there on out. However, inside that magical line, between 50-70yds, I’ve got her grouping to 1/4in. Initially, I was thinking of dumping it because I wasn’t getting it to dial in (I even listed it here!) but I invested in better optics and that was the last ingredient to get the set up about as good as it’s ever going to get with this specific rifle. I’m hearing that glass bedding and bull barrels are doing better than bedding the old sporters but I’m not going to indulge. I’m going to have fun plinking away the ammo on challenging targets and keeping varmints and pests afraid of coming in too close! The 17wsm IS fun once you start hitting your targets!

I gave up on my BMag and bought a CZ American in 17HH, it groups better at 300 yards than the BMag did at 100

Jeremy wrote:

I gave up on my BMag and bought a CZ American in 17HH, it groups better at 300 yards than the BMag did at 100

I believe you! Anything beyond 70yds is hopeless!

As for following up on this issue of the Accutriggers, there is more than one construction of Savage triggers and each has been adapted to it’s own Accu-trigger design as well. So, you get what you get.

What does that mean?

Well, I got her adjusted down to a 2lb. break without sending it in as “defective”. It’s supposed to reach 1.5lbs but 2.0 was the best I could get from my trigger scale. The original setting was 4.6lbs and the straight Axis measured 3lb.6oz., which is phenomenally better than they used to be.

Is it better?

Yes and no. It breaks easier but it has a “clunk” as it does. I have no idea what it is but it doesn’t feel “clean” as it breaks. It’s a little weird but until I actually fire a round, I might be expecting too much from it. It is after all, an Axis II, and I paid a very low price for it.

As a side note, my Savage 12FV came from the factory at 1.5lbs according to my trigger scale. The two feel very differently, yet the out of pocket cost between the two was only $60…. both brand new!

My opinion/conclusion?

Since an Axis II normally costs the same as a base Axis + Timney (or other) replacement trigger, I’d recommend staying that plan vs. buying the Axis II. If this rifle shoots as good as my first Axis .223, I’m good enough…. but I most likely won’t purchase another any time soon.

Happy shooting guys!!!