" 4. Folks have mentioned foreend of stock to have a flex problem. While they've noted a flex problem, they may have misdiagnosed it....problem is the design of the trigger guard part, which occupies much of the very thin wrist of stock. LOL, you can rest the bottom of butt of stock on something and while holding stock in front of the receiver with one hand, try using your fore finger of free hand to push down on top of stock, just behind the rear tang of receiver. While doing this, look at rear of trigger guard where it butts against stock.....you'll see the joint of the two spread. What does this mean? Well, for me when shooting from benchrest at a 100 yd target thru a 24X power scope, I could watch my crosshair climb about a 1/2" on a target, before the heavy trigger released. Wasn't my imagination, had a couple of other darn experienced shooters sit down with my Edge/Axis who also noted the crosshair movement on the target. This problem disappeared when I replaced the factory stock with one I made.....well, before Boyd's began making a stock for the Axis. "
Extremely common problem with most (if not all) plastic-stocked bolt rifles. The various manufacturers, including Savage, do not seem to understand that, unless the stock is quite stiff, the rifle will shoot to nothing like it's potential. This is a simple design problem. The plastic stocks COULD be designed to be stiff enough - but not doing so only saves a few pennies in material and manufacturing costs.
Personally, I prefer the earlier Stevens 200, rather than the Axis. The Stevens is simply a Savage 110 clone. My .223, short -action came with the standard grey flexi-plastic stock. I filled in the forend completely with glass-reinforced epoxy, mechanically locked to the stock (with the first 6 inches of the barrel ahead of the receiver bedded)....and used wood to fill in the magazine well (and make what is, essentially, a permanent bench rest follower (as I only ever single load the rifle, anyway). The result is that the rifle now shoots sub 1/2" at 100 yards, with the right loads.
Before "fixing" the stock, I could cause the point of aim (as viewed through the scope) to move upward almost 1 1/2" at 100 yards, simply by pulling down on the stock (a few inches forward of the receiver) with moderate pressure, with the rifle rested in a front rest/ rear bag. Pathetic.
The point being, I purchased the rifle for the barreled action and scope (it happened to be used, with a very good scope already installed) - and considered the plastic stock to be a throwaway. I "fixed" the stock only as an experiment - to see if it could be done. Anyone buying any of the "economy grade" rifles, from any of the manufacturers, should probably plan on replacing the standard equipment plastic stocks, from the beginning. Unless you wish to spend a lot of time and effort modifying it, as I did. Fortunately, pretty good quality laminated wood stocks are available for relatively little $$ (this is ultimately the type of stock I chose, though I still have the modded plastic stock as a backup).
