PhilMc
Member
Have been looking for a lower end bolt action 223 to have fun with at the range. At the NRA show spent some time with the guy from Ruger talking about the Ruger American 223REM. I reload 223's for my AR so a bolt action in that caliber sounded like a good idea. Was also considering the Mossburg MVP, but AR mags fitting the thing was not real high on the list.
On a recent trip to one of my local gun shops I handled and checked out all 3. Guy behind the counter said that I may want to consider the Savage Axis which was on sale for $229. He reported that many of his customers talked very highly of it. This Axis did not have the Accutrigger on it, just the regular trigger setup. Went home and did a little research on the internet about the Axis and found most people spoke very highly of it.
Needless to say went back and bought it for the sale price and also picked up a Leupold VX-1 3-9x40 to put on the top of it. Trigger is about 6.3 lbs with my fish scale, not great but ok to deal with.
Gave the gun a good cleaning and bore sighted the scope in my back yard. Packed up my gear and headed out to my favorite outdoor range to finish setting up the scope.
First shot out of the gun was low and right, adjusted the scope and proceeded to place 3 shots with an inch slightly high. This was on the 50 yard range at the Grand River state range in northern Ohio. Happy with this I picked up my stuff and headed down to the 100 yard range there.
Took me about 3 more shots to zero the scope into the center of the target. Found that if I did my part this gun holds nice tight sub MOA with my reloads.
Using mixed brass with 23.6gn Win 748 under 55 gn FMJ BT Xtreme bullets.
Magazine that came with it works well enough and will hold 5 rounds, specs say it only holds 4.
Had my doubts about this gun but with around 60 rounds now I am extremely happy with it. Made sure I cleaned the barrel every few rounds for the first 20 shots. This is just a range gun for me and will not be seeing any hunting time.
Pics are 3 inch targets at 100 yards using a bi-pod on the front swivel point. I'm not an expert marksman yet, but am extremely happy with the purchase of this gun.
On a recent trip to one of my local gun shops I handled and checked out all 3. Guy behind the counter said that I may want to consider the Savage Axis which was on sale for $229. He reported that many of his customers talked very highly of it. This Axis did not have the Accutrigger on it, just the regular trigger setup. Went home and did a little research on the internet about the Axis and found most people spoke very highly of it.
Needless to say went back and bought it for the sale price and also picked up a Leupold VX-1 3-9x40 to put on the top of it. Trigger is about 6.3 lbs with my fish scale, not great but ok to deal with.
Gave the gun a good cleaning and bore sighted the scope in my back yard. Packed up my gear and headed out to my favorite outdoor range to finish setting up the scope.
First shot out of the gun was low and right, adjusted the scope and proceeded to place 3 shots with an inch slightly high. This was on the 50 yard range at the Grand River state range in northern Ohio. Happy with this I picked up my stuff and headed down to the 100 yard range there.
Took me about 3 more shots to zero the scope into the center of the target. Found that if I did my part this gun holds nice tight sub MOA with my reloads.
Using mixed brass with 23.6gn Win 748 under 55 gn FMJ BT Xtreme bullets.
Magazine that came with it works well enough and will hold 5 rounds, specs say it only holds 4.
Had my doubts about this gun but with around 60 rounds now I am extremely happy with it. Made sure I cleaned the barrel every few rounds for the first 20 shots. This is just a range gun for me and will not be seeing any hunting time.
Pics are 3 inch targets at 100 yards using a bi-pod on the front swivel point. I'm not an expert marksman yet, but am extremely happy with the purchase of this gun.
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