.308 axis: upgrade or sell?

You know this is kind of an interesting question the OP raised. As y'all know many have that kind of discretionary income where at their convenience they can afford to buy and sell at whim. But for those who don't have that luxury. {I consider myself as being in that later group._:(} I frankly find it a tough call suggesting someone should sell and re-purchase. Or hang onto what they have and have it professionally accurize it to meet their needs.

So here's my advice OP.
I know first hand there are 3 or 4- things you could do if you are patient and handy with your hands enough so. As to accurize your current rifle.

1._Float its barrel.
2._Bed its action and add/drill in piller's.
3._Perhaps replace its current scope with a more suitable one for distant targeting rather than for hunting purposes.
4._By all means I fully agree with your idea of replacing its trigger group with a Jewell or Timney. But only if your disappointed with its now current trigger behavior &/or its trigger pull weight.

If you were to sell your Axis and buy a rifle factory set-up similar to the above ways for-mentioned. Would you. For your purpose consider it a practical purchase? (There lies the answer to your dilemma)
 
Heres my opinion...i recently bought a axis in 243 for mostly shooting paper. There is a aftermarket spring you can buy for the trigger to lighten it to 2.5 to 4 lbs. Its only like 10-15 dollars depending on where you buy it from. Tons of you tube vids showing you how to do it. Guess its a 5 min job. Mine is in the mail and will be here by friday. My opinion..i wouldnt cut the spring. Its prob safe but im not a fan. I thought about buying a new trigger but i wanted a "cheap" shooter. Gun, scope and trigger spring i have $425 into it. My point is i would keep the gun, get the spring, forget the aftermarket stock, and shoot the hell out of it. By the time you buy all that other stuff you prob could of had a nice new rem 700, or at least a nicely used one.
 
Put a Boyds Stock on it for $100.00, Cut 1.5 coils off the spring,do a little buffing. You now have a rifle that will shoot holes around most if not all rifles costing 3 times as much. It will be a very low cost,ungodly accurate rifle. I have 2 Axis rifles and both will out shoot most rifles with ease. We also have one guy that shoot's F Class with a Axis 308 and does very very well shooting against $3000.00 rifles.
 
The Boyd's stock for the Axis is a valuable upgrade only if the rifle shoots really good to start with, IMO. It's probably not going to shoot worse in the Boyd's stock but you never know. If it's a 1.5-2MOA gun like some of the Edge/Axis rifles I have seen then I wouldn't spend any money looking for accuracy. If it's already sub-MOA, you're going to keep it forever, and you're just trying to improve the ergonomics I would totally spring for both the stock and trigger.

All these comments about dressing up a junk rifle only apply if your rifle doesn't shoot well now. The only thing that would matter to me is the accuracy of the rifle before the modifications. I wouldn't go chasing accuracy with money on an Axis.
 
Fiveina dime- never seen a Axis that does not shoot SUB MOA right out of the box. Belive me I have seen well over 30 now. If you got one that did not--You definetly got a fluke for sure.
 
4runnerman said:
Fiveina dime- never seen a Axis that does not shoot SUB MOA right out of the box. Belive me I have seen well over 30 now. If you got one that did not--You definetly got a fluke for sure.
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My sister has an Axis in .243 that shoots about 1.5MOA with factory ammo. I have never loaded for it. One of my good buddies has an Axis in .308 that will occasionally shoot a group less than an inch but most of the time slightly over an inch.

I have seen plenty of good groups at the range from Axis rifles, but I can't say that every one I have seen shoots sub MOA, at least with factory ammo.
 
That $200 turned my Axis into the best shooting rifle I've ever owned and it is beautiful. And that $200 bought me way more rifle than it would have had I spent $200 more on a "better" rifle. What I base this statement on is for an entirely new thread but it is well founded.
Probably the only advice you are going to get here is either from those who have done the upgrades and rave about them or from those who have not done them and who's major factor for not doing so is only about the $200 bill.



 
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Yeah, I have to agree with Mohave and 4runner.

I own 2 Axis rifles, and would (and have, twice) laid down the extra money to upgrade them. I only have results from one of them (.223), as I have not fired the .308 yet and the stock is arriving on Monday. But for the .223, it took groups that were about .7ish down to .4ish (5 shots, 100 yards, using handloads) just by installing and bedding the Boyds' stock (I shoot off of a bipod so I get more tension and flex on the forend than some people).
 
Jay24bal said:
Yeah, I have to agree with Mohave and 4runner.

I own 2 Axis rifles, and would (and have, twice) laid down the extra money to upgrade them. I only have results from one of them (.223), as I have not fired the .308 yet and the stock is arriving on Monday. But for the .223, it took groups that were about .7ish down to .4ish (5 shots, 100 yards, using handloads) just by installing and bedding the Boyds' stock (I shoot off of a bipod so I get more tension and flex on the forend than some people).
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That's exactly what I was getting at with my post. Your gun was shooting great groups before you made all the changes and it happened to get better (no surprise) with a bedded laminate stock.

The OP has never responded about how well his rifle shoots. If he's not already satisfied with the accuracy, I wouldn't spend the money on the stock and trigger because it might not fix anything.

I'm all about taking cheap guns and making them better. I'm in the middle of building a semi-custom .260Rem. off of a Marlin X7S action. It's silly to some people, but it made sense to me.

I've seen some guys do cool stuff with Axis rifles on the Savage specific forums. I was tossing around the idea of building a cheap .223 with a used stainless Axis from Cabelas and a Boyd's stock. If it didn't shoot I could always screw on a new barrel.
 
My rem700 shot 3MOA with factory loads. It shoots .75 with my handloads. Just because it mite not shoot very good right now doesnt mean it wont. I'm not argueing, I'm just sayin...
 
My rem700 shot 3MOA with factory loads. It shoots .75 with my handloads
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Personally, I believe this statement applies to all rifles, whether they be an Axis all the way up to a custom benchrest gun. And this is also the caveat I have given people when they ask about my Axis, handloading makes every gun (assuming the bore is not shot out) incredibly accurate.

Admittedly, the Axis was holding about 1.5 MOA groups with higher end factory loads set up as it came out of the box. I dropped it to about .7 MOA with handloads, and then a properly fitting, bedded stock brought it down to where my average is about .4 MOA.
 
Mine shot great before I put the stock or new trigger in it. Because the rifle surprised me, I decided it was worth the extra attention. I bought the cheap rifle in the first place to help slow me down on my AR. LOL.
Yep, though the gun shot sub moa out of the box it was still miserable to shoot. I was constantly aware that I had to make sure not to flex the stock into the barrel and I had to do extensive breathing awareness just to finish a clean pull-through on the ****ty trigger that cam with it. But I knew the barrel and the action where dead nuts, I loved the looks and confidance the Boyd's stock shown and I have top notch triggers in all my rifles for a reason. Now I have a $479 rifle that shoots better than anything I've paid $600/$850 for originally. Just is.
 
Kirkpatrick, yes the changes will make it a greater pleasure to shoot. And you will get pleasure from doing the mods.
You might spend just as much money as you did for the rifle and the contemplated mods on a newer rifle, and it might not still be as good or pleasurable. It's a distinct possibility.
Myself, I enjoy modding, and if the basic works of the rifle are up to par, and IMO the Axis is, then I would mod it.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I think that I'm going to hang on to the rifle and see what I can get out of it, especially reading some of the success stories I've seen here.
I don't think I'll ever be that great of a shot, I've encountered very few guns that don't out shoot me (but they are out there). I think that I'm just going to get over the mental block that this rifle is crap and just enjoy it for what it is. After all, not being a hunter, that's what a rifle like this is all about for me.
I also want to get into reloading for rifles. I already hand load for all of my handguns and really enjoy it (and I think have gotten quite good at it) so I'm looking forward to learning and buying more equipment.
I remember buying a Taurus pt1911 a few years ago on an impulse. At first, after reading all the reviews, I wanted to kick myself for buying such a piece of crap, but over the years, it has been one of my favorite pistols to take to the range (not saying that I'd carry it as a SD weapon), but for plinking, and surprisingly, for accuracy, it's a ton of fun.
So yeah, I think I'll drop the $200 into it, and enjoy it for what it is, the most bang for the buck.
Thanks everyone.
 
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