I had overlooked this thread, but the bipod thing is an issue for the Axis for the reasons given. There are some tricks you can do with the old stock to stiffen it involving drilling and epoxying in some steel rods in the barrel channel. It will often help even if you don't use a bipod and it doesn't add much in the way of weight. On the Savage Shooters website, they have a tutorial for someone wanting to tinker with it. I did it on a 22-250.