My father felt similar about his 7mm-08 Axis until he put a better scope on it and it's now a keeper. Speaking of an improved Savage, I have the Weather Warrior in the same caliber. It is stainless and has the accustock and accutrigger. It does shoot better thanks to a lighter trigger and a good scope but is noticeably heavier. The weight doesn't matter to me but can to an older man.

If your wanting to get a .300 win mag keep the Axis and you have a lightweight backup rifle with hardly any recoil and plenty of power. Option two is buying an improved 7mm-08 rifle.

I've definitely heard of people who held themselves to that rule. In Nebraska one of my uncle's hunting buddies never put more than a single round in his .25-06 at any given moment during deer season. He honestly may have gotten the idea from the movie "The Deer Hunter," who knows?

When i hunt, i carry a muzzle loader or a single shot breach loader. This has me carry vials of powder, and bullets, or cartridges in a pocket. God forbid i ever have to carry a bolt action hunting, but if i do, be assured i will carry cartridges in the magazine of the rifle, not in a pocket. :D
















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My first question to this "novice" as he puts it is why a 300 win mag? Do you plan on hunting moose, elk or big bear. If not then there is no need for all that extra horsepower.
Your 7-08 is a great cartridge. But I do agree that the 700 would be a definite upgrade but wouldn't be my choice. I've had 700s that were very accurate and some not so much. Same for Brownings and Rugers. However, every Savage I've owned and own shot fantastic. Lately my choice of manufacturers is Tikka (Sako).
I can attest to your events with the trigger on the Savage. Because the Accutrigger cost me a buck also a couple years ago. And it was NOT because of lack of practice. I shot the crap out of that rifle all summer testing different loads so I was very familiar with it. In fact, I don't recall shooting any other rifle during that time period. But when I jumped this "lucky" buck and shouldered the rifle my 45+ years of shooting instinctively took over and, expecting a light trigger, nothing happened when I applied pressure to the safety device on the Accutrigger. Now if I was on stand and the deer had walked in he would have ended up in my freezer.
So, I'm sorry, but before you criticize this young man for not practicing enough maybe you should, as they say, walk a mile in his shoes. I have and I know what he meant.
Now, as for a second rifle have you considered something a bit less punishing? Maybe the good old 30-06? More than enough medicine for moose and elk.

I wouldn't worry about it Ron. With all the practicing you're doing you won't need a second shot. Anyway, you'd probably be trying to dump powder down the bore and looking all over for the ramrod....:wave:

As long as we're talking about horrible triggers and I'm not including the Savage Accutrigger. Because off the bench it is a heck of a good trigger. Not the best, but good. The worst trigger of all the rifles I've owned has to be the trigger on my Win 88. Now there is no creep unless you consider the amount of movement my finger pad crushes but without putting a scale on it this trigger brakes somewhere between extra heavy and holy crap! And unless you're a gunsmith, and even then, there's not much you can do about it.

Even the gunsmiths can't do much. I had my Mod 88 rigger worked on, it helped a little but not much. Before the Guy who ran Red Jacket got arrested, I e-mailed them to asked how much it would cost to have my Mod 88 trigger lightened up. They said they can't do it. I took a lot of deer with that gun, but I hate the trigger.

I have had one deer rifle in my life mod 788 rem 6mm gave 69 dol new last one sporting store here had 1970 shoot 100 gr rem pointed soft pointi cannot tell you how many deer and groundhogs I have took with it my son brotherinlaw and brother took first deer with it 40 yds to 200 yds almost flat shooting gun ever saw a plain jane as I tell you find a spot to shoot this rifle will do rest