Guns, Bows, Shooting Sports, and Hunting Won a Savage 223 combo rife, now what.

[moparguy]

Title pretty much tells the tail. Won a 223 Savage Axis with 3x9 scope at the American Legion. I really don't have a use back home for a 223, thinking about not shooting it, but selling and applying the money toward a scope for the Mdl. 11, 300 WSM I picked up at auction last December.



That said, I'm am in ND and will be for a few more months and prairie dogs are plentiful and I do know a couple big ranches that I can do population control for. So, other that the need to do a quick trigger job (does not have an Accu trigger), any comments or first hand experience with this particular long gun?

It's a 1 to 9 twist.

 

[The patriot]

No experience with that perticular gun but my motto is, you can never have too many guns. :-laf

 

[VolsFan]

I won a savage axis 25. 06 back in the fall at a legion gun bonanza also. I like the 25. 06 but wasnt too crazy about the axis. Never did shoot it, it might have been great, I dont know,ended up selling it. Looks the same as the Ruger American rifles out now. This was black synthetic/blued barrel. My niece has the axis youth model . 243 in synthetic camo/stainless, and its pretty sharp!Naturally you will get top dollar if you dont shoot it if you are planning on selling it. I think retail on one with the bushnell 3x9 is $350. If you are out in prairie dog country with no rifle other than the . 223 you just won, I would definitely be using it. Just not sure what price you would get for a used axis, probably better off keeping it for a work gun, you wont care if it gets scratched of scuffed, you might end up liking it.

 

[moparguy]

my motto is, you can never have too many guns. :-laf

Used to be mine as well, I'm coming 62 and was bred, born and raised in the very rural South (as in raised and worked, shot and hunted in the woods as a way of life). Over a lifetime as a shooter and hunter I've only sold one gun, a H&R 22 revolver back in the early 70s that I still regret. I won't talk about the quantity on a public board but it's a couple and I really don't anticipate buying more. Having said that I picked up two short guns and one long last winter a ATF forced auction, so go figure. One can have enough, just not "too many"

VolsFan, this one is the camo blued version, and it would make a good truck gun. I may give into temptation and see if it'll live up to the . 5 moa some talk about. Ammo may be a problem. I visited the best local store yesterday and no 223. When a new piece lands at my place I usually pick up 2 or 3 boxes of the expected to be best rounds for it, then see what it likes. That may be a problem this goaround.

 

[BIGNASTY]

If its anything like the Savage Predator combo that my Nephew has in 223 its a shooter!!!!

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Good luck finding ammo. That's all I have to say.

 

[Axtell3]

The ammo will be back. Trigger you can work on, or Timney and rifle basix both make repalcements for it. I put the timney in a 243, and i went fro 4 inches at 100 yards to one holeing. It's that much better.

The stock is a bit flimsey at the wrist. Savage shooters has a lot of info on fixing that up. The 223 would be good for coyotes too!

 

[AABEN]

Yes it will be a 1 in 9 twist it will shoot very good with bullets from 45 gr up to 65 gr. Does it have 223 on the barrel or does it have 5. 56? If 223 the the MIL bullets will raise the pressure on the gun. I have never hard of any one that had any trouble shoot the 5. 56 in the 223. GOOD LUCK

 

[AMink]

You can shoot . 223 in a chamber marked 5. 56 but not the other way around. The NATO round has quite a bit more pressure. Heck, I'd keep the gun. I'm like Moparguy. I have sold one gun ever and regret it. It was a Colt 1911. D'oh!:{

 

[sarj]

... . i have sold one gun ever and regret it. It was a colt 1911. D'oh!:{

what were you thinkin'???!!!!!

 

[AMink]

what were you thinkin'???!!!!!

Apparently I wasn't...

 

[moparguy]

Well, boredom and my young partner in crime (stealing oil patch money) who's just discovered the fun of shooting and guns in general made the decision. I'm shooting the new gun. Since the bug bit him last fall he's bought 2 Smith M&P short guns, a Glock mdl 22 and a Ruger LCR. Now he's discovered long guns and bought a Ruger Mini 14 Tactical that he's confident will embarrass my free, cheap bolt gun.

Since the decisions made, I did the change the trigger spring mod, trigger is still crap even after trying several springs so I ordered a Timney trigger last night. The stock trigger breaks at a little over 7 lbs and is just rough. Even with the lighter springs and a pull of 3 lbs it was still crap, I expect the Timney to fix that short coming.

I've also been bidding on and buying ammo, in case anyone doesn't know it's a challenge to find decent 223 these days (as opposed to shootemup Tulammo type stuff). I won 100 rounds of Federal GM223M 69GR SMK BTHP yesterday and have a current bid on 200 Rounds Federal Fusion 223 Rem 62gr and I bought a box of 20 Hornady 55 gr. V-Max at the local shop for $19. 99, due to the current shortage they'd only let me have one box.

If weather allows, I'll head to the range next week and see how the little one shoots, can't be letting a ugly Star Wars looking plastic tactical piece outdo the old guy.

 

[BIGNASTY]

moparguy
If it were me, with just a little of your time you could be RELOADING and save money which is something that usually dont happen because the money that you save you build more ammo and shoot it, but something to think about

RELOAD!!!!!

 

[TJJEEPER]

AMEN! on both accounts

 

[moparguy]

Well, if my Iphone response happens to post, it'll be a Dang-it from me. TJ and Big, I agree,,,back in the early 80's when I was getting into reloading, my old mentor,,,(LOL old, he was maybe 45) said you don't save any money reloading, you just get to shoot more.

I really hate to buy everything needed to load in ND since I'd be duplicating a lot of stuff I have at home. However now if Lee still makes there little nut cracker reloading kits I might go that route. Guess I've just dated myself a bit

 

[BIGNASTY]

I believe they are still made I had one when I was in Loring AFB during some re-hab, Was not suppose to have anything like this in barracks but had one anyway. Then got moved to base housing and next door neighbor had a full on set up, we would do some MARATHON reloading weekends and have enough ammo for the next day or two :-laf



With the hand-loader you weren't going to set any reload records but it past the time and at that time I had mostly hand guns and had, had enough of FULL AUTO WEAPONS for awhile.

 

[moparguy]

The little one may be a shooter, trigger is still holding it back. Hoping the Timney shows up soon, that and a scope (currently running the package Bushnell 3X9) might produce something interesting. It made some ragged 1 hole 3 shot 25 yard groups before I stepped out to a hundred.

 

[Anthony L Holtz]

cannonball

Moparguy, I bought a Savage Axis 223 3X9 package for a varmit rifle. Very straight shooter! I have been told the Savage has a floating head on there bolt so it sets on the shell square every time and this helps the accuracy. Don't know about that but this thing zings them in at 3 inch groups at 250 yards all day long. The only thing I did was lighten the stock trigger as far as I could. Ammo is a problem right know. If this doesn't change this rifle can be re-barrelled to another caliber.