I've been researching these for a couple months. I'd love to hear some people about the accuracy they are getting with these. I have looked at a few at a couple gun shops. A .308" with a 20" heavy barrel felt pretty good in my hands. A couple had what I thought was a lousy winter or desert camo on everything. These came with the Nikko Sterling scope package.
My interest is to get one of these for my fiance. She is recoil sensitive and I'd like to get her one for deer hunting. I'd like the ultralight stock instead of the varmint stock with the aluminum fore stock. They list one in 6.5x55 swede with a standard barrel weight (
http://legacysports.com/products/howa/specs/specs_axiom.html). Or I might buy a short action Axiom stock and a used Howa or vanguard in 7mm-08. I guess I could also get a .223 and she could use both with the same stock.
I would consider getting her a .308 but I'm not really sure how good the recoil reduction is. Seems to me that spring strength should be chosen match the recoil of the caliber. Yet the same stock comes with everything .204 Ruger and .223 to .375 Ruger and .338 Win Mag. If the springs are too weak or too strong, I doubt they would do much to reduce recoil.
From the magazine and net reviews I've read, accuracy will be acceptable for deer hunting. The worst I've seen is one reviewer who said the best he could get is 2" groups with one of these in .308 (
http://demigodllc.com/articles/howa-axiom-burris-xtr/). I'd say that would be plenty good for the deer hunting we'll do. A review in Shooting Illustrated showed groups closer to 1 moa with a Hornady .308 load. These were both with heavy varmint barrels.
