When getting phone number to call customer service on Savage site today, I too noticed the Edge is now the Axis. When Savage rep came on phone asked about the Edge/Axis. I was told someone else had rights to Edge name and they changed name....nothing different about the rifle. Personally, I was amused with their choice of naming it the Axis....being a retired history teacher, first thing that popped into my mind was golly, named rifle after Germany, Italy, Japan alliance in WWII. Oh well.
About stock flex problem, something I've experienced with my .223 Savage Edge. I use a shooting cradle for the rifles I shoot benchrest at range. It supports my rifles on forestock and just behind the pistol grip area on butt of stock. Of my 18 or so scoped rifles, it is only with my Edge do I see at least a 1" movement of the crosshair on a 100 yard target when pulling on the trigger. As I may have mentioned on an earlier post, problem is in area of stock at rear of trigger guard. Stock is just too thin/weak and cavities in stock contribute to problem. Merely the weight of pull required to pull trigger when rifle is in my cradle is enought to cause stock to flex vertically. If I were to rest bottom rear edge of butt on say a table, hold stock near forend with one hand and then take other hand with one finger pressing down on stock behind receiver...I can see rear of trigger guard move further away from stock....gap between two spreads. As some one earlier mentioned, a shooter not using a cradle or resting rifle on just a front support, may not see such crosshair movement. This stock flex is bothersome. However, I still shoot some fairly good groups with my Edge at 100 yard targets. Busting clay pigeons on our 200 yard berm is easy with the rifle.
Earlier today, I worked on my plastic Edge stock making another attempt to solve stock flex. May have been successful by removing butt pad and filling wrist area of stock with epoxy putty. I also removed material I'd used to fill two cavities on opposite side of stock wall from where putty placed with a harder drying material. Have not reassembled rifle yet to check my work, but stock seems to have less flex when I try to bend it. If this does not solve problem, may be forced to permanetly attach the trigger guard part to the stock. Attaching the trigger guard part permanetly will not hamper removal of the barreled action and it will strenghten the weak part of the stock that allows flex.
As for weight of factory trigger pull, don't know what mine was, but toooo heavy for me. After fashinioning a new trigger coil spring from a 75 cent spring I purchased at local Ace hardware store and polishing the trigger sear area with 1000 grit paper, now have a trigger pull of around 2lbs according to a gent I shoot with who owns a lyman electronic trigger pull gauge.
