"Pretty impressed for the money! " Yep me too. . I got a Axis in .243 back in Aug. Had it to the range 6-8 times and was thrilled with how it shot. Tight groups, and pleasent to shoot even several boxes at a time. Did not take long to go thru 4 boxes of factory ammo, once I started to roll my own the accuracy just amazed me.

I took it out today on the 2nd day of general big game season here in MT, did not really plan to take a deer, but in the end I did. Slipped in to about 200-225 yds with a belly crawl on 2 small mule deer bucks and 7 does, I caught the bucks lying down, that's a first for me. Shot him in the neck with 95 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip over 41.5 grs of H4350, he flopped over dead, never even twitched.
I have been hunting here in MT for 30+ years most of the time with a .338 Win Mag, I have the .338 up for sale as I type this, Axis killed him every bit a clean as the Mod 70.338 ever killed anything.
Anyway I'm a believer now, you don't have to drop a ton of money to get a decent shooting rifle.