A couple years ago I received a Savage Axis 223 as a gift from my wife. It was always a pretty good shooter, but I wasn't happy with the stock and decided to rebuild it. I picked up a Boyd's stock, a 26" Criterion barrel (223 Match chamber) from NSS, a SAV-1 trigger, and sent it off for CDI bottom metal. A local smith pillar bedded it, assembled it, and did the detail work. I think he did a great job. I topped it off with a Sightron SIII 3.5x10 I've had for a couple of years. It looks a lot different than it did with the flimsy black stock!









I had a load that was worked up for the original barrel with a Nosler 80gr HPBT, 24.1gr Re15, Wolf primer, and LC brass. This was the 25th-30th shot through the barrel:



The rifle was shooting so well that when a fly landed on my target the spotter dared me to shoot it. I hit it, it was probably the luckiest shot of my life:



I went out again today and this barrel just seems to keep shooting better with each outing. This was a 5 shot group at 100 yards prone off a bipod and rear bag:



This is a 10 shot group with the Magnetospeed Sporter attached (The shot to the left was a called flyer!):



I am pretty happy with how this project turned out. I think the rifle looks great, and it is definitely a shooter!