Great weather today, so I went to a 50 yd range to zero the scopes. The black "dot" below is almost 1 inch and the red target is 2 inches.
I used factory ammo: Wolf Gold 223 55gr for the Axis and the AR15 (Windham Weaponry HB). The CZ 527M shot Wolf Steel ammo 123 grain.

My personal assessment: Savage Axis is finicky... It took a lot of effort (for my old body with poor breathing and fast heartbeat) to shoot decent groups with the Axis. With the AR15 and the CZ, I was basically pulling the trigger fast-- like pulling as soon as the cross hair seem to be on the target -- and still managed to get similar groups as Axis. I was blasting away on AR15 and was "reminded" to slow down by RSO. The "better" groups for Axis on the 3rd row was achieved using a "free recoil" method, but I could also see the reticle move a bit when pulling the trigger.

I believe Axis is a 2-3 MOA rifle as is with my AR15 - at least using this ammo.

Savage Axis (223) on bipod + 3-9x scope AR15 (223) - NO bipod + 3-9x scope CZ 527M (7.62x39) on bipod with 3-7x scope
1 inch
2 inch [IMG]
Axis only Free Recoil method on Axis
 Free Recoil method on Axis