Last spring someone came on and posted the below photo of a new style DBM for the Axis rifles (on the right). He had purchased it online as a replacement/extra and this was what he received. Since then there's been no other mention or sightings of this new magazine type - until now!

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After sneaking down to the basement and taking my Enigma machine out of hiding I used it to contact my spies at Savage to get the skinny and here's what he had to say.

This is a new magazine style for the Axis/Trophy lines – basically anything that uses the plastic magazine base. Aside from the “Savage” logo molded in, the latch is a big upgrade. The newer style has a “divorced” latch that is pinned into the magazine bottom with a small coil spring in between. This newer style latches in with a much more positive hold. Either magazine style will work in any of the guns designed for the magazines with the plastic bottoms. These are being rolled out going forward, to my knowledge so folks may see both styles mixed out in the field for a short amount of time as the older style gets phased out.

They are backwards compatible on the vast majority of models. I can’t say all because we had some troubles with the older long action calibers wood stocks on Axis models.