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I have read many reviews on it and they were all acceptable. The one thing that most agreed on is that the stock is a bit cheap. I was going to buy one the other day but when I got to the store the Trophy Hunter version of the rifle was on sale so it was only about 60 dollars more that the Axis II so I bought it. Quite a nice gun for what I want.
Get your son a .270 or .308 win and you wont have to worry about recoil and still have a very versatile rifle. Savage has really kicked the game up several notches, and I would say the Axis is a good inexpensive way to get a start. For the Money, I would step up a little and get the Savage 111 series and get it in the .270 or .308. I like the action of the 110/111 series much better, its very smooth feeding, and very accurate, and had a much better feel to the stock then the Axis IMHO.
I'd go with the Creedmoor if you are a reloader. You can get deer 6.5 bullets down to something like 100 gr. Maybe there are some reduced factory loads in .308 available.
I understand the Axis II has the accutrigger. This removes the most important problem I have with my Axis, which is a crappy heavy trigger. But it's probably never going to be anything but a basic rifle, not something that inspires pride of ownership (maybe I'm too jaded though, a kid may think differently).
The Ruger American series is worth looking at too. Direct competitor of the Axis.
Of course you can upgrade the stock on either of these guns.
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