I bought a Savage Axis from Cabelas's (
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,221056.msg2940810.html#msg2940810) and from what I can tell so far, it is a shooter.
The rifle was $150 with rebate and I put a $180 Bushnell Engage 3-9x50 on it. I chose this scope because it has very good optics for the price and has the MOA reticle. I also installed the MCarbo trigger mod which brought the trigger pull down from 7 lb 6 oz to 4 lb 8 oz.
I followed Savage's recommended barrel break in and then fired 65 copper accumulation rounds cleaning powder fouling every 5 shots. At around 30 copper shots the groups really started to shrink. I was able to cloverleaf 3 rounds of a 5 round group and put two rounds of a three round group in the same ragged hole. I did notice that it would start stringing shots vertical as the barrel got warm.
Overall I'm happy with the accuracy of this $150 rifle and look forward to load development for it.