BJZ from United States, MT Public Profile

I spent my entire adult life carrying a long-gun for work, and as I advance in age, weight has become a greater consideration for me while hunting. I entered my search for an upgraded optic for my .300 WinMag big game rifle, with the 3-15x, SFP cousin of this Razor, but also considered Schmidt and Bender, Night Force, Leupold, Leica and others. Even though my budget wasn't totally unlimited, I shopped as if it was, and the Vortex Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x ended up being the optimal choice based on the vectors of price, weight and performance. Price was easy because Optics Planet just crushed everyone else (even the pro deal I get from Vortex!). Importantly, all the other optics that I considered were very nice (read very capable), but this Razor was literally a half pound or more lighter than the others I considered. If you hunt in an environment like I do (Rocky Mountains) ounces are pounds, I couldn't justify the increase in weight for the marginal increases in performance of the other considered optics. This combined with the low probability that I would take a 1300m+ (see "age" above) shot on an animal lead me to what I believe is THE optimal solution for my hunts, the Vortex Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x.

The bottom line was that the OEM Savage Axis stock was as cheap as they come, so it wasn't hard to do better. I like this stock, but I have some premium aftermarket stocks on my primary hunting rifles and they far exceed this Boyd's stock. HOWEVER, I did not need an $800+ carbon fiber stock on an action that didn't even cost that much. This Boyd's stock was the right choice, and not nearly as heavy as the Magpul stocks for the Savage Axis. This Boyd's stock takes some adjustment each time I remove the barreled action for upgrades or adjustment, but as long as you know this going in, all is good. Optics Planet has this stock at a great price-point, I added this, a Timney trigger, some Leupold glass and new rings and this little Savage Axis is ready for deer and antelope harvesting. I also went back to Boyd's for the metal trigger guard and magazine catch.

This is an impressive little optic. I bought this and a RMR-footprint picatinny rail low mount for a use on an Ultimak gas tube on one of my AK SBR's. While you can't "co-witness" (very difficult on a lot of AK's due to the iron site height) the optic mounted very solidly and can be rapidly used for effective, aimed fire. The reticle options are equal to what you would see in the EO-Tech holographic sights, but at a much lower price point. I own multiple high-end optics, and have an almost 4 decade career where I carried a rifle "for work", while I don't have enough data to say I'd bet my life on the HS507, time will tell if this red dot will be able to cope for years with the recoil and abuse of thousands of rounds of 7.62x39 ammo. So far however, this thing is great!

As described, works perfectly, very reasonably priced.