No they shouldn't be ashamed!
Well we will have to agree to disagree. Since I own 2 of them I think I have the right to be disappointed that in 67 years of production they have not fixed a glaring reliability issue!
They would have to stupid or incompetent's to not know the problem exists or to not be able to fix it. 67 years is a long enough time to run out of inferior parts and restock with proper parts.
In the last 67 years they have made plenty of other changes that did nothing to improve the product. Look at how many times they have changed the bolt spacing, receiver profile, feeding options and designs, stock designs and bolt designs. Plenty of opportunity to have fixed aka improve the design.
The reason he Japanese handed us our rear's in the 1980's and 1990's in the automotive world and electronics world is because they learned from Deming to not re-invent the wheel rather continuously make improvements to the wheel you already make. Slowly improving the design and manufacturing methods over time. It was not just about new infrastructure after the war that is a loser cop-out to make up for lack of trying and doing things just like they had always been done.
The best thing that happened to Japan was our occupation of them after the war. Detroit laughed at Edward Deming and his ideas of continuous improvement. In fact that is how Edward Deming ended up in Japan!
If you make a product for 67 years and your not continuously improving it you should be ashamed. The only thing Savage has ever done is find new ways to cheapen a design or to cheapen manufacturing. I am not opposed to that as someone that holds and MBA that is always good. Ones professional reputation though and the reputation of the product should always come first and that only happens when you are doing your best to turn out the best product you can while keeping cost down.
Savage is too heavily biased on just reducing their manufacturing cost and doing it at all cost's and I have an issue with that.
The Savage 110 action and it's derivatives are ugly, cheap and crude designs that are poorly executed. It is a design and execution that I would sooner expect from China or Russia 50 years ago. It is amazing that one can make them shoot as well as you can given their horrendous cost cutting design. I am not putting them down either again I own 2. I am just being honest and frank about their engineering, design and manufacture.
67 years is a long time to know that you have a seriously flawed design and to do nothing about it. I would say that is pre-meditated at some point and malicious intent towards your customer. If fixed in production it would likely not even add $0.01 sent to the manufacturing price. In the after market it is a $20 to $30 fix if you do the work yourself after purchasing a kit and prob. $60 total if you pay a gun smith to do it for you but that is just a SWAG silly wild a$s guess on the latter.
The AXIS should never have been born the Savage 110 family is already the cheapest rifle action in the history of commercial rifle actions or military rifle actions to every be brought to market. Someone in Marketing Department wanted to have a rifle they could sell for less to attempt to bring the old 110 design price higher in the market and still capitalize on the $500 and under market. The Stevens line was cannibalizing sales of the Savage 110 series driving down the market price of the Savage line and increase demand for the Stevens models which sold for less at every point in the supply chain. I seriously doubt if the Savage Axis and Axis II cost much less if at all for Savage to make than the 110 series might actual cost more.
It made perfect sense for Ruger to design and bring to market the Ruger American because it has absolutely nothing in common with the M77 MkII or Hawkeye zero design elements, zero tooling shared, zero manufacturing methods. It also gave Ruger a very good reason to invest in new CNC multi axis machining stations and clean slate design. It gave them the foundation for the RPR. For the record the most accurate mass produced out of the box rifle I have ever shot is the Ruger American. That action the "Ruger American" is full of cost cutting measures but Ruger executed cost saving fantastically better than Savage did and ended up turning out a product that is more accurate and precise both from a user stand point and from a manufacturing standpoint than Ruger has ever made in it's history! It has it's own issues for sure. Probably the best budget design in American history. Hopefully 67 years from now any design flaws in the Ruger American will be fixed! LOL
