I bought one. Action is smooth, groups are tight, recoil is light. Changed the trigger out to a timney. I own a remington and a savage. I wouldn't say neither is better than the other, although my .308 howa shoots tighter groups.
I purchased a Howa Axiom .308 about two months ago. I bought the 22" standard barrel. I love this gun. The only thing I didn't care for was the trigger setup, so I purchased a timney trigger with a 1.5 lb pull. I reload, and after a little work I got .351 MOA! .567 MOA with factory trigger...