2-piece vs. 1-piece scope rails

[SRMohawk]

What do you people think of 2-piece, as opposed to 1-piece, scope rails on bolt rifles built for any given purpose from light, fast-handling mountain rifles to heavy, long range benchrest or prone guns?

Speaking for myself, a 2-piece scope rail has always just been a bad idea. But it seems that during the past 10-15 years, they've become quite commonplace. Examples of custom rifle shops that use them exclusively include Dakota Arms and Ed Brown Custom Rifles.

I'm thinking of having my smith build a mountain rifle for me around a Nesika hunter class action, but Nesika doesn't offer a 1-piece scope rail for this particular model action (unlike they do for all their other models) and this really bothers me. I just can't get past the idea of it being less reliable, more susceptible to recoil, and much more of a liability than a 1-piece rail if the rifle is dropped optics side down.

 

[Onmilo]

I think that rigidity alone places favor on one piece mounts.
With a number of one piece mounts being offered with multiple ring securing slots meaning many more ring locating positions and the ability to use more than one set of rings makes a one piece mount platform even more useful.

Two piece mounts do have their place on rifles with differing receiver ring heights or very narrow receiver rings where shear force would be increased by a one piece mount etc.
Anywhere there are two like surfaces, a one piece base wins as my choice.

 

[dakotasin]

on any non-varmint gun, i prefer 2-piece system.
on varminters i like a 1-piece, though i really doubt most 1-piece systems do anything to increase rigidity enough to get excited about.

on my 1000 yard gun, i have a 1-piece system, 8-40 screws, bedded, recoil lug (and all that is way over and above what most people do for 1-piece systems), and i still wonder if all that makes much difference... but, i do like the 1-piece system because it is easier to align rings w/, and puts a little extra weight on...

for a hunting rifle, most especially for a mountain rifle, i would go talley lightweights all the way - 2-piece system.

 

[JohnBT]

Two-piece works just fine on bolt actions for everybody I know, unless they need a tapered one-piece base for more elevation. I agree with the blurb in the Sinclair Int. catalog - something to the effect that a one-piece base screwed on with little screws isn't going to add any rigidity to the receiver.

John