phew! Sooo many replies! I guess I'll just have to chime in.
Seriously I'm surprised there isn't anyone else who has at least tried this mount. Jeff Cooper conceived the "scout rifle" decades ago and, from my perspective, the Winchester Model 94 with an appropriate scope fits his bill pretty well. A lever action has the added benefit of being ambidextrous. My son and I are both left-handed (right minded).
The challenge is mounting a scope on a top eject post-64 model 1894. Many years ago I was able to find a scope mount that attached to the left side of the receiver but, in order to allow the spent shells to eject, the mount was set slightly off side to the left and the brass still bounced off of the scope body. I was never really happy with this compromise and I'm convinced that at least one scope went back to the mfg because of a loss of adjustment caused by the constant rapping. When I saw DR Pearson's mount I was excited to find an alternative that both alleviated the shell ejection punishment and aligned the scope where it should be - centered above the barrel. I asked my wife to purchase the mount as a Christmas gift. I also included a set of rings and a Vortex 2-7x32 Scout scope in my Christmas wish list. I'd like to say that it was all that I dreamed of. There are issues.
Before going any further I want to say that I'm happy with my experience with DR Pearson's company and his Tacrail mount. I had some questions about his product after the purchase and he was surprisingly quick on his replies. He gave good advice and information. If you're looking for a rail for your model 94 (he also makes rails for Rossi model 92's and variants) you should at least take a look.
The mounts: The AIM Scope rings looked solid. They have a lug which sits in the rail groove for a no budge grip. They are light weight and AIM says they are made of T6061 Aluminum. While trying to get everything to fit just right I had to install and remove the mounts a couple of times (more on that later). On the last mounting both holes of one mount stripped before reaching a 15-16 In lb torque setting. I let DR Pearson know about this and he mentioned I'm not the first to say they had trouble with the mounts. I went to AIM's website to see what their warranty information said and found that they sold the mounts directly for about $15. I paid DR Pearson $35 for mine
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The scope: I own four Vortex scopes and am quite satisfied with them all. They are crisp, bright and seem to be built solid. In fact I had purchased a Vortex Crossfire 2-7x32 (not scout) scope to put on the same rifle, using the side mount I mentioned earlier, before I found DR Pearson's Tacrail. In anticipation of Santa's arrival I ended up putting that scope on another rifle and the scope works great. I've never been unhappy with a Vortex product. However with this scout scope I've noticed that in low light conditions and with the scope set at the lowest magnification there is a significant amount of distortion at the edges. I think this may have a lot to do with the nature of a scout scope and its considerable eye relief. Moving my eye further from the eyepiece seems to reduce the distortion so it may just be a matter of adjusting to it. Jeff Cooper didn't mention that (to the best of my knowledge).
The DR Pearson Tacrail: I was impressed at both the light weight and solid build of the rail system when I took it out of the packaging. At first look you might think it was made of plastic. Don't be fooled; the rail is solid. If you've researched this mounting system at all you've probably viewed the YouTube installation video. The mount comes with written instructions that are almost verbatim what is provided in the video. They are also very simple to follow and comprehensive. Mounting the rail on a model 94 requires removing the rear sight from its dovetail groove. Follow his advice; use a brass punch. Winchester puts those thing in pretty tight. However it seemed there was a little more friction when I replaced the rear sight with DR Pearson's provided dovetail block. A little back and forth to get the block as close to center as I could and I was ready for the rail. The thing really does go together easily.
I mounted the rail with no trouble and placed the scope on top. Again, everything went together slick as grease through a goose. I chambered a bore sight and went to the furthest corner of the house where I had a straight shot (about 25 yds) and found that the laser was nowhere in sight. Even with the elevation adjusted all the way down the laser was still hitting well below the scope. I thought about my options and sent an e-mail to DR Pearson; perhaps if I filed down the dovetail block a bit? I set my phone down for about a minute only to find a reply from DR Pearson when I picked the phone back up. Now that's good customer service! He agreed that filing down the block should bring the scope into alignment.
A little about the mount's construction - there are two fastening points on the mount; one on the left side of the receiver and the other in the much talked about dovetail block. The receiver mount point is connected via a single screw. The dovetail block has a threaded hole for a screw post. the rail is sandwiched between a nut that fits over a threaded post which screws into the dovetail block. This nut fills part of the grooves on either side of a lug so, if you have an attachment that uses the full depth of the rail you lose use of that rail section. The AIM Sports rings, with the lug on the bottom, fall in that category. At the end of the rail there is a threaded post that adds stability to the rail by making contact with the barrel and can raise the front of the rail if screwed down too far. DR Pearson asked that I check this before doing and filing. As it turns out I had not turned the front post in to a point where it was even touching the barrel. This post is held in place by way of a 5/8" nut that sits on the post between the rail and the barrel making it hard to tighten down (up) without a very thin wrench or removing the rail.
I filed the dovetail block down a bit and reassembled the rail and scope (no torque on the scope mounts at this point - just wanted a rough estimate). Finding that I still had to run the elevation all the way down with the POA still well below the center of the reticle I went back to the shop for a little more filing. At this point there is barely enough room on the front post between the barrel and the rail for the afore-mentioned locking nut. However the POA now sits at the center of the reticle with a little wiggle room in elevation.
With everything looking good I started locking everything down with a torque wrench. I started at the rear-most ring working my way forward. I set the torque wrench to 16 in lbs - didn't want to take any chances on my new toy. When I arrived at the screws at the base of the front ring, torquing the screws became an obvious act of futility. The screws (or more to the point the threads in the holes) had stripped. In one of our back and forth e-mails DR Pearson said that another customer had found that the holes weren't drilled deep enough and the screws bottomed out. That may be what happened here - I haven't checked.
To wrap it up...
The DR Pearson Tacrail - 5 stars; Does what it's supposed to do and is well engineered. What I might change would be using black anodized nuts. The Stainless steel ones kind of stand out and, if you can't guess from my picture to the left, I'm a big fan of black. However that's a matter of personal choice.
The AIM mounts - 1 star. Yes they do deserve a small degree of credit - the stabilizing lug is a good idea and would have probably worked great if it weren't for the fact that the mounting screws couldn't take even modest torque. DR Pearson mentioned that AIM Sports is pretty good at replacing their product if they fail but, as I mentioned to DR Pearson, bad once is bad twice. I'll have to find another set of rings before I can actually put some rounds down range.
Vortex 2-7X32 Scout scope - 5 stars with option. DR Pearson offered this scope at price that's competitive with many other online and brick-and-mortar resellers. I can't really get a handle on how the scope might perform without getting out to a range and seeing if the thing comes together. With the weather we've been having up here in the great white north I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. Plus I still need to find replacement rings. When all that happens I'll let you know (unless I'm the last guy to post to this thread; then I'd just be talking to myself and that's crazy).
