I have four Remington 700 actions from the 1990’s from respected custom builders. All were delivered with dovetail mounts and Talley rings. As I am looking at current precision rifle offerings they seem to lean heavily towards Picatinny rails. Is this primarily to allow scopes to be switched rifle to rifle? Because the cross cut lugs of the Picatinny provide more surface area and a “backstop” to movement under recoil? The two heaviest recoiling rifles are a lightweight.300 Jarrett and a .338 Jarrett. I am considering putting a Picatinny on the .338 as it is used for elk, moose and bear so the ability to go from 1x8 to 3x12 or even a red dot seems appealing. Any thoughts from the community?
I know scope rings and scope slippage has been a recent topic and I am wondering what effect the scope mount has on the discussion as they seem to be integral to the rifle/mount/scope ring/optic interface
I’m the wrong person to discuss the specific strengths of each of the mounting systems. However I believe one of the big reasons why Picatinny is so popular is because of its adoption by the military.
But your last point is probably the most important point about Scopes in general. The whole scope / rifle system strength is only as good as the weakest part / link. Plenty of people have bought a $2,000 rifle, then a $2,000 scope to put on top of it, but only to use a $20 set of rings and come to find out that it was a less than ideal setup. And yes, have heard plenty of reports of people having troubles, checking the Rings and finding out that they’re okay but then discovering that the screws mounting the rail to the receiver were loose
The one thing I do like about Picatinny is it helps with space in the gun safe.