I have QD mounts on virtually all my rifles and combination guns (25 or so). The exceptions are two or three of my single shots. The majority are Talley bases and rings. They are very well made, affordable, and I have never had a zero issue with them. Another four or five carry EAW pivot mounts. They too work exactly as advertised, but are quite a bit more expensive. All my combination guns carry claw mounts.
The main advantage to me is with respect to travel where a flight is involved. By dismounting the scope, particularly when using an R8, I can create a really small checked bag that doesn't scream firearm.
However, everything that goes to Africa has dismountable optics. If I may offer a short tale. On my first safari to Africa in 2008, I had a leopard option (yes there was such a thing). Jack Atcheson had arranged the hunt with Nick Nolte in Namibia. I did not at that time realize that Nick was likely the best leopard man on the continent. The third day, a cold moonless night, I found myself lined up on a cat illuminated by Nick's flashlight about sixty yards away. At the shot he disappeared.
As the cruiser drove up, we eased out of the blind and side-stepped to where the cat had been on the bait. A blood trail took off up a dry ditch, perhaps waist deep and four feet wide with overhanging acacia - think a black hole in a black night. Nick had is .470 K gun and I had a lovely .338 Mauser with fixed rings and a 3x9 scope. As we started up that donga shoulder to shoulder with his tracker's arm between us holding a spotlight, I realized my rifle was about as useful as a 2x4. I would have been better protected carrying it by the barrel to use as a club. Fortunately, the cat lay dead mid-stride around the first curve.
Over the years, I have twice been invited by PHs to participate on other clients' follow-ups (another leopard and buff). How do you say no? A dismountable scope was very handy on those occasions. No rifle goes to Africa without them.
