Assuming a bolt action has a pic rail, is there any reason you can't use a one piece AR style scope mount?
I plan to move the scope between rifles and thought that a one piece might work better for that.

You can, but your scope height is going to be higher than what you would want on the bolt action. You would need a stock pack and some filler betweem stock, and stock pack.

I'd go with higher quality QDs for that application.

FWIW, I have two sets of Burris XTR QD rings and am not having good luck with them. They won't clamp securely to a picatinny rail, even if I set the adjustment to the point that I cannot close the QD clamps. In fact I just got an RMA from Burris and will be returning them to see what they'll do to fix the problem. We'll see, and I'll report.

I was not too confident when I opened the package when I bough them new. Little stickers on them say "Made in China."

I'd go with Warne QDs for a bolt action. Tactical stuff is just too ugly.

Leupold QRWs are decent too.

Have a set of those I use on a S&W 629 hunter package, they have returned to aero every time. Sometimes with it I want the scope other times the standard sights.

Not all rails are created equal as hey should be, saw one a few weeks ago that was .015 larger than another. The larger one his night vision scope would not tighten up on.

Thanks to everyone for the input and suggestions. While the majority of my shooting is on targets, the purpose is for hunting. It looks like this process will evolve over time. I have never owned QD rings but i am shopping for then now.

If I had to have QD, LaRue Tactical is where I would buy.

I use a riser on my LR-308, and the scope stays in the same Badger Ordnance rings as it does on a bolt action.

Larue QD mounts are okay, but they chew up rails pretty bad. I had a few and got rid of them. Now I use Badger Unimounts or if I want QD, Bobro. IMO the Bobro mount is about as good as it gets, unless you step up to GDI which is supposed to be the best. They are also around $500-550 new...but I think Cameraland has them on sale right now.

Here is my $.02....

Quit thinking in terms of "AR-compatible QD." They're usually 1.5" tall, and a lot more complicated than things really need to be.

To begin with, there is absolutely no rule that says it has to be 1.5" tall just because you have it on an AR. My Larue 6.5 Grendel has a 4.5-18x44mm scope on top of it, mounted in a Nightforce Unimount that's 1.125" tall. This allows me to get a proper cheek weld for bench and prone with a fixed A-2 style stock and no cheek riser. It also works just fine on my heavy 6.5 in an XLR Evolution. I've also had a 2.5-10x32mm scope in a Badger .885 unimount that worked fine on a AR-15 and a bolt action hunting style rifle (thin barrel) without having to have a cheek riser on either.

And you don't have to have QD levers on a scope mount to move it around. Nightforce and Badger both have very solid unimounts at a variety of heights ranging from .885 up to 1.5". They cost the same as a good QD mount but they're a lot more robust and simple. Get a $30 Wheeler Fat Wrench and torque it down to the same spec every time you move it, and you'll be surprised how close your zero is without messing with all those complicated QD mounts. They're spendy, but Spuhr makes a fantastic mount that will do the same thing. And there's really no rule that says you can't use a good set of Seekins, Badger, or Nightforce rings and do the exact same thing. I'd suggest any of these options before you put a 1.5" tall AR mount on top of your bolt action rifle. That's just goofy.

One final note: If you are using a ballistic calculator, you don't even have to change the zero of the scope when you switch. You can use the elevation and windage offset functions. Just takes range time to figure it out. Take good notes.

Badger unimounts link

I would go with QD rings that are the right height for the bolt action rifle with a single piece rail (20 MOA if intending on long range shooting) and use a Picatiny riser mount on the AR to bring the scope up to the necessary height.

Something like this on the AR:

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/213030...-aluminum-black