Yes they do... but 1-2 inches at 50 yards for anything "tacticool" is not much in the grand scheme of things. Something like 98% of all law enforcement sniper shots were taken under 100 yards. And we all heard about how anybody that's not a sniper averaged like 50,000 rounds per kill in Vietnam. I'm sure because almost everybody were moving targets. So nope I'm not worried about 1-2 inches at 50 yards
I may retract my last. I enjoy shooting and would like to think I keep a pretty tight group, but not competition shooting over here either. My groups, even at 50 are 1-2 inches.
Yeah, takedown rifles tend to always lose a zero when putting them back together, there are a few that are better than others, but it's pretty much always there.
They do also however tend to "shift" back into zero after a couple of shots, as the parts get tightened back together (mileage may vary).
In general that's a good reason to know your guns and what they are best for, shooting comp or anything else that needs good accuracy all the time, probably better to use a normal full rifle, just want a backback/truck gun to have just in case, and missing the center by an inch or two isn't a big deal, takedowns are great.
The problem with this is also “depends” on the rifle you are using. I will agree that rifles can loose some accuracy in this take down configuration but it will also depend upon the overall setup. By this I mean it the rifle a normal bolt gun and the scope is on the receiver and the barrel can be removed for transport (or worse, all three are separated)? In this scenario, I would suspect that it would loose zero every time and would take that into account.
The other scenario would be a rifle much like a T/C Encore where the scope is mounted to the barrel. This rifle offers the advantage of changing out to a different caliber easily. I is a single shot but they are very accurate. Unless this setup has a “hishap” such as bumping of the scope, I would suspect it would maintain zero throughout.
The last scenario would be a scout rifle but take down. Much like the above scenario, the scope is attached to the rifle barrel and should retain zero unless there was a mishap.