This has been one of my chief rants over the last couple of years… that the advent of the new rails and rings, which are actually pretty high quality, add so much height to the shooting position, that when you go from your iron sights to your scope you have to raise the cheekpiece 1/4″ to 3/8″.  On this project I set out to make the scope at the same height as my iron sights.  One of the things that I discovered is that when you order a set of rings (that they call low rings now) are the same height as an old set of Weaver rings.  You think you’re getting low rings and they are actually high rings.  The whole affair ends up that you have an extremely high cheekpiece when you get done.  After arguing with the parts for 2 years, I decided to build a prototype for myself to see if it could be done, and still end up with a set of workable, reliable, repeatable rings that ended up the same height as the iron sights.  I think this whole problem developed over having rings and bases to satisfy the tactical shooters.  I appreciate the precision and the quality of rings that are being made for tactical rifles, but what you lose  is the ability to shoot a prone rifle in a comfortable position.  Or maybe I’m just getting to be a cranky old fart….