When I ordered my SH4, like I dummy I only ordered the scope and wasn't able to get rings added to the order in time, so I snagged a set of Athlon low rings off of Amazon. They aren't quite as low as the Arken low. In any case, when I ordered the EP5, I ordered it with medium rings, so I put the EP5 on my main rifle with the Arken lows - scope clears the barrel by about 1/4", maybe less, and I used the medium rings to put the SH4 on a long barreled AR. Both seemed to work out really well. In your case, I can see why you'd want to drop that scope down a bit - that's a pretty big gap between the barrel and scope bell - but I've seen worse.

I wish I'd have seen this before I ordered - I might see if I can call and get them to swap to the lower rings, although I am using a heavy varmint profile barrel. I'll see if I can get them on the phone to see what they have to say about it.

I used the CYCLOPS coupon code and it worked like a champ - it doesn't quite pay for the whole thing anymore, but it did slash $170 off the top of my order.

I just ordered some Vibra-TITE for this specific purpose, so I second that recommendation

Talking with the friend of mine who has been talking me through a .223 build, he seemed to think that I was getting too much scope when I ordered the EP5. The build is a dedicated varmint gun, so I want something that I'm comfortable shooting small targets to 300ish yards - I think it's a great choice.