1903A4 rings and M84

[clong1979]

Hello,
First post here, a little bit ago I purchased a 1903A4 and an M84 off a collector I know, but he could not find the rings. So for the past 10 months I have been looking for 7/8'' redfield jr rings and have not found anything reasonable. Last weekend during a cleaning of his work shop he located the rings and I picked them up.
When he bought the rifle and scope in 64' he tucked them away and never used them, literally still in the box with rail receipt, rifle inside in wax papaer is the way I got this. So today I'm trying to mount the scope and rings to the rifle, needless to say I'm getting hung up on a few things.
The front ring turns about 1/3 of the way and binds up, I put rifle grease on the base and mount still goes to the same point, I just dont want to break one my rings.
I moved scope all the way forward in rear ring just to prefit and the saftey clears, close but it clears, now the bolt handle does not look like it is going to clear.
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated, I'll post some pics in a few when not so frustrated

Information

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[Chuckindenver]

they need to be fitted..dont force it..youll snap the turret off

[Johnny Peppers]

And don't use the scope as a lever to install the front ring.

[Neal Myers]

A 3/4" wood dowel works well to turn the front ring after the top half is attached. Or, pad the lower ring with leather & use channel locks.

You DO have 2-piece rings (top & bottom halves), don't you? The 1-piece rings will not work on the M84 scope.

[JGaynor]

An M84 Scope is 7/8" in diameter so the dowel or rod should be that size. To fit the front ring into the base i think i would first try working it in gradually with some valve grinding compound in the dovetail. A dremel handi grinder would be faster but the difficulty is knowing when to stop.

regards,
Jim

[clong1979]

Here are some pics of the rifle, I'll take some of the scope and rings this evening. I think the rings are the wrong height from the few pics I've seen

[JGaynor]

Don't lose the box!

[jmoore]

It should take a fair amount of force to turn the front ring in the first time. To keep from distorting the ring you really should have a close fitting dowel or length of bar stock to use as a lever. Most certainly don't use the scope! Can't give you a torque value, it's sort of an educated feel thing. But once the ring moves past the stopping place it should be smooth turning and possibly require a little less torque than it took to get past the initial "bump". If it's really worrying, take it to a trusted 'smith.