Noted and expected the western guys to respond as they did.
Once you are used to it, cheek weld isn't an issue.
As I said, you can't expect it to be a bean field rifle, but out to 200 yards or a bit more, the set up works fine.
Light gathering ability of the Leupold is excellent, and the peep is fast, if you lift the scope to find it unusable for any reason.
Cheek weld on the aperture is just fine BTW.
Adding a pad would make the peep unusable, ain't going to happen.
Have I used the peep? Absolutely! Walking in thick bush with fresh snow on the trees is very hard to do with scopes. Yes, you can try to keep it under your armpit, or hope the brush doesn't snag the linkage on the flip ups and wreck 'em, or they freeze shut. Been there, done that.
I use this rifle a lot. The only one set up this way, and damned handy.
Never had it move, it's stronger than you might think.
Consider it an eastern set up if you will, as you will still find a lot of them in eastern hunt camps.
Line of sight is higher than the same scope with a traditional mount, but not higher than a large varmint scope, so I don't give that argument any weight.
Oh yes, I have a hinge mount, but on this rifle, it would require much taller irons to allow them to be used.