I'm planning an SKS refinishing project, and a friend gave me a good deal on his 54 Tula SKS, which I'm planning to refinish and tweak a bit. I want to keep it on the wood stock, which I'm refinishing, but add a tactical scope. I've already picked up a Choate scope mount. These are covered briefly in the SKS Optics Sticky Thread.
Some of the points I've gleaned from the sticky thread are that its possible, but tricky, to get the Choate mount set where stripper clips can still be used. As pictured in the image below.
My tactical scope has one of those curved hoods on the front, where the bottom of the scope sits pretty even with the front end of the Choate mount. But the hood hangs over a bit. I'll add an image of my scope in later.
What I'd like to know is, should I also be thinking about a casing deflector? And will a deflector fit nicely on such an arrangement with the Choate mount, and without further impeding any other aspect of the action etc? Can you still load with stripper clips if using a deflector? Is there a certain deflector I should be looking for? I'd like to still use my iron sights, so would prefer deflectors that don't replace the rear sight (though I suppoe I could add a rear sight to the back of the receiver?).
Any feedback from SKS owners who have used a Choate mount would be greatly appreciated.
(image below from the sticky thread, another user's image - not my gun, but mine will be very similar)
Some of the points I've gleaned from the sticky thread are that its possible, but tricky, to get the Choate mount set where stripper clips can still be used. As pictured in the image below.
My tactical scope has one of those curved hoods on the front, where the bottom of the scope sits pretty even with the front end of the Choate mount. But the hood hangs over a bit. I'll add an image of my scope in later.
What I'd like to know is, should I also be thinking about a casing deflector? And will a deflector fit nicely on such an arrangement with the Choate mount, and without further impeding any other aspect of the action etc? Can you still load with stripper clips if using a deflector? Is there a certain deflector I should be looking for? I'd like to still use my iron sights, so would prefer deflectors that don't replace the rear sight (though I suppoe I could add a rear sight to the back of the receiver?).
Any feedback from SKS owners who have used a Choate mount would be greatly appreciated.
(image below from the sticky thread, another user's image - not my gun, but mine will be very similar)
I found out after I bought a deflector 
