With the almost universal use of optical sights on hunting rifles today, it seems a bit silly in my opinion to include open sights on a rifle. I can’t recall the last time I saw an experienced hunter in the woods with a rifle using the factory-installed open sights. I’ll admit that a front sight is handy to keep a rifle from slipping when leaning it against a tree, but other than that, the factory-installed sights are pretty much a waste of money. When making over a hunting rifle I almost always remove them.
   The problem is that the threaded screw holes remain. There are a few ways to deal with them. The simplest is to fill the holes with bedding compound and then sand them smooth. Although they will show with some finishes, if you match the texture with the surrounding metal, most spray-on finishes will cover them nicely.
   If you simply must have metal in the void, an experienced welder can fill the holes. There are wire-feed welders that can accomplish good results without overheating the barrel. If you are not an accomplished welder, use caution. If you decide to use this approach, at the very least coat the bore with an anti-scaling compound before starting. This will prevent scaling, pitting and decarb loss, all of which can cause dimensional changes, which are bad for a rifle bore.
   Another traditional way is to peen a screw to fill the hole. Start by beveling the screw hole at the top. The easiest way to do this is to just “kiss” the holes with a drill that is slightly larger than the outside diameter of the threads. Make sure to do this with a drill press, and set the stop so that the drill barely touches the metal and can go no farther. If you attempt to do it by hand, you risk the drill catching and going too deep. Then use an annealed screw. These can be purchased or made by heating the screws red hot and letting them cool. Clean the threads in the rifle and on the screws with degreaser, coat the screws with Loctite Red No. 271 thread-locking compound and turn them in tight.

Filling unsightly screw holes [1] starts with cleaning the holes and the plug screws with degreaser, then coating them wih Loctite Red No. 271 [2]. Cutting the screws with a Dremel tool rather than a hacksaw often means less filing [3]. Carefully peen the plug screws [4] and file the screws flush with the barrel [5]. Follow the contour of the barrel as you sand [6].

   Cut the screws off close to the barrel. I use a cutting wheel on a Dremel tool for this rather than a hacksaw. That’s because the cutting wheel is thinner and easer to get close to the barrel without hitting and marring the surface. But, a hacksaw will do the job as well; it just might leave a longer stub. File the screws down close to the barrel, leaving about 0.030". Use a small ballpeen hammer to carefully peen the screw with light taps to flatten it and meld the metal into the bevel at the top of the screw hole. Be extremely careful not to hit the barrel as it will leave a permanent mark on the metal. Make sure that the bevel is completely and tightly filled. File the excess until it’s as close to the barrel surface as possible. Sand first with a rubber block and then with a strip, using a shoe-shine motion to follow the contour of the barrel. If you did it right, the screw holes should disappear.
   They will not show with a spray-on finish, but if you elect to blue the gun the difference in the steel of the barrel or action, and the screws might show up as a different hue in the bluing.
   Because I use primarily spray-on finishes, I use another approach that I find much easier and with less potential to ding the metal on the gun with a stray hammer blow. Degrease everything, Locktite the screws and snug them tight. Then cut them off. Next, file and sand until the screw stubs are flush and the same contour as the surface. There will be a ring around the screw where the threads show. Fill that with Durafil surface filler made by Lauer Custom Weaponry, the makers of Duracoat spray-on gun finish. This product fills in any dents, dings, scratches and other imperfections on a metal surface. Durafil is easy to use. Simply mix it according to instructions and spray it on. An airbrush is the easiest, but any paint sprayer will work fine. Once it dries, in about four hours, sand it off. The filled areas will take on a lighter color as you sand, which tells you that the void is filled. If the Durafil fails to change color, you are not hitting it with the sandpaper because it is below the surface of the metal. Spray another coat and sand again. It will probably take at least two applications to fill the screw threads.
   Durafil works only if you are going to use a spray-on finish rather than bluing. But for a hobby gunsmith, spray-on coatings make a lot of sense. In fact, most of the builders of custom hunting rifles I know are using spray-on coatings. A spray-on finish might not have the look or the soul of high-quality bluing, but it’s tougher and provides better protection for the rifle, which makes a lot of sense for a hard-core hunting rifle.