Back when I was not so focused on trying to tailor an impression to a specific area of the country, I beaded the stock of my Bess carbine and a rifle. Given that all examples(2, yes Two only) of this style of decoration come from the Northeast, and smoothbore guns of french origine or style, let that be your guide. If you have a .50, 36in non swamped barrel, iron mounted Virginia rifle with bead decoration thats probably my old gun.
Im pretty sure I sold it to Cumberland knife and gun works taking a loss for having messed up the stock with the beading
When I did it, I drilled the hole just a bit smaller than the bead, and used a rawhide mallet to insert the bead, no elmers or any other type of glue
