Why not fix the original mistake? Following a booboo with a cobble is seldom satisfying (says me the master of cobbles and coverups) Fill the holes and redrill. The gun will always have had a mistake no big deal. You will feel better seeing slight evidence of your fix then seeing your mistake. My guess is you planned for the lock bolt to be kind of centered in the nose of the pan and now it is not. That will be distracting.
You will likely see the plugged hole, but no one will see the notched lock bolt until you take it apart. I'd rather go with a notched bolt than a plug.
Additionally, plenty of original rifles had notched lock bolts. this may not have been an error in workmanship. Instead, good architecture may have required the nose of the lock to be a bit lower, requiring a lock bolt that infringes upon the rr channel.
I've been taught that the priority in lock placement is:
1: touch hole
2: orientation of the lock plate for good architecture
3: front lock bolt placement
Note that lock bolt placement comes 3rd, not second.
the tail of the lock plate has a lot to do with how the gun transitions to the wrist. If you let the front lock bolt drive lock placement, then you may compromise the position of the tail and the transition to the wrist.
Norm
