Stock repair and fitting

[ssgross]

Drill and dowel the front hole. Drilling is done very carefully...

That was my instinct. What worries me is the hole is so close to the top and weirdly shaped. I suppose I can make a jig to clamp the top part of forearm to a fence on my drill press, and go very slowly with a forstner bit to keep it from pulling off-center. The top of the dowel will protrude significantly into the barrel bed area, and have to be inletted. I'm a bit worried getting it nice and smooth without affecting the bedding. I suppose if I can get it close chisels, I can afford a couple thousandths all around smoothing it out with sandpaper. probably good to tape off the area around where the dowel protrudes initially to make it harder to get carried away.
For quick reference, here is the discussion with chuck's posts about his simple bedding improvement by trimming the tang bushing. I'm not sure what happened to the pictures he showed, but I'm sure his targets looked nice.
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=11313
I'll post back pictures of my progress, and lessons learned along the way.