Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Hiding sight holes

I have a heavy barrel that has 4 sight holes in it. I have put the filler screws in but am looking for a way to hide/blend them more.
Can I leave the filler screws a little proud then contour the top with a file?? Any other ideas?? It is a CM barrel and I will refinish if I have to, but if I don't have to I won't.

There's no reason you can't do that but I'd just leave the screws since one day it's likely someone else will own the gun and they may want those threaded holes

I have used this trick in the past, apply Loc-tite to the filler screws and screw them in by hand slotside down till thsy are about one and a half turns from flush. Allow the Loc-tite to dry, then peen the ends of the protruding screws before filing them flush. This will peen the metal of the screws into the thread on the barrel, doesn't make them disappear but makes them all but appear to do so.

I'll go out on a limb and guess maybe they're holes for Unertl-style target blocks? If so, I too would leave them accessible for someone (or yourself) to use as such in the future.

Thanks gunswizard. That's the look I was going for.
While some day somebody else might own this, I doubt they will want to do a Unertl set up on a Turk Mauser

It'll work a little better Bart if you bevel the top of the holes before inserting your screws. Gives the peened metal something to lay flat on when the peening process is done. It makes the circle around the screw hole more or less disappear. powdr

May sound crazy but a little 2 part epoxy with a drop of black ink mixed in works. IT can be drilled out and threads cleaned if need be.

Here's a video put out by Midway USA that shows a way of doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YaSf9GhEkM

I whittled a peg from a plastic pocket comb. Threaded it in and trimmed it off with a pocket knife. Looked fine and is easily removed if needed.

just rub in some wax from crayon ( pick the appropriate color) then burnish it with a soft cloth. When and if you decide to use the holes a hair dryer will melt the wax and you're good to go.