The moment you all've been waiting for . . . (yeah right). I put in one dark photo to show the contrast.
The nickel installation was pretty simple. I just lightly scribed two parallel lines 9/32" apart (the distance at the height of the dovetail) on the buffalo side, framing the part of the buffalo that I wanted to show. Then I heavily scribed two lines 3/8" apart, on the outside of the first lines. I put the nickel between two pieces of thin rubber in a vice, and took the hacksaw to it, cutting just outside the heavily scribed lines. Then, I filed down the corners on the buffalo side, until I hit the lightly scribed line. I rounded off the corners, because the nickel is wider than the dovetail slot, and the image that I wanted wasn't in the exact center of the coin. For fitting. I filed judiciously until it jammed in after about 5 taps with a wooden mallet and an aluminum-tipped bit driver. (I know, I know, wrong tool / wrong job).
If/when you do this, make sure that you always file parallel to your cuts. I did a few swipes perpendicular to the cuts, and went a little deep. Also, make sure that you don't use too much force when putting the coin into the slot.
Wow. I just had a much better idea than what I did. Next time, I'll scribe two 9/32 lines into the side of the coin that I don't want to see, file down that side of the coin outside of the scribed lines, and then tap the
whole coin into the slot. There will be a gap under the coin, but I think it'd look pretty sweet!
Now I'll have to start looking around for a 1936 Buffalo nickel to match my rifle!