Honestly, the grips are lovely. I think they're great. I did gussy up the silver bprd badge on them, painted it with adhesive size and silver leaf (about 15 bucks from the art store) and buffed it and then weathered it back with burnt umber, raw umber and raw sienna (the holy trinity of weathering).
As for the screw: turns out that that's where they have a pin, and it drilled out far easier than I thought it would... I then used a countersink bit to open up the holes a little, and then bought a pair of countersunk headed wood screws. They're only like 1/2" deep. They self-tapped right in there just fine. I've removed them twice since, and each time they've replaced back real nice. I think i used a tiny dot of the super thin ca glue to set them so they don't spin. All in all it was FAR easier than I thought.
That's the most mystifying missing detail. So freakin' obvious, and in all actuality, from a manufacturing standpoint, it's EASIER to use a pair of machine screws than to put a pin in and bondo and paint over it.
It boggles the mind it does...