Refinish question

[Orion]

Going to refinish a 90s era Bighorn I picked up recently.  Previous owner buggered the riser quiver inserts so I'll be replacing those.  Initially, however, he chipped out some wood around the insert.  There's also a small gouge in the wood in another location.  

Figure there's two ways to fill these depressions.  First, just fill with epoxy, sand flush and finish.  Suppose I could try to find a stain to match the wood to stain the epoxied area before finishing.  But the depressions are fairly shallow and I'm thinking the underlying color of the wood would show through if I just used epoxy.

Second would be to mix in some sanding dust from the riser with the epoxy and then fill the holes.  When I've done the latter in the past, the fill spots come out looking darker than the surrounding wood, and are thus more noticeable.  

Appreciate your experience(s) advice.  Thanks.

[copicasso]

I use powder dyes and mix with padding lacquer. You can color match anything with this system. Minwax wood filler is stainable and works well.