After a couple days of head scratching, and some internet searches for stockmakers to do the job; I figured I couldn't pay someone $175-$200 to inlet the plate, or attempt it on my nice wood either. But I did figure out a third option!
I had the stocks cut about 1" longer than I needed to allow for buttplate fitting, so I figured if I screwed it up, I could shorten the stocks and start over without being too short. So I came up with this plan. I took the buttplate off the short piece of wood, and then cut all the excess wood off using my wood bandsaw. When I got very close to the lip that sits behind the edge of the plate I stopped. I then took the wood insert to my belt sander and removed the rest of the excess wood, down to the bare minimum.
At this point I traced the buttplate onto the stock, and got out my carving tools. With various gouges I relieved the area under the wood insert until I could drop it into the recess. I then began to fit the buttplate to the stock, and when I got the entire edge fitted I tried it with the wooden insert installed in the plate, and sitting on the stock. I relieved some more wood until the plate set flush to the edge of the stock.
Next step was to mix up some Acraglass Gel and dye it brown. None of it will show when finished, but if there's even a thin line it will match the wood and blend in. I filled the recess with glass and greased all the metal surfaces on the buttplate. Then I squeezed the buttplate and wood into the recess and clamped it with a long wood clamp. I wiped off most of the excess that oozed out, and set it aside for a couple hours.
After the gel lost it's tacky feel, I slipped a razor knife under the buttplate and popped it off. This is just a safety thing with me, as I'm always afraid to let it completely set without trying to free the metal. If it's stuck when semi hard I can still get it off, but if I wait over night, it's there forever!
I've now got the skeletonized pattern installed without the tricky inletting and I can reinstall the plate while I work the wood down to fit. Once fitted to the plate I'll sand and finish the stocks with the plate installed, removing it only when I apply the final finish on the wood!
Wish I had the time to to develope those sort of skills.
That was interesting and I burned it into what memory I have left, to be used in the future. 
