Stevens 200 Boyds stock with plastic trigger guard

I got a Boyds stock for my Stevens 200 today. I started putting it all together and it all went just fine until the trigger guard. I block sanded the plastic trigger guard down to where it will fit the stock but I didn't realize the front part of the trigger guard was thicker than the hole was deep in the stock. I looked at the steel replacement guards on Midway's site and they are thin like mine needs to be. I figure I will grind the excess off of mine till it will work but I have one question. There is a little tab of plastic that sticks up on the edge of the plastic guard where it goes up in the stock. It doesn't seem to do anything that I can see. Is it something thats cast into the guard to get it out of the mold? Should I grind it off too since the metal ones don't have it? What say the Savage Gurus?

There are two different thicknesses (that I know of) of the front tang of the triggerguard. Instead of thinning the triggerguard, which will make it more likely to crack, I would use a Dremel and carefully deepen the inlet in the stock. I did that with a Boyd's stock I have and it worked out just fine. I'll be honest, I've seen metal triggerguards with the protruding tab, and I am not sure what the purpose of the tab is/was. I just left them as is, as it didn't affect anything that I could see.

Thanks Thomae! Will the thin metal guard fit the narrow slot in the Boyds stock? The plastic one was too wide. I may just go ahead and get the metal one.

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Originally Posted by Creed Bennett

Thanks Thomae! Will the thin metal guard fit the narrow slot in the Boyds stock? The plastic one was too wide. I may just go ahead and get the metal one.

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I believe it will. I had a wider metal trigger guard, so the way I widened the slot was to take a Dremel rotary sanding drum and using my hand (it was not attached to the Dremel power tool) worked it in the trigger guard cutout and moved it back and forth, twisting as i went. Then I tightened up the drum screw a little bit (which squeezes and widens the drum) and worked it in the slot until it moved easily. I then repeated this process, tightening the screw each time until the triggerguard fit. My recollection is that I had to rout out the recess for the tang as it was not quite deep enough. Later on, when I realized there were two sizes of trigger guards (I think savage calls them the wide and narrow) I guessed that the narrow one would have fit, but I am not sure. It didn't take me all that long to widen the slot, but I will warn you to wear something on the hand, because gripping and turning the sandpaper drum did give me a nice blister.

I hope that makes sense. It is late and I am tired.