I replaced the trigger guards on my Stevens 200 rifles from plastic to metal. Anyway when I take apart the rifles for cleaning and such I'd always have the washers I was using to shim the trigger guard scatter. So I've decided to epoxy them into the stock so this problem wouldn't happen again.

Trying to figure out how to get the washers to stack properly so I could epoxy them in proved to be a little difficult. I happen to work at a large maintenance facility on Ft. Carson so at least I have plenty of materials to work with. I found that 3 1/4" V-Lock washers were the perfect height to shim my trigger guard.

So working with that I used a 1/4" bolt about an inch long with nut to get my washers to stack neatly. I then took 1/2" heat shrink tubing and cut it to about 1/2" and placed it over the washers. Using a pair of pliers to rotate the bolt I used a propane torch to shrink the tubing.

After the tubing and bolt cooled then I used a razor blade to trim the excess tubing away from the washers. The razor fit nicely betweent the bolt head, nut, and the washers. I then finished touching up my shim by draging it a few passes over crocus cloth to remove the little bit of heat shrink left by the razor. Tah-Dah, a perfectly cocooned stack of washers that won't slip, the V-Lock washers have nice little ridges that line up as well to help lock the stack in place.

I then installed the shims with super glue to hold in place and installed the trigger guards to let the glue fully set up. This weekend I planned on bedding both rifles so I'll go ahead and use Acraglass as well to finish up securing my home made shims in the stock. I tried using small tubing at first to to shim my guards but kept crushing the thin walls trying to get it to come out exactly right.

Should have taken pics but while I'm working I forget to do such things.