Hmmm I could see how these washers would spread the weight a lot. My local gunsmith told me that it was just the outer coating that cracked and I had nothing to worry about. He said its like when you buy a brand new car that first scratch sucks so much, but the ones after are not as bad. So I'm beginning to realize I guess that it's just cosmetic and I have to live with it. As long as its not cracked or shattering it won't affect performance and I just have to deal with it. Really interesting about the spacers though. I'm going to look that up.