I recently bought a Winchester 1300 Defender and after shooting it I could hear something rattling inside the magazine tube.  When I opened it up there was a thin washer in there that doesn't appear to have any purpose.  What's the deal?

Damn thats spooky;  that happened to me just
a couple of weeks ago.  I found one of the
locking retainer washers that are used to hold
on the sling plug that is on the
end of the magazine tube cap.  

It struck me as a cheap and crummy way to
hold something.  Why not solder it on?

Also, even more cheap is why they put more
than one of these little lock washers,
increasing the probability that one of them
falls off and finds its way down the mag tube and jam up the works.  Anybody want to buy
my 1300?   It doesn't feed the short Aquila
ammo like I thought it would?


..ref...
...thin washer in there that doesn't appear to have any purpose.  What's the deal?