All around rifle/light build

[Klem]

I need to find some barrel shims, since the place holder handguard nut I am using for the time being will not time correctly either bare or with the one shim that I currently have.

Why don't you file off the tooth that's stopping you from timing a gap wide enough for the gas tube. I've done that before, it works. You don't need every single tooth to torque it up and removing one makes no difference to anything else.