sheath 42 as illustrated in fig8 fig8 illustrates a longitudinal cross section of a distal portion of the improved stent deployment catheter 21 without the inner tube 40 after the stent graft 30 has been completely inserted note that the stent graft 30 may be made from a shape memory alloy such as nitinol prior to packing a shape memory alloy stent graft the body of the stent graft must be cooled below its transformation temperature in order to allow it to be compressed without incurring any structural damage fig7 illustrates a longitudinal cross section of the stent graft 30 partially inserted in the delivery sheath 42 and partially enveloped by the funnel 24 the v hooks 37 are positively engaged by the l projections 22 the funnel 24 guides the stent graft 30 into the delivery sheath 42 as the plunger 20 is moved left relative to the catheter body 10 the funnel 24 uniformly compresses the stent graft 30 an alternate embodiment of the invention involves adding a component to the catheter 21 rather than altering the plunger 20 itself fig9 illustrates a longitudinal cross section of a distal portion of a stent graft deployment catheter 21 without the inner tube 40 shown in fig6 and the tip 50 shown in fig6 a grabber housing 25 is attached to the distal end of the plunger 20 and is disposed about the inner tube 40 the grabber housing 25 has two l projections projecting from a distal surface 26 the stent graft 30 is inserted in the same manner as illustrated in fig6 8 fig1 illustrates a plan view of the distal surface 26 of the grabber housing 25 an alternate embodiment.