Krag 1896 - my first Krag

[andiarisaka]

Earliest we, being a group of collectors, know of, without researching a bunch of very old records at one of the Armories or the National Archives. See the metal that the bolt handle goes through on my 92. Your 96 has that too. The 1898 stock had to be cut on to allow that trough to fit in there. The trough was done away with on the model 98. There's no doubt at all that it's an 1898 stock, they weren't making 96 rifles circa 1901.

Yes, the sight was changed, and the handguard. That's not at all unusual as they upgraded over the years. A 96 rifle would have originally been fitted with a model 1896 sight (not adjustable for windage), a shorter front sight blade, and a handguard for the 1896 sight.

Your rear sight appears to be the 1898 rifle model, later modified to be more like the 1902. The hump of the ramp doesn't appear to be high enough to be a regular 1902 sight. The ramp of the 1898 sight was ground for a 2200fps load that damaged the locking lug on the rifles. The sights were withdrawn, some modified at the arsenal, some modified by later buyers.

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