Quote Originally Posted by DRB View Post
Not all 1898s are rifles there were 5000 carbines made as 1898s but they were all made in the 1898 time frame so with your very high serial number your carbine was originally a rifle.
Eeek, good correction. I wasn't thinking of them as they pre-date the 1899s and those start down pretty low in the "1898/1899" receiver range.

There were some "overstamps" late in production, I've seen one myself, but I don't have a range for those. I don't think I even kept the number of the one I viewed.