And todays mystery object?????

[muffett.2008]

Bayonet does'nt look like the guard would fit.

[villiers]

Have been pondering on where it could have come from. Russia is highly unlikely as the Allies (GB, France and the Ottoman Empire) were at war (or practically at war) with Russia during this whole period (Crimean War 1853 - 1856). Bulgaria should have been on Russia´s side during the Crimean Campaign but remained neutral, as it was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire but did not want to exchange Turkish for a Russian occupation. The Bulgarians imported weaponry from anywhere they could and the rifle with its case would have been a good example. Bulgarian Cyrillic is/was slightly different from Russian (as on the Russian and Bulgarian Luger safeties and extractors), so that would explain the last two letters on the stamp. And there´s been a lot of activity lately with Bulgarians selling collector items on the net.

[Buccaneer]

It just needs something in the nature of a support block fitted to the front end, that slides along the slots inside the case and prevents the carbine from snagging on the leather along the bottom.

I have checked it out and in fact the redundant sling swivel mount on the nose cap does the job, it's rounded so runs along the bottom of the case without snagging, I put a straight edge accross the heal of the butt and sling swivel mount and between them everything else is clear.
Muffets comment about the bayonet is true but as there is only the outline of what used to be there there is a certain element of guesswork, I don't think there would have been a scabbard on the bayonet and if you look there is a hole a couple of inches in from the end where it's possible that some sort of catch or strap was rivited to hold the bayonet in. The leather is very dry and distored in places so it is difficult to say with any certainty that the bayonet would have fitted.