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Been busy. Changed jobs last summer and that has resulted in not having time/brain power for this stuff. Regardless I've been amassing interesting Krag bits in the meantime. Book will be delayed until I grow a second brain or free up the first.
The production reports had an anomaly that gave me some fits. When you're handed a piece that doesn't fit the puzzle either the piece or puzzle is wrong. The piece cannot be so...
Cadets, 1892 rifles getting 1896ish, 1896 carbines kind of 1892ish, and 1896 carbines not 1892ish. What is the order? Infernal puzzle. There is only one correct answer and that answer is inescapable: there isn't such an order. They made 1896 carbines and rifles at the same time. It's inescapable. We know they did that later so we'll have to assume the tiger didn't change it's stripes. "High hump" or (somebody on this board used the term and I prefer it) lug sights exist in both carbine and rifle editions. The lugged rifle sight indicates that it should be for the: cadet or early 1896 rifle. Those sights, coupled with the production report, give us two pieces of information both pointing to early 1896 rifle production. So it wasn't "rifle, then carbines, then rifles" as they made rifles during the carbine production run. So 1896 rifles with serials in the mid-20K range should exist. Reports of them surface from time to time (25973, etc).
Taking that as a given, and I'm not going to debate it as it's just an assumption to step to the next bit, we're still faced with the dilemma of the 1892s, cadets, and 1896 carbine/rifle break. The difference now is that we've simply added 1896 rifles to that "carbine block."
24685 has long been accepted as the earliest 1896 carbine. Thus it is probably not a bad number to cut the 1896 rifles and carbine to. Anything earlier is, for this exercise, not a model 1896. This thus gives us our first divide point right? <24685 is not 1896.
Now we're faced with the cadets and 1892 rifles (late ones). I'm aware of the Gunderson gun and the "17K/18K is the cadet range" faction of the community. I simply disagree. It's, this is readily obvious, an opinion. I don't know that they're not that early and nobody knows that they are. So it's a valid debate topic until evidence surfaces (if it ever does). I'm not going to debate that here either but do accept that is all opinion on all sides and worthy of debate.
23820 is about the start of the 1895 marking. 24685-23820=865.
If the assumptions are right, and 500 cadets sit in there, the odds are better than 50% that any gun in that range is a cadet.
Anyone know the story on 24267? Claimed cadet found at MGM? It's in range.
I'm under the impression that the above is likely correct. They made the cadets at the end of 1892 rifle production on 1895 marked receivers along with a final driblet of 1892 rifles. Then started production of 1896 guns - mainly carbines but also a small stream of rifles.
I bought an 1896 rifle at that Mattoon auction on New Year's Day. It wasn't until I arrived home that I realized why. The brain wasn't firing on all cylinders but it was firing nonetheless. The rifle sports a lugged 1896 rifle sight. Makes the second I have. They're out there. IMHO that is the sight used on the cadets and early 1896 rifles.
The production reports had an anomaly that gave me some fits. When you're handed a piece that doesn't fit the puzzle either the piece or puzzle is wrong. The piece cannot be so...
Cadets, 1892 rifles getting 1896ish, 1896 carbines kind of 1892ish, and 1896 carbines not 1892ish. What is the order? Infernal puzzle. There is only one correct answer and that answer is inescapable: there isn't such an order. They made 1896 carbines and rifles at the same time. It's inescapable. We know they did that later so we'll have to assume the tiger didn't change it's stripes. "High hump" or (somebody on this board used the term and I prefer it) lug sights exist in both carbine and rifle editions. The lugged rifle sight indicates that it should be for the: cadet or early 1896 rifle. Those sights, coupled with the production report, give us two pieces of information both pointing to early 1896 rifle production. So it wasn't "rifle, then carbines, then rifles" as they made rifles during the carbine production run. So 1896 rifles with serials in the mid-20K range should exist. Reports of them surface from time to time (25973, etc).
Taking that as a given, and I'm not going to debate it as it's just an assumption to step to the next bit, we're still faced with the dilemma of the 1892s, cadets, and 1896 carbine/rifle break. The difference now is that we've simply added 1896 rifles to that "carbine block."
24685 has long been accepted as the earliest 1896 carbine. Thus it is probably not a bad number to cut the 1896 rifles and carbine to. Anything earlier is, for this exercise, not a model 1896. This thus gives us our first divide point right? <24685 is not 1896.
Now we're faced with the cadets and 1892 rifles (late ones). I'm aware of the Gunderson gun and the "17K/18K is the cadet range" faction of the community. I simply disagree. It's, this is readily obvious, an opinion. I don't know that they're not that early and nobody knows that they are. So it's a valid debate topic until evidence surfaces (if it ever does). I'm not going to debate that here either but do accept that is all opinion on all sides and worthy of debate.
23820 is about the start of the 1895 marking. 24685-23820=865.
If the assumptions are right, and 500 cadets sit in there, the odds are better than 50% that any gun in that range is a cadet.
Anyone know the story on 24267? Claimed cadet found at MGM? It's in range.
I'm under the impression that the above is likely correct. They made the cadets at the end of 1892 rifle production on 1895 marked receivers along with a final driblet of 1892 rifles. Then started production of 1896 guns - mainly carbines but also a small stream of rifles.
I bought an 1896 rifle at that Mattoon auction on New Year's Day. It wasn't until I arrived home that I realized why. The brain wasn't firing on all cylinders but it was firing nonetheless. The rifle sports a lugged 1896 rifle sight. Makes the second I have. They're out there. IMHO that is the sight used on the cadets and early 1896 rifles.
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