About what date did they start to upgrade the 92's to 96 configuration?
I had heard that this wasn't done in time for any 92/96's to make it to Cuba and that it wasn't done until way later? Ray

From "The Krag Rifle Story" by Mallory  pg. 68 "Because of the press of work in completing the initial issue of magazine carbines, conversion of Model 1892 rifles on hand to Model 1896 configuration did not start until March, 1897" These were then issued "interchangeably with the Model 1896"
Then on page 69 "no attempt was made to convert the early rifles already issued until the beginning of calender year 1900"
This is the best I can come up with!

Thanks Ned, apparently according to that, the 92 rifles on hand at the arsenal never left the arsenal as 92 rifles but were altered to 96's there.  I wonder how many that was? I wonder what date the stock cartouche would be?
The reason I asked is I did see a 92/96 with a 97 stock cartouche for sale at a show but again I was under the impression they converted later then that at the time. Not sure if the stock was original to the rifle though.

I wonder what date the cartouches, if any,  would be on an 96's ungraded post 1900?

Just wondering how to tell one converted in 97 from one converted post war. Ray

It's hard to establish anything concrete about any given 92/96, as they - unabashedly - played musical chairs, and mix & match. There MIGHT be some clue in the manner in which the rod channel was filled (there are at least two such), but that would only date the stock.

FWIW, mine (6692) has the post-1901 split upper band, and the wide groove filler. It also has a [BA-WJ] cartouche, from Benicia Arsenal - whether this is related to the actual conversion is not known, but, from the band, it probably IS one of the later ones.