I stand corrected. Parashooter reports having done it.

Armory workers operating under time constraints (and with spare new hand-guards) would certainly have availed themselves of a shortcut and not bothered with unnecessary disassembly.

(I am not in a hurry and can take time with my Krags. It's a bad idea to stress a hand-guard, when good original ones are hard to find, hard to match, and routinely cost $90 to $150).

Still, I am pretty amazed at the nice job Armory workers did in 'matching wood', when a lot of Krags received new sights and hand-guards.