butlersrangers wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 1:33pm:

. . . Armory updating of most Krag rear-sights required disassembly and removal of stock to change to required hand-guard. . .

I doubt Armory workers bothered removing stocks to pull off handguards and change sights. If a handguard cracked (possibly less likely when new), there were a bunch more in the parts bins.

A quick examination of the handguard clip contours shows they were probably designed to be pulled up and pushed down with alacrity.