Welcome! Nice rifle!

It is, however, a Model 1898, not 1896, and was made in mid 1899, not 1897. Would be interesting to know where you did your "research"? The changeover occured around 109000, and the receivers and stocks are signifcantly different in the bolt area.

The circled (P) is the stamp which signifies that a five-round firing (functioning, not strength) test had been successfully completed. It was applied just before the arm was struck with the main [JSA/1899] stamp and accepted into ordnance stores.