Parashoooter,
I was actually agreeing with you the machinery discussed in the article is probably for the Krag. I thought they might have been tooling up in 1900 for the 03A3, but your pointing out the hole in the Krag front sight base makes it look very probable all the machinery is for Krags.

If it had been me I would have finished all that last bit of machine work (dove tail and rear sight holes) in one operation and soldered a finished base to the barrel later. They may have had a good reason for not doing it that way. Big whoopsie on my part.