Mike, the way I understand the use of this headless cocking piece is that Springfield Armory was trying to save money and redesigned this piece for that purpose. It was initially a standard issue but, when it was found to be more expensive and not any big advantage over the original cocking piece, the headless one was discontinued.

Not a big deal but Butlers stated what we all go on as the historic use of this piece. It was used briefly for the 1898 rifle and the 1899 carbine over a certain unknown serial number range then switched back.

It's one of those brief anomalies in the Krag history that complicates things but is towards the irrelevant side. I guess it's easiest to accept it and move on to more important concerns.

If you dig deeper and find any more relevant history on this piece, we'd love to update our understanding of its development and use.

I have a couple 1899 carbines with the headless cocking piece and I'm leaving them the way I bought them. They look different and are probably correct and original to these carbines.