There were a great number (approximately 380,000 give or take) of "1898-style" (no shroud at bolt handle seat) actions made.

5000 of them were carbines, in the 112-135xxx range, marked "Model 1898".

I'm not close to my Brophy just now, so the following will be off - but that is not the problem we are having.

Of the remaining 375,000 actions, about 37,000 (or whatever Brophy gives for the sum of Model 1899 production) were also used on carbines, but they were ALL marked "US Model 1899".

The other 338,000 receivers were used on Model 1898 rifles, and were marked "US Model 1898".

ALL Model 1899 carbines are the same except for rear sight variations. None were built on M1896 actions!

There is no such thing as a "Model 1901 action". There IS a Model 1901 rear sight.

Brophy, knew what he meant, and, it wasn't what you seem to be getting out of it - you are just not yet reading it right, and I'm not sure why. BTW, I'm not trying to pick a fight, or belittle you - in any way. I'm just frustrated in not being able to find the right words to steer you to the correct interpretation.

I actually dug out my Brophy and found the production totals on page 16. I guessed fairly close - but again, that's not the issue. Please advise page numbers for your data. Thanks.

After going over the prior posts, both here and on Jouster/Culver's site, I'm not sure I'm completely clear.
(1) Do you have a copy of Brophy (or any other Krag book) to which we can mutually refer - yes or no?
(2) Can you give me the web locations from which you are obtaining your data - yes, or no?
Thank you.

Aha!!

The "Bowers" list is nearly total baloney, as presented!!!  A reader has to know a lot about Krags to unravel it. It should be withdrawn, or extensively revised - period. I will attempt to contact the webmaster, at some point in the future. No one can be an expert on everything - and I believe he meant well enough, but he should never have phrased things the way he did.

There are no different types/models/styles/versions of the M1899 Carbine - other than the use of different rear sights. For example, where "1901" occurs in the second long listing (the one in all caps) it refers to the model of rear sight. Of course, he doesn't bother to point that out, leading to questions such as yours.

The other URL was just a Google search, which will have some bad info and some good info - I didn't check anything there.

While it is probably the least correct of the Krag books, Poyer is well worth the $20 (or sometimes much less, used, at Amazon, etc.)

Excellent, PS!  I don't have a scanner, but that clearly shows how Bowers skewed the data.

Nothing funny about it - it's actually rather annoying to serious collectors when even the NPS/SA-NHS has their head up out of sight. Hey, the NPS is just like the DMV, a bunch of low GS-level 9-5 clerks, parroting what they are handed, nothing more.

But, I don't blame you for doubting us - we - the people who actually know, look like nut-cases, bucking the "system". And, I have to tell you,  from your last post, I still detect an ever so faint whiff of disbelief.

Study, study, study - you can't do this and have a life, too.  Seriously, it takes time, but it isn't rocket science. There is a lot of GOOD published material - you were just very unlucky. I've never seen that Bowers site before. He may a whiz on some other items, but he does not know squat about Krags. The general serial number ranges are known from prior reasearch, and, sufficient study will pretty well tell you whether a gun is right or wrong. They did not make rifles and carbines at random. So, when you see an "1898 Carbine" in the 400000 range, you immediately KNOW it's bogus.

I guess you could say the whole carbine issue, and why it is important to be able to distinguish one from a rifle, is that they sell for more money, sometimes much more, and are thus more sought after. If demand were equal, no one would care.

On earlier (1896) Krags, you need to know what to look for, and have some idea of the numbering. 1898 Carbines are a problem - we know 5000 were made, from the army records. We know, from existing records that that they occur in a certain general range - but that span is WAY more than 5000 numbers. Now, it gets tricky, because, once separated from their distinctive stock, and having had later-model sights installed they are visually identical to an 1899 Carbine, except for their 1898 date. Since we do not know all the numbers, fakers have taken common 1898-dated receivers within the known span, put genuine carbine barrels on them, and then collected a premium for having a rare model. Genuine 1898 carbines in range, with an original short M1898 carbine stock are considered quite scarce and desirable.

Plain old "Model 1899" carbines are easy to spot, because ALL guns with that marking were originally made as carbines, so, there is nothing to be faked.

For the purposes of this discussion, that is correct. Since the basic lack of understanding was so low, I avoided - and will continue to do so - the extreme oddball cases - as an explanation would only be confusing.