There was some question on the transition gun about when the 1899 bolt with the top tab cocking indicator was created.
Here is the patent - applied for on April 21, 1897. So it was created before the 1895's were even stopped being produced by Marlin.
But this patent is over a year after the New York Militia trials were held. That's a strike against the transition musket being the actual musket used in the trials.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US634034.pdf
