It was an improved replacement for the previous longarm of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Springfield model 1873 and its variants.

The principal feature of this new sight was a rack and pinion style windage adjustment.

A new barrel band was also designed to accommodate this new sight so that it could lie flat in the point blank position.

It was found that the rear sight could be easily damaged when removing the rifle from the carbine boot.

This, like the Springfield model 1880, was an attempt to combine the cleaning rod and bayonet into a single unit.