Bill,
It wasn't until the 1939 proof law that the Germans were required to mark their guns with the commonly used name of the cartridge it used, and until then many of them were not so marked. The proof markings were not intended to represent the nominal cartridge. Indeed, there are cases where two or more different nominal calibered rifles carry the same proof marks. Based on my previous comments and now your new information that the rifle came to you with 35 Win. dies and cases, there is no doubt in my mind that the rifle was originally chambered for the 35 Win. cartridge. A metric designation for 35 Win. would be 9x61R, which would represent the same cartridge, not a similar one. Since my friend made cases from 9.3x74R cases, new Japanese made Win. mod 95 rifles have been available chambered for 405 Win. To support these rifles, 405 Win. ammo and cases have recently been manufactured. The 405 Win. cases would be a better donor case to make 35 Win. than 9.3x74R, assuming you don't already have a quantity of the 9.3 cases "on hand". I want to reiterate that I think this is a very nice and useful rifle and you are lucky to have it.
Mike
