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Kiwi bloke, sorry, but your interpretations of the proofmarks is wrong. Your Max G.Fischer rifle is much older than you think. Quote:" These show that the numbers 118.35 mean that this rifle was the 118th firearm proofed in 1935, so that’s the approximate year of manufacture." Wrong! Such a proof date system was never used in Germany, but in Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia only. German proofhouses always stamped the numbers for the month, of course never exceeding "12", and the last two digits for the year. So a German rifle proofed in early 1935 would show something like "2.35". The Zella-Mehlis proofhouse most often added a ledger number for that month, always below the date.
"118.35" is instead a gauge number of the 1891 German proof tables, stamped at the proofhouse. It stood for the bore or land, not groove, diameter of the barrel. It means a 118.35 gauge = 8.64mm = .340" cylindrical plug passed the bore, while the next number 108.49 = 8.89 mm = .350" one did not. These old gauge numbers were used from 1893 to 1911 in Zella-Mehlis, 1912 in Suhl, as was the load designation with 2.8 gramm = 43.2 grain GBlP and StMG. From 1912 on the bullet type and weight was given, not the powder charge. The bore diameter was stamped then as a mm plug measurement, in 1935 it would read "8.8mm". So your rifle was built and proofed before 1912. Your rifle is not 70 years, but more than 100 years old.
As at that time, before WW1, there were no "Surplus ex-military M98 Mausers" and the Mauser patents were still valid, everyone wanting to build a M98 actioned rifle had first to buy in an action only from the Mauser, Oberndorf factory. So your rifle was most likely built by or for Fischer on an original commercial Mauser action. Mauser up to 1914 sold about two thirds of their commercial production as actions to other gunmakers like Rigby, Holland &Holland, Jeffery, Sauer & Sohn, Schüler and you name them. Thanks to Jon Speed these Mauser commercial actions are easily identified and dated by the hidden Mauser serial number. Mauser stamped their serial number under the receiver ring, behind the recoil lug, and on the rear wall of the magazine.
Max G. Fischer was born in 1861. In 1892 he opened his shop at Prinz-Albrecht-Str.1, Berlin SW11, later moved to Kochstr.2, Berlin SW68. He was still alive in 1941, before WW2 hit Berlin.

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