Thanks James!
Bingo!
Careful inspection with a magnifying glass revealed an elongated omega on its side with 16-65 inside the omega, on the left side of the barrel next to where it goes into the receiver. The forearm wood almost covers it up, but with a magnifying glass I could see it and read it clearly.
So the barrel was definitely made and proofed at 65 mm -- 2-9/16 "
Thanks to your help, I'm confident we know that for sure.
To be discovered (by me taking the gun to a professional gunsmith for a chamber measurement) is whether the chamber was ever enlarged to 2-3/4 "
I'm guessing the answer to that will be no.
As for the question whether it functioned perfectly with 2-3/4 " loads for years even though it was chambered only for the 2-9/16 " ...
OR
Whether I was really firing just 2-1/2 " rounds with it all those years 40-50 years ago and my memory has been wrong in thinking I was firing 2-3/4 " rounds.
The smart bet on that, I think, would be that my memory is/was wrong!
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