I have a 12ga in excellent condition with the exception of the barrels which were shortened to 23" before I aquired the gun.

I have often thought of doing a DR build, but it seems to be a $5,000 job which is half the price of a "real" used Merkel, Chapuis, etc so I am reluctant to do it since why not save a bit longer and buy a real one.

Just looking for opinions here on what you would do with the gun, and if I were to sell or trade the Simpson, what do you think it is realistically worth?? It seems that an unmolested Simpson in good condition would fetch $1,300 or so.

What would you do??

There's a gent in Wisconsin that made a 450 NE for me on a JP Sauer for 4K and that included the donor SG.

IMO, your shotgun is not worth much now. There is at least one shop I know of that has many of them in the 3-5 hundred $ range. I only encourage people to build DRs if they do the work themselves. If you have to pay someone to do it, might as well buy a new one and gain the benefit of having some equity that you can later re-sell. DRs built on shotguns tend to be, hard to sell for what you have in them. Just my opinion. Did he replace the wood for $4k? Shotgun wood tends to be too thin for heavy NEs sometimes. 4k would sound tempting though....

Just a thought.....it might make a good shotgun for shooting slugs. I would try it first with slugs, you might get lucky and have both barrels shoot close together. Adding sights and/or a scope mount should be fairly easy but you need to be careful with adding a heavy scope as it can tear the rib loose.

Leopardtrack,

You could give Ellis Brown a shout. He wrote a book on shotgun to DR conversions and I believe he still does a few when his job allows. You should check out his web page at ellisbrowncustomshop.com.

I ended up buying, and am quite happy with, a Sabatti although I still flirt with the notion of a conversion.

Eric

LT, unless you're a gunsmith, I would just look for a well-priced double from one of the manufacturers. I've checked, and it's not cheap to have one done, and when it's finished, you'd have a rifle that wouldn't bring near what you have in it in resale.

Thanks for the suggestions fellas and I have decided to stay away from a DR build.

I might post in classified to try and find a trade for a used pair of swarovski's etc

It might be fun to see how it prints with different types of slugs. It you could find a brand that did 4-6" at 50 yards, have sights put on it and use as is for Black Bear or Whitetails on stand.

Good point; I once bought a Fox 12 ga while I was in Korea; the rod and gun club was auctioning off some guns they loaned out for pheasant hunting. Anyway, I sold it to a friend who immediately cut the barrels off to 20 inches and installed rifle sights, and the damn thing would print slugs on top of one another at 50 yards. Miracle? yes, but I saw it.

I just posted it for sale/trade in classified, but if I keep it I will try putting sights on it and trying slugs. I did pattern it with shot and both barrels shot in the same place so maybe the slugs will shoot close as well.

Since the barrels were cut off the balance is off but I can add weight to the front end.

If any of you want it look at my offer in classified.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
I just posted it for sale/trade in classified, but if I keep it I will try putting sights on it and trying slugs. I did pattern it with shot and both barrels shot in the same place so maybe the slugs will shoot close as well.

Since the barrels were cut off the balance is off but I can add weight to the front end.

If any of you want it look at my offer in classified.

That is an option or if there is enough barrel meat at the muzzles you could have screw-in chokes installed, and use it for bird hunting! Just a thought!
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quote:

Originally posted by Mike Brooks:
There's a gent in Wisconsin that made a 450 NE for me on a JP Sauer for 4K and that included the donor SG.

And that same gent is building my 450/400 on a JP Sauer donor. W/my donor, should come right about the figure Mike posted.

FWIW, I have another JP Sauer donor. Might have a 450 NE build on it, or use the monoblock for a set of 450 NE barrels to go along with the 450/400.

[quote]There's a gent in Wisconsin that made a 450 NE for me on a JP Sauer for 4K and that included the donor SG[/quote

I have one of his conversions in .500/.416, same action, same price, really well regulated. One reason I bought it, is because he took it to Africa; killed a bull elephant with it, giving me pictures of that elephant, and the hunt. A guy in Alaska also has one of his conversions, saying it is better regulated than a classic British double rifle he has. Also, I have seen three other ones sold at auction.