Oz,
Before you get too far along, pick up a copy of the last Double Gun Journal, they have a whole big article on the Winchester 101's. It will be worth your time to look one up and read it. You will find out that during at least part of the time during their long run, (about 30 years), they were built with mono blocked barrels and believe me, that would be a big plus in finding one to do a conversion on. I have not had any experience with the single trigger on them, but I can almost guarantee that if you stay with a mild to moderately loaded cartridge such as the 45-70, 30-30,30-40, or something like that, and you keep the recoil down, even if it has a recoil operated reset on the trigger, you won't have much trouble with it. That is if it is properly fuctioning as a shotgun before you convert it.

I preached the same sermon as Tinker for a long time, about never using a single trigger gun to convert. After having tried it myself, I can only give you my oppinion based on my small experience.

I believe that on a gun to be used for dangerous game, that this is still a good rule, even though they make many single trigger guns that could only be justified as a dangerous game gun.
That being said, if you want a gun to hunt American game or even plains game, I now feel that you can get by with a good modern single triggered gun. I know I will be slow roasted over hot coals for expressing this oppinion, but the truth is, that if the recoil is similar to what the shotgun was putting out, and it will be with these cartridges, then there is no reason not to think it can't be done. If the single trigger is mechanical, and working well in the shotgun, then I see no reason at all to worry about it. I think this idea is a throwback to times past when most single triggers would fail in some way or another, at least part of the time.

I have also heard from some people that the Ruger Red Label shotgun was not good enough or strong enough to do a conversion on. That is quite frankly a load of BULL. I did a 45-70 with a single trigger for a friend in Florida and it has not given him one bit of trouble. No misfires, no saftey problems, Nothing! He managed to put the first two shots from the top and bottom barrels into less than 1 inch at 50 yards, they were practically touching. I don't think you will ever find a factory regulated Winchester that will do that.

Bill Ruger worked with Mr.Dietrich Apel to do a dozen 45-70's on the Red Label actions with the idea of offering them as an option and also as straight double rifles. They even built one .375 Mr. Apel stated that there was no trouble regulating the 45-70's but that he would never do another 375 because they were a bitch to regulate, not because the auction was too weak. By the way, as I got the story, they were all built on the original 20 gauge frames, not 12 gauge.
Bob H.