There are other reasons other than the damascus barrels to not use this gun for a conversion. Recent serious studies have shown that damascus barrels in good shape are generally as strong or stronger than fluid steel barrels. it would be really sad to cut up those beautiful damascus barrels for a conversion. I have seen it done many times though(even by the English). A friend of mine has very nice I. Hollis sidelock 12 bore that we knew had been sleeved (was marked as such, when it was re-proofed), but he had been shooting it for a couple of years, when one day, out in the sun, we noticed that the "monoblock" portion of the gun was damascus. The gun had been blued and unless you held the gun at just the right angle, you could not see the damascus in the monoblock.

I would not use this gun mainly because of the good condition and potential collectability of the gun as it is. That is assuming, of course, that the bores of the shotgun are good. This gun looks to be in reasonably good condition (aside from the "Selous sideplates"

). If you wanted to build an extra set of barrels for it in .360-2 1/4", the Jones underlever (or screw grip as it is sometimes called) is plenty strong enough. In that range of cartridges, I like the .375-2 1/2" - more bullets and personal taste. I have similar Alex Henry action (with no barrels at all!), that I intend to build into a .375-2 1/2, if I ever get the time.

If you decide to look for something else, there is chapter in my book that lists what I look for in an action: double underlugs, strong third fastener (I prefer the Greener crossbolt, but there are other good ones), overall good quality, and traceable proof rules (most European and English guns have this - American guns do not). I use a lot of German guns for conversions. Bear in mind, this is MY criteria, other folks have built rifles on guns that do not have all these things and been quite successful, I just like to error on the side of strength. That said, I recently built a .450-3 1/4" NE on a BRNO 12 bore sidelock. It only had small extension from the barrels as a hidden third fastener, but the gun is very strong and I had zero issues with its strength. At least one other builder on this site has used them as well and really likes them.