Ellis Brown wrote a book about making such conversions which has a wealth of information. As mentioned in the previous post many observations are "filtered" from a particular perspective whether good or bad. Butch Searcy (U.S.) started out building conversions.

Unless your gun is built by a gunsmith with a well-established reputation it will "always" be held as second class when compared to the established makers such as Heym, Merkel, Blaser, etc. ... well maybe not Blaser according to some, LOL.

When done by a knowledgeable person I think conversions guns offer a highly custom product at a "reasonable" price. Folks doing such conversions are typically open to a fairly wide range of cartridges. I have one in the works and have chosen 45-120 as the cartridge. The brass is significantly cheaper than the 450 NE and is a bit easier to find. If you want a .303 from one of the big makers you may end up with a custom project but with a conversion gun the cost could be no different than if you had chosen one of the typical chamberings.

You do have to be careful when dealing with conversion guns. My first attempt at engaging a smith for this was a total disaster. Just because someone is a good rifle smith does not mean they are a good double rifle smith.

I think many folks would agree that one of Searcy's earlier conversions is probably better than a production SIACE, FAIR or Sabatti.

There are always exceptions but for the most part I think conversions will be held in a lesser position to the established production guns when it comes to monetary worth. From a mechanical standpoint I think a conversion guns can be just as good as production guns. I've seen some conversion guns built on Beretta guns by one of the forum members that are works of art in their own right. While I love my Sabatti 450-400 I would definitely hold their conversion guns above the Sabatti. The conversion gun will cost about the same as the Sabatti was listed for but the conversion gun will give me the choice of chambering, sights, length of pull, forearm type, barrel length, gun weight, regulating load, etc. Mine will happen to be built on a sidelock action.

Eric