Daryle,

The barrels are custom made for the gun and not a liner purchased from track. They are made from the same steel blanks that Ruger uses, and are extremely strong. The pressure load is carried in them and not the 12ga barrels. They (12ga) are only there to hold the sleeves in place. Since the regulation is done with the inserts, and not the 12ga barrels, the 12ga barrels are re-enforced to prevent separation before the sleeves are inserted. Its a good strong setup. Twist is what ever I want, so I told him 1-20 to 1-24" which ever he feels works best. He (gunsmith) has converted about 50 of these with great success, never having one fail yet. His reputation is very much on the line, so I'm sure he is telling the truth. I told him I have many interested parties in doing this conversion as well, and will be posting my experiences with the gun on this and another forum. This should keep him honest!

the extractors are modified so that they work fully, just like a double should. I ordered a blade and three leaf express sight from jeffsoutfitters.com for $82.00 total for the project. I will also install a night flip-up bead for it as well. Max load for regulation is a 450grn bullet at 1900FPS for about 3500FPE. I don't need anymore than that for this gun. MAX PSI the barrels can take is well over 50000PSI, but the action would come off face with to many of these loads. Max I would take this gun to is about 1950FPS and ~4000FPE. This is only a hunting load. Most loads will be around the 1400FPS range to reduce recoil and load on the action. At this pressure and loads the action will never wear out. BTW, this is the typical FPS from a full BP load of 100grns FFg. Remembering that this is FUN shooter and not a DG gun, I think it should be up to the task. My next conversion (haven't got this one done yet!) is to use a Greener t17 action or the CZ-USA 12Ga sidelock. The CZ's are cheap, strong as heck, good looking, sidelocks, double bite with a greener cross-bolt and fairly high quality. They could handle the 50-140 Sharps with no issues. Being a lower pressure cartridge, the action should be able to handle close to a 4500FPE (remembering FPE means nothing other than a number for comparesion) load all day long; maybe more.

Just need to get ramped up in the reloading now.

Colorado