Mike,
you are perhaps right about there being some good reason for someone to lop off the bbls,no sane bloke would do that without one ( I hope) but what a bummer !
It seems such a lovely piece, that for the right price, whatever that is, it could/should be made into a some kinda something.
Could you sleeve it with big thick rifled 12 bore bbls, to bring the weight up?
It sure was/is a beautiful gun
cheers
franc