doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Winchester 1887 lever gun

Yesterday afternoon I became interested when a good friend of mine told me that the had an old lever action shotgun in his safe, and offered to get it out for me to see. I had no idea he had a Winchester 1887 12 ga. We looked it over for awhile, then I fed it a couple of 2 3/4" loads via the magazine. What I found, when I worked the action lever, was nothing short of amazing to me. When the lever was/is worked smartly it brings a shell out of the tubular magazine and feeds it perfectly into the chamber. Then, if worked more slowly, the unfired shell can be retracted from the chamber by working the lever again, at which point it drops down again and, when the lever is operated fully, it returns the shell to the magazine! I have never seen anything like this. Knowing nothing about the gun I commented that Jonathan Browning had to have designed it, based upon the brilliant design and execution.

Today I read up on it and learned that, indeed, it is a Browning design. The drop is excessive for wing shooting but the gun wasn't really designed for that, as I understand the history of it. It was a coach/law enforcement gun, mostly. What a cool piece! I mentioned to the owner today that he can obtain a Cody letter on it and, though it's a long shot, may find out something interesting about the original consignee. I'm going to clean it up for him, but not mess with the patina.

Live and learn.

My biggest wish is that no one, NO ONE, would answer him when he "talks" with his feeble sharecropper dialect.