whbonney26
Well-Known Member
Got myself an original Winchester 1887 12g shotgun. Looking forward to reloading some brass shells for this and shooting it. Thought I would share some pics of it.
Attachments
Last edited:
Very nice
Yeah, thats nice. Whats something like that worth?
Yeah, thats nice. Whats something like that worth?
Probably about as much as someone is willing to pay for it.
That's very nice.
That’s a solid old shotty right there. Real sweet. If you like the big lever guns it feels just like a beefy Winchester rifle and the recoil ain’t that bad. Have you had any trouble with plastic cartridges or is the brass for nostalgia?
I gotcha. I’d heard over the years that the chamber is a tad shorter and the open length of plastic hulls can be a problem. I’ve also heard of at least one owner shooting smokeless loads and eventually having problems, although he didn’t completely wreck the gun, which I found surprising.I had a clone of this shotgun but wanted an original. I have not shot anything out of this one yet. These are pre smokeless powder so they need black powder. I picked up some extra brass shells because I like the look of them in these old shotguns and they last longer. They also use large pistol primers instead of the 209 primers.
I have loaded black powder in plastic shells with no problems. The hulls just don’t tend to last long with the black powder.
I gotcha. I’d heard over the years that the chamber is a tad shorter and the open length of plastic hulls can be a problem. I’ve also heard of at least one owner shooting smokeless loads and eventually having problems, although he didn’t completely wreck the gun, which I found surprising.
I wish Winchester would make a run of these for modern ammo. Clones are cool, but the real deal would be awesome.
Also, I’ve read that a 97 barrel will fit, although, I don’t know of anyone with one just lying around.
Sounds like you got it all worked out brother. I haven’t cooked black powder in years but still remember the process.The chambers on these original 1887 shotguns are 2 5/8" so you have to trim the hulls to fit. The brass ones are 2.5" already so they work fine.
I have a couple of 1897 shotguns but this 87 has a good barrel on it so no need to be robbing one of my 97s but yes, the will fit.
I also have some vintage handloading shotgun tools that will come in handy for this.
I also agree that Winchester should come out with one again. They have brought back a few of the older guns like the 66, 73 and the 1895 so them bringing back the 87 would be cool too. Even thought they are made in Japan now it still bears the Winchester name and the Miroku guns are really great in terms of quality.
Man that’s a really nice gun.
Out of curiosity does Winchester make any guns here locally in the states now? I didn’t know they were also producing guns out of Japan. I know a lot of the newer guns such as the SPX and wildcat are Turkish made. I wish they would star production here stateside again. I thought about picking up one of the .22lr wildcats but opted not too after looking into the warranty on them.
Nice! Just saw your YT vid on it