Single and double-barrel guns dominated the early years of shotguns. There wasn’t much more. We’d have the occasional revolving shotgun, but they were never successful. In 1882, Christopher Spencer introduced the first pump action shotgun, but it was never successful. In 1887, Winchester, a company primarily known for lever action rifles, released the first successful repeating shotgun, the Winchester 1887. A decade later, they released the first successful pump action shotgun, the 1897. Both are legendary Winchester shotguns.
Today, I want to find out which is better.
History of Winchester Shotguns
Winchester and John Moses Browning were tightly connected. Winchester helped Browning write patents and purchased nearly every design he’d produce, even if they were never going to produce it. In the late 1800s, they wanted to produce a repeating shotgun to join their successful repeating rifle catalog.
Browning wanted to produce a slide-action shotgun, but Winchester was hesitant. They were a company known for lever-action rifles and wanted to keep their brand associated with lever-action designs. At their request, John Browning hit the shop and produced a lever-action shotgun in the form of the Model 1887. The 1887 was a popular weapon. For its era, it offered a lot of quickly dispersed five rounds of 12 gauge.
Six years later, Winchester saw the light and allowed Browning to produce a slide action or what we call a pump action shotgun these days. The Winchester 1893 delivered the first successful pump action shotgun on the market. They fought off a claim by Francis Bannerman, who owned the Spencer shotgun patent, and the Winchester shotguns were sold side by side.
A few years later, they produced the M1897, which was an improved 1893. The main difference is the 1897’s ability to handle smokeless powder shells and a slide lock. The M1897 went on to become an extremely popular shotgun. It saw widespread use with the United States military, especially in the trench gun format.
Who Was Right? Winchester or Browning?
Winchester wanted a lever action shotgun, and Browning wanted a pump action. Who was right? Well, I think we all know who was right. Browning’s pump action laid the foundation to create an entire genre of extremely popular shotguns. The pump action is one of the few dominant manual-operated firearms that are still considered tactically relevant.
These days, lever-action shotguns are an oddity. There are a few lever-action .410s and a handful of lever-action 12 gauges, but most of the lever-action 12 gauges produced these days are just replicas of the 1887. The lever action shotgun faded into obscurity as the pump action became the dominant option. In their era, both of Winchester’s shotguns were successful.
One could argue that it also helped that Winchester proved that pump-action systems had existed prior to Spencer’s patent. When they defeated Bannerman in his patent lawsuit, the entire industry was able to produce pump-action shotguns, whereas the lever-action design was still patented.
However, the argument fell apart when no one pursued lever action shotguns after their patent expired. For fun, I thought I would take an ’87 and a ’97 to the range and see which one is better.
Not Quite Winchester Shotguns
Admittedly, I don’t have a pair of original Winchester shotguns. I do have a Norinco copy of the 1897 and a Cimarron copy of the 1887. Both replicate the look and feel of their respective historic shotguns without the historic quirks.
For example, the 1887 was a black powder shotgun. It wasn’t until the ten gauge 1901 was produced that Winchester had a smokeless powder lever action shotgun. They didn’t produce a smokeless powder 1887 to avoid competing with their own 1897 and muddying the market.
Additionally, these guns were picky about which 2.75-inch shells they chambered. They used rolled crimps, which are a bit short for modern 2.75-inch shells. Both of these modern replicas can chamber these modern 2.75-inch shells.
At the Range With The Winchester Shotguns
I grabbed both my replica Winchester shotguns, a couple of boxes of birdshot, and a box of buckshot. To test the two guns, I would run a few basic drills. The drills are built around modern shotgun use and will hopefully emphasize the difference in ergonomics between a pump-action and a lever-action shotgun.
First, how’s the recoil? I grabbed some basic, full-power 2.75-inch buckshot and fired a subjective recoil test. Aim, fire, and use modern recoil mitigation techniques to fight recoil. The difference between the two guns is slight. The Cimarron 1887, with its nearly nine pounds of wood and steel, results in less recoil than the seven-pound Norinco 97. The difference is slight, but the 1887 is a bit lighter in recoil.
The Drills
Next, I wanted to place the gun into condition three. Hammer down, chamber empty, with a round in the magazine tube. At the beep of my shot timer, I’d rack a round into the chamber and fire a shot. I hovered around for 1 second with both guns. The Norinco 97 was also just a fraction of a second faster, but we are talking about .01 to .05 faster at most.
The next drill was to shoot two rounds as fast as possible on one target. With buckshot, the Norinco 97 was a bit faster, with a best time of 1.62 seconds. The fastest time with the 1887 was 1.98 seconds.
Next, how fast can we put two rounds on two targets? One round on each as fast as possible, starting with a round loaded. At the beep, the Norinco 97 sailed through at 1.24 inches. The 1887 wasn’t far behind at 1.46 seconds.
One consistent problem with the lever action design is that it takes your hand out of a firing grip. This creates a delay that’s not present with the pump action design. The lever action system just ends up being slower due to the nature of its design. When your support arm can work the action your firing hand can focus on the trigger.
Reloading The Guns
If you’re a student of modern shotgun tactics, you evidently know the importance of reloading. Keeping your gun loaded is the key to keeping it running. With that in mind, let’s try a classic shotgun loading drill. It’s simple: With an empty gun, load two rounds and fire one.
There is a big difference between the Winchester shotgun designs when it comes to loading. The bottom loading port on the 1897 makes loading much faster, and I completed the drill in 4.13 seconds. With the 1887, it took 5.78 seconds. I tried a fancy drop-two style load the best I could with the 1887, but it was still tricky and slow.
Next I loaded an emergency port. You conduct this load when everything goes wrong, and you’ve emptied your gun. You need a round, and you need it right now! Slap the action open, throw a round in the ejection port, close the action, and fire.
Again, the design of the pump action makes the gun faster. I conducted a smooth reload in 2.15 seconds with the 1897. With the Cimmarron, I landed a 2.81 port load. In both drills, the lever becomes a hassle. You have to open the action, release the lever, grab the stock, and then you can use your support hand to load. The lever just slows you down.
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Lever Actions And Shotguns Just Don’t Work Well
Browning was right. Pump-action shotguns obviously just work better. Even in this era when people weren’t concerned about timers and the above drills, they realized the guns were more ergonomic and better suited for the bulky twelve-gauge shotgun rounds.
Lever-action shotguns like the 1887 are plenty of fun, but there is a reason so many pump-action shotguns have succeeded and why the most popular lever-action 12 gauges are replicas of guns from 1887. Regardless of which Winchester shotgun you prefer, I think we can all agree both are buckets of fun and if you can find an original or even a clone, jump on it!
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