I have had the nervous twitches ever since Buckstix posted his 10-bore double heavy slug thread.
First thing I did was find a donor Husqvarna 12 bore double to shorten and add sights to in order to turn it into a dedicated round-ball gun.
Then I had a brain flash (or maybe a brain fart): Buy one of the cheap Chinese knock-offs of the Winchester Model 1887 lever shotgun, add a rifled choke tube, and BAM! -- a big bore lever slug spitter for not much more than chump change.
Who here has "been there, done that"?

Not quite the same, but I have a Model 12 16 gauge with a Paradox barrel by Kirkwood of Boston.

It can work,
I have a 45-70 18 inch barrel insert for my Savage over under .22 hornet/12 ga. It shoots factory 300 grain ammo at minute of deer at 100 yards .
Interesting side effect is that much less muzzle noise due to the rifle barrel being set back in the shotgun barrel.

Hi Terry. How's your Kirkwood barrel shoot?
Charles, that's a sneaky outfit you have there. Are you confident that someone in the federal gummint isn't concerned about that noise reduction factor?

A smith I know put a fully rifled barrel on a martini henry action
I should have bought it when I had the chance.

Nitro

ive had several of the cheap Chinese knock-off's of the Winchester lever shotguns... and sold them all before I could shoot one of them....I'd like to finally keep one and see how it shoots..for the price they feel good, but the stock doesn't fit me....

When you buy that Chinese 87 and it does not work properly. You will need to contact Lassiter to make it feed and eject properly. They imported a massive quantity of these for Cowboy Action Shooting and about 90% need gunsmithing to properly function.

I had a 12 ga. Browning A-5 smoothbore barrel rifled for slugs back in the 1980's. Shoots great w/foster slugs.

Jimatcat, I briefly owned when when toying with the idea of getting in to cowboy shooting. It is rather an awkward gun, and Buckeye is right about most of them needing work, typically on ejection. Still, they are interesting critters.

Just got this on U tube today....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ7B7FHCaFU
Review on the lever shotgun by gunblast

Buckeye, looks like these are a project right out of the box, needing some polishing and stone work. Running 2 1/2-inch shells sure seems to help. Wonder how this gun would handle Magtech brass reloads.

Guys,
I watched the video and the ejection problem is quite obvious - it is a right handed shotgun!
Seriously, this looks like an opportunity for a gunsmith to work up the complete solution to 100% reliability and become the one to send new guns immediately before even tinkering with them.
2 1/2 inch shells can also be obtained from RST Shells where I buy ammo for my old Parker 20 ga. http://www.rstshells.com/

Charles, I have used RST 2 1/2s as well. Very fine shells. It appears a fix for the ejection problem includes polishing the extractors and filing a radius on the lower heel of the breechblock, yielding an extra 1/10th of an inch or so for the shell to be extracted so the shell mouth just clears the receiver.
They say John Browning never cared for this shotgun as he had very good pumps already designed, but Winchester was insistent upon a lever gun.

In our 12ga FH work with 87 we rounded the
bottom edge of the breech face. Got it so we could
eject 3" cases plastic cases. Also 2 3/4' brass.Ed

Some of the cowboy shooters use brass cases. They run better because you use a card to seal the end and they do not get longer as they open. The problem with the brass is they are expensive ( $5.00 or so a case) and you have difficulty resizing them, although die sets are available. New brass cases are available from Magtech and Rocky Mountain Cartridge. The Rocky Mountain Cartridges are the better in quality and more expensive.
I think breech face modification is part of Lassiters fix.
Here is a commercial for the 87 showing Lassiter shooting his. He engineered a drop 2 modification to allow loading 2 shot shells at the same time in an 87. Most of the time in CAS you have to load your shotgun on the timer and start with an unloaded gun. This allows the double barrel guys an equal chance against the 87 and 97 Winchester shotguns. Lassiter is the 'go to' smith to make these work in competition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47nWth0kRS8

FYI:
Topic: 70-150 http://forums.accuratereloadin...351014491#7351014491
Just a side note on the " Lever Action Rifle 70-150 "

" The 70-150 cartridge first appeared on the 1888 Winchester Cartridge Boards and to our knowledge the only gun chambered for the 70-150 was a specially-built Model 1887 lever action shotgun. Unfortunately, the Winchester 1887, 70-150 "Rifle" was never put into production, however, Rocky Mtn. Cartridge Co. custom built some solid brass 3" mag cartridges that hold, 900, 925 or 950 gr. slugs that can be fired through our 6" rifled choke tube with surprising accuracy.

After laying dorment for 112 years, Coyote Cap / Lasergraphic has successfully converted a (Prototype) M-1901wcse-18, "Coyote Cap Commemorative" 12ga. shotgun to fire specially loaded 900 - 950 grain slugs through a normal shotgun barrel, into a rifled choke tube. The Coyote Cap 1901 "Prototype" can withstand a proof tested chamber and frame pressure well beyond 44,500 psi.. That rifle/shotgun now exists and in test firing a much lighter load, the 950 gr. fired slug imbedded itself 2-1/2 inches into a frozen Oak Tree. Removing the slug proved to be quite difficult, but the bullet had mushroomed perfectly and would have taken down a Bull Elephant with only one shot.

The M-1901wcse-20 pt "Prototype" was designated to go into production as an M-1887, but built on the longer framed 1901 (10ga.) design. Each gun would then be barreled and chambered for 12ga. These are brand new, hand built at great expense, "Prototype" lever action shotguns. "

Coyote Cap M-1901, 12ga. Prototype - (27 were built) - $2,995.00 (7 left)

http://www.coyotecap.com

Ed, I need to hunt up your comments on the 87 in the 12 gauge from hell thread.
Buckeye, the "drop two" mod is great for CAS shooters, not so much for Terminator II wannabes.

PAPI:
$3 grand for an 87 is not in my future. Was thinking more like $300 ...

They are a neat old style gun. I got it set up now for singleshot

with the long 24ga FH brass case, AND So that length is no problem

I added a bottom operated extractor/ejector. Can fire and load

and fire in 4 seconds.

They are hard to get to feed 12ga from magazine when cases

are longer.The lifter setup works great with short cases.Ed

I have a Encore 12ga smooth bore barrel cut to 16 inches, outside threaded for a 6 inch Er shaw 12 ga rifled barrel section with muzzle brake machined into the last 2 inches. Chambered for the Full 4 inch 12 ga FH with 1000 gr beer barrel " Darwin" brass bullets over a full case of RL-25. Easily hits 2000 FPS. Good accuracy too. Encore action easily takes the load. A modern paradox gun.-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Ed, I need to hunt up your comments on the 87 in the 12 gauge from hell thread.
Buckeye, the "drop two" mod is great for CAS shooters, not so much for Terminator II wannabes.

PAPI:
$3 grand for an 87 is not in my future. Was thinking more like $300 ...

Absolutely correct, the terminator need lots-o- bullets!

I recently bought an 87 lever shottie with a fulley rifled barrel, made by Chiappa with a beefed up action and fitted with a frontsight and a ghost ring ..Works like a German Band ! shoots round balls into a palm size group at 50 yards, one big ragged hole at 25 , and feeds land ejects like a charm..I bought it from Miall's Gunshop in Frankston Victoria( Australia ). $1800..They have another 19 of them ..My load is 35 grains of Blue Dot , a round ball and a circumcised plastic wad. I roll crimp the cases over the ball ..I don't have a chrony, but the recoil is satisfying...I recently shot a ball clean through a bull Camel with a behind shoulder shot fron 60 yards...I would post Photo's ,but I still can't get my head around how to do it..(it's an "age' thing ) Only problem with it is...It's very heavy..With five in the magazine, one in waiting , and one up the spout, it needs a wheel at the front to move it around...They are called a "Trophy Hunter" or similar, and should be available in U.S.A. from the Chiappa importer..I am very pleased with mine..Cheers ...