Winchester 1887 және 1901: Леверлік мылтықтар тарихы мен қолданылуы

The Winchester Model 1887 and Winchester Model 1901 are lever action shotguns originally designed by famed American gun designer John Browning and produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The shotgun has become iconic for its use in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

The Model 1887 was one of the first successful repeating shotguns. Its lever action design was chosen at the behest of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, best known at the time as manufacturers of lever action rifles such as the Winchester Model 1873. Designer John Browning suggested that a pump action would be much more appropriate for a repeating shotgun, but Winchester management's position was that, at the time, the company was known as a "lever action firearm company", and felt that their new shotgun must also be a lever action for reasons of brand recognition. Browning responded by designing a breech loading, rolling block lever action. To Winchester's credit, however, they later introduced a Browning designed pump action shotgun known as the Model 1893 (an early production version of the model 1897), after the introduction of smokeless powder. Shotgun shells at the time used black powder as a propellant, and so the Model 1887 shotgun was designed and chambered for less powerful black powder shotshells. Both 10 and 12 gauge models were offered in the Model 1887; 12 gauge variants used a 2 5/8" shell, 10 gauge variants fired a 2 7/8" shell.

A number of gun companies have tried to produce Model 1887/1901 shotguns that could chamber modern, smokeless shotgun shells—largely for the cowboy action shooting discipline—but with little commercial success. Three firearm companies have managed to produce viable models for the commercial firearms market by utilising the easier to produce Model 1901 action and placed it into the chassis of the Model 1887 shotgun:
ADI Limited of Australia produced a small trial run of modern Model 1887/1901 shotguns, chambered for modern smokeless 12 gauge shotshells. The Australian National Firearms Agreement regulates lever action shotguns as Category A/B guns, while pump shotguns fall under the more tightly regulated Category C/D. Commercial production on this firearm by ADI was anticipated for 2007, following several years of delays due to distribution issues, but this has not yet happened. Chinese arms manufacturer Norinco currently produces the Model 1887 shotgun chambered for modern smokeless 12 gauge shells, a version of which (featuring a 20" barrel) is manufactured for the American firearms firm Interstate Arms Corporation (IAC) and exported for sale in the United States, Canada, and Australia. As the only legal repeating shotgun (besides Mossberg bolt action shotguns) for non Primary Producer firearms owners in Australia, it has proven very popular with hunters and sporting shooters alike. U. S. and Canadian sales, however, have been largely focused on cowboy action shooting participants, owing to the ready availability of affordable pump action and semi automatic shotguns in most parts of the U. S. and Canada. This particular firearm has become popular with regular American and Canadian firearm owners.