The Winchester trademark stamp was moved to the upper tang, behind the hammer.A two piece finger lever with a trigger block to prevent accidental discharge.The shotgun was offered with only a 32" barrel.Other distinguishing characteristics of the Model 1901 are: A 12-gauge chambering was not offered, as Winchester did not want the Model 1901 to compete with their successful 12-gauge Model 1897 pump-action shotgun. Model 1901 īy 1900 it was soon realized that the action on the M1887 was not strong enough to handle early smokeless powder shotshells, and so a redesign resulted in the stronger Winchester Model 1901, 10-gauge only, to handle the advent of the more powerful smokeless powder. In 1888 a 20" barrelled version could be ordered and Winchester offered the shotguns with Damascus barrels. The standard barrel length was 30" with 32" available as a special order. 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. 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. 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. Browning responded by designing a breech-loading, rolling block lever-action. 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. 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. The Model 1887 was one of the first successful repeating shotguns.