Gun Review – Cimarron 1887 Terminator

I get lots of press releases and new product announcements. My eyes often glaze over when company XYZ writes a 500-word press release for a holster that now accommodates one more gun. Call me jaded, but most don’t get read. I make an exception for Cimarron. They make cowboy guns, and I like cowboy guns. So, when a headline for the Cimarron 1887 Lever-Action Terminator came across my inbox I pepped up.

The Terminator is a clone of the Winchester 1887. Its name came from Terminator 2, where Arnold wields a sawn-off 1887 while often riding a motorcycle. Unlike the Terminator version, this gun isn’t a short, pistol grip-only gun but a fully stocked shotgun with a 20-inch barrel. The 1887 is a bit of an exciting story.

The Winchester company started as a lever gun company and continued that reputation throughout the 1800s. In the late to early 1900s, it became known as a shotgun company. In between these two phases of Winchester, the Winchester 1887 shotgun sits. The 1887 was the first successful repeating shotgun design. Prior to this, there had been some attempts, but they were small and unsuccessful.

The dominant shotgun technology remained double- and single-barrel shotgun. A repeating shotgun that holds five rounds in the tube and another in the chamber was quite the revolution. Winchester had John Browning design the gun, and it saw some limited success. Lever-action shotguns never succeeded like pump guns, but the 1887 is still all kinds of cool.

Not a True Clone

The Cimarron 1887 isn’t a true clone. The original Winchester 1887 was a black powder-only gun. In 1901, they introduced the 1901 Lever Action shotgun, but only in 10 gauge. The original 1887s utilized black powder 12-gauge rounds that were 2 5/8 inches long. The Cimarron 1887 uses 2 3/4-inch shells only.

This comes down to a spirit of the law versus letter of the law. This isn’t a clone in the true sense, but does capture the essence of the 1887 including its quirks and downsides quite well. The gun comes with nice wooden furniture, and a dark black finish. The barrel length on my model is 20 inches, but I heard a rumor there was a plan for longer barrels.

The gun is made by BAM PRC, which stands for People’s Republic of China. A few years back, Century was importing 1887s from China, but they weren’t up to this quality. I remember handling a few, and the wood and overall look weren’t up to this standard by any means.

Like the original, we have a five-round magazine tube, a simple bead sight and a top-loading design. Winchester 1887s utilize a lever-action rolling-block design that’s really interesting, to be honest, and impressive. An external hammer is present with just a nub to cock, decocked or half cock the gun.

The 1887 In Hand

The 1887 is a chunky, heavy and awkward shotgun. It’s just one of those things you have to understand about the gun. It’s tough to blame John Browning. He didn’t have much to imitate and was building the train tracks in front of the train. To me, the awkward, clunky design is part of the charm.

Part of that clunky charm comes from the loading process. With the bolt ratcheted backwards, you’re presented with the barrel and the magazine tube. The magazine tube sits beaneath the barrel and it’s somewhat awkward to load. There isn’t a lot of room for your hands, and it requires you to pull the shotgun down and out of a firing position. You can’t top off the gun with the same ease you can top off a pump or semi-auto.

The gun top ejects and does love to throw shells right against your forehead for some reason occasionally. It’s not terrible, but it’s something to be wary of. The 1887 series has a three-position hammer. We have fully forward, cocked and half-cocked. Half-cocked seems to be the default safety position for carrying with a round loaded.

The gun lacks any form of manual safety and any controls outside of the hammer and lever. The forend features an interesting design where two pieces of wood are mounted between the barrel and magazine tube. Both sit exposed, and it’s not hard for your fingers to drift up and touch a hot barrel.

Throwing Lead

I hit the range with 100 rounds of birdshot and 100 rounds of Federal birdshot. The Federal is the bargain stuff you can get at WalMart, the buckshot was Academy’s Monarch brand. Right off the bat I had a problem with the Federal ammo. It would stick after being fired in the chamber. I had to unshoulder and hold the gun with one hand while I yanked on the lever. So much for using bargain ammo or maybe another brand of cheap ammo might work better. Every brand and product line has its own idiosyncrasies with how it might perform in a specific firearm.

I swapped the Monarch buckshot, and it was smooth as butter. Well, it’s as smooth as a lever-action shotgun can be. The Monarch has a higher brass rim and a roll crimp. The Federal uses a fold crip. I’m not sure where the fault lies. I cycled through 25 rounds of buckshot and swapped back to birdshot, and the problem mostly disappeared. But twice in a 25-round box, I did still get rounds that stuck after being fired.

I grabbed some Fioochi high-velocity birdshot with high brass. It proved to be perfectly reliable, albeit a real shoulder thumper. I ended up just alternating by the box. By the last 25 rounds of birdshot the problem had virtually disappeared.

The round stopped getting stuck, but sometimes, the force required to eject it was more than average. I’m guessing the gun needs a break-in period. This is my first experience with an 1887, and I’ve never heard of a break-in period with a manually operated shotgun. It’s more common among semi-automatic firearms.

In general, this is a gun that appreciates vigor when it comes to working the action. Jam that thing back and forth for the best results. A slow movement of the action might not properly throw the case.

Bead and Barrel

The bead sits directly on the barrel. If you look at a Remington 870, they use a pedestal and then a bead. Defender Tactical makes higher beads because Mossberg also puts the bead directly on the barrel. This is a problem because it creates an issue of point of aim/point of impact. Buckshot appears to be hitting high. To hit a target with slugs or buckshot, you have to aim low. I aimed at the bottom of a 10-inch gong to hit it at 15 yards dead center. So, it’s roughly 5 inches high at 15 yards.

Again, it’s a quirk of an old gun. It’s not a big deal because this is purely a fun gun to me. I was impressed by the patterns. With the Monarch buckshot, we were looking at seven-inch patterns at 15 yards. With Federal FliteControl (which operated very smoothly), we got a 50-cent-sized hole at 15 yards.

Surprisingly, Federal Tactical slugs were pretty dead on at 50 yards. I aimed low at an IPSC target in the lower A-zone, or so I could tell, and let them fly. The slugs all hit in the A and C zones with decent groups. Not bad for a short sight radius and bead on the barrel sight system.

This isn’t a gun made for recoil-sensitive people. There was no such thing as a recoil pad in 1887. Or at least not one Winchester believed in. I tend to use a push/pull technique to mitigate recoil. The front grip doesn’t offer much to grip, but it’s not too bad to shoot. I’m a glutton for recoil on shotguns, so I didn’t mind, but if you are more accustomed to the soft recoil of an Italian semi-auto, this one might surprise you.

Overall, I enjoyed the Winchester 1887. If you don’t mind the quirks of a lever-action shotgun made in 1887, you’ll appreciate the Cimarron 1887 Terminator. It’s fun and it’s affordable with a street price of about $580.

Specifications

Accuracy – ****
Accuracy and shotguns is an interesting discussion. The 1887 hits low but hits consistently. The slugs were surprisingly accurate, and once you remember to aim at the belt buckle to hit the chest, it’s easy to shoot accurately.

Reliability – ****
Technically it fired every shot and ejected every shot, but some rounds took more effort than others to eject. It did clean up rather well, and after what appears to be a break-in period it goes boom without much of a hitch.

Ergonomics – ***
I mean, it’s a shotgun in a lever-action format from 1887. It’s got quirks. It doesn’t reload as easily; it’s heavy, with zero grip texture on the wood. Even the hammer only has a small notch. Still, it works surprisingly well.

Fun Factor – *****
Reviewing this on a modern scale doesn’t make sense to me. It’s designed to look, feel and act like an old gun but with modern ammo. For that reason alone it gets a bonus five stars for fun.

Overall – ****
I love this gun. I had a blast with it, and as I type this, I’m looking forward to going back out and shooting it more. I wouldn’t use it for home defense, but if I got into SASS or needed a novelty pest remover, the 1887 gets my vote.

 

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