I was lucky enough to buy a nice 87 Winchester a couple years ago,and I love shooting it. Mine has a 32" full choke barrel and is wonderful for trap shooting. I had to re-stock the butt stock as the original had been altered by a ham-fisted fool, perhaps a hundred years ago.
I have loaded both brass and plastic shells for it, both with great success. For plastic, I use Winchester AA shot shells, cutting them to 2 1/2". I load them on a Ponsness Warren 12 gauge shot shell reloader and use 12 gauge A, B, and C wads and 7 1/2 shot. But before crimping I eject the cartridge using a short 3/4" dowel and take them to my drill press where I roll crimp them. I purchased both the shell shortening device and the roll crimper from Precision Reloading.
For the brass shells, I do not resize, and I use 11 gauge wads. I use a produce called "water glass" to seal the overshot wad...bought it at our local hardware store. I have had no issues reloading plastic shells as many as three times before they start to perforate. But black powder, in my case 2Fg GOEX, 75 gr., is hard on the plastic and they do require replacing.
My gun appears to have a fluid steel barrel rather than a pattern welded one, but I never use smokeless in it nontheless. This is truly a long stroke lever gun.