Silvers: Your discussion of your Ithaca 37 is particularly interesting to me. I have the same problem with my Winchester M12 16 ga.(made in 1941)--the cases occasionally get stuck in the ejection port when I try to eject them. Although I'm not an expert, the ejector and extractor look fine. I assume the problem is that the port is just a little too small.
I should also note that my father's Ithaca 37, which was manufactured during the late 1940s-early 1950s, periodically suffers from fired cases getting stuck in the chamber. They can only be removed by letting the gun cool off a bit, and then exerting A LOT of force on the slide. I recently purchased some chamber gauges from Brownells, and I was surprised to find that the chamber comes up about 1/16"-1/8" SHORT of the 2 3/4" length that is marked on the barrel! I rigorously cleaned the chamber with a variety of methods--including bronze wool on the end of a rod powered by a drill. But even after all this the chamber still comes up short. I assume the short chamber is the cause of the stuck cases.
I wonder how often production guns went out of the factory like this!
