doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 1940 Ithaca 37R before and after restoration

I venture to guess this gun would garner greater interest than most any orignal condition 37 when resting in the sale rack at one's local gunstore. The debate over restoration is facinating.

i do not believe in restoration/refinish from financial perspective. all my guns are in very good shape with the exception of my horrendous weather gun which is wwi vintage 25" 20ga model 12. nobody ever turned a screw on that thing until i got it so i had to strip n clean this gun down to individual parts. now it works very smoothly and i would say of all the guns i own it has the most character by far.

Everyone on the no-restoration side seems to ignore that the gun was not safe to shoot without stock work that would automatically nix the "originality.

I could have switched the stock and represented it as an original, but that would be cheating.

Given that the stock needed to be repaired or replaced, redoing the metal to make it a complete package made a lot of sense.

Does anyone think I should have relegated this exquisite example of American gunmaking to a wall hanger?

Lou

Lou

look it's "field grade" ithaca meant to be used. i have both 25" model 12 and 26" ithaca 37 both in 20ga and the ithaca is superior field gun. i might add that the winchester is that ole' nickel steel one that many consider the best unland gun (in 20ga and 16ga) in model 12 lineup.