doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com off topic - Ithaca model 37's

Here's the first bird shot with the gun in Feb. 2011. When I shucked the shell, the magazine dumped out two shells with the carrier below the shells. Some disassembly required. It went back to the factory as others had "timing issues" in the 28 ga. The one man who dealt with malfunctions in the 28 ga. was on sick leave due to knee surgery. It was months before the gun came back but the problem was solved and has performed flawlessly since then. I should not have written that. I am doomed opening day of dove season...

CNC

Computer Numerical Control

Seeincee

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well. I guess I done got gotten. Damn. That doesn’t happen very much. Can’t believe I missed the punchline. Got me. 😆

Shhhhhhhh, it happens. 😁

I bought one of the very first 28's they put out the door. I bought the standard model (no fancy engraving at all) withthe highest grade wood. It was thebest fitted, slickest M37 I have ever owned and was a joy to shoot. I really enjoyed it for dove hunts. I paid $700 and change for it. I travelled to the area for work often, stopped on the way home, ordered it and picked it up at the factory about 3 weeks later. Have no idea now why I ever sold it and have been looking for another ever since. I had a lot of 28's at the time and likely sold it to fund a different project. (Probably a new RBL 28 I bought).

They later made a line of WWII 45 auto pistols which were duplicates of their WWII models. I remember them being popular for a while.

For slick it would be hard to beat my old 20 gauge Remington Model 17 that I've been shucking for over 60 years now. Ithaca had to wait a long time to mess with Browning's design.

The only bottom eject pump I kept is my Model 17. If you find a spare barrel for a 17, about 9 out of 10 times it drops right in place. The model 37s aren’t like that, they usually have to be screwed with to get them on.

50 years with mine in September of 2027.




Best,
Ted

Nice Ted!! The real thing as J.M.B. intended.

Much better than those slab-sided knock-offs from Fall Creek! Remington made the stock look right. Probably no more than a 1/16" or 1/8" difference anywhere, but to my eyes the Remington stock has always looked "right" and the Ithaca stock just doesn't. My 17 is the earlier style Model 17A "Standard" Grade with the plain stock and ringed forearm with a 28-inch solid rib improved cylinder barrel. About the same time the Model 10 morphed into the Model 29 and the Model 11 got the improvements and the cross-bolt safety the A "Standard" Grades all got checkering.

Walt Snyder had the slickest, custom made 28 ga. M37 made, if not the slickest, it is in the top 2. Three years ago, a fanatical Ithaca M37 collector bought my first year 20 ga. M37, my M-17 as well as my first year 20 ga. 37R which was probably unfired. Yes, I understand the slab side comments re: the M37 also the rib differences between the ribbed M17 and M37R. The 37R 20 was made the year of Ithaca's war shutdown of civilian guns to make the 1911. In the first year of the M37 20 (1939) roller engravers for the receivers weren't set up properly and the run of some of the earlier guns was defective. Rather than junk those receivers, Ithaca had their factory hand engravers finish the job by handchasing more detail into the receivers. Also the early guns had a high luster blued finish.

A 12 gauge Featherlight Model 37 was my first gun - dad bought it for me in the summer of 1974 from Dam Road Gunshop outside of Delavan, WI for me to use that fall for my first hunting season.

A fun little gun, just the right crossover for weight and load size for a 12 year old, I used to for my first successful hunts for Grouse, woodcock, pheasants and bobwhite quail.

I've got a bit of nostalgia for them, but the few times I've tried to buy one on auction, they've gone past what I'm willing to pay.