I picked up a Model 37 recently. Serial #4309xx, which I believe to be a 1951 vintage. It came with a smoothbore slug barrel on it, matching the same serial. Looking at the only information I have on the subject, Standard Catalog of Firearms, the "Deerslayer" option was not available until 1959. This barrel is not marked "Deerslayer" and I don't know if any were marked as such. I'm wondering if anyone here knows more on the subject. Was this option available earlier but not named at that time? Could the gun have been sent back to the factory for a slug barrel once the barrel was introduced, and they added the matching serial? Tough to tell after all these years, but the barrel seems to show equal wear and age as the gun itself.....

Thanks,
Jim
If it makes a difference, this is a 16b.

A factory retro it. Ithaca advertise for fitting a Deerslayer barrel to your bird gun after the 1959 Deerslayer intro.

Thanks Walt.Now I'm thinking it would be nice to find the original barrel...
Jim

As an aside these are great slug guns. I had 4 one shot kills on bucks with my Ithaca DSPS when I lived in Illinois. It would shoot 4 inch groups at 50 yards which was acceptable for the short range deer hunting there.
Jim

I'm experiencing similar, if not a bit better, results so far. I'm going down to the farm this weekend to see if I can tune it in at around 100 yds.I think it will do well at that range, just don't know how well I'll do with open sights.

Your deer barrel should be grooved on the rear sight base for scope mounts, at least the later ones were. I think 2 inch groups at 50 yards is not uncommon.

I believe you are correct. Mine was an earlier one so I installed one of the "saddle mounts" on it with a good quality 1.5 X 4 scope. The only thing I didn't like about this gun was shooting it. Thankfully afer the first year I would just fire two check out shots before the season started and one additional shot while actually hunting. I doubt if I fired a whole box of shells in this gun in all the time I owned it.
Jim

They do recoil. I well remember shooting 5 slugs from an 20 gauge Ultralite, checkered butt. IT WAS FROM A BENCH. I think it compressed my spine and pushed my toes into the ground. I couldn't pull the trigger on the 6th round. A good modern recoil pad helps a whole bunch.

This is off topic, but Jim, are you a member of Shotgunworld with a handle of the same sort? There is a fella over there with that same sign on name and I haven't seen him in a while. If it's you, where you been buddy?

If this is directed at me yes I was a frequent poster there at one time. I got tired of continuously answering the same questions like "What's my bolt action Mossberg shotgun worth?" that I just quit posting.
Jim