Model 37

I also own a 37 circa 1976. It's field gun and has accounted for many doves,chuckers,huns and pheasants. Also ducks geese,rabbits and squirrls. I am searching for a "deer slayer" barrel for it so it will do double duty for a deer or bear gun depending on loads.
IMHO the older Model 37's are the best shotguns Ithaca ever produced.

Wow...either not many Ithaca owners out there or nobody knows about this place yet???

Regards

12 Ga. Pump said:

Wow...either not many Ithaca owners out there or nobody knows about this place yet???

Regards

Click to expand...

The site is still pretty new so help us spread the word

I'd be willing to bet I am one of the more avid Ithaca 37 owners ... ask Walt Snyder. At any rate, he's got his own forum on another board in another world, and believe me - there are plenty of us Ithaca owners out here. Just give it time - build it and they will come.

I've got a number of 37s including a 1st year 12 gauge, and many others after that. I've got signed copies of Walt's books, both of them, and some of the most pristine examples of early Ithacas from their glory days that you will ever find. Some years were great, some were not. The key is knowing which production years to own and/or invest in and then what model to try to acquire. All of mine are still shooters.

Well we Ithaca owners aren't rare, I have 3 M37s at the moment and have owned quite a few over the years, including a pre-War 16 gauge M37T (as in target, maybe it was post war)
A couple of 16s from the 40s and 50s
Some 20s from the 70s
Mag 37s
Even a Model 51 20 gauge.

Right now I have a 1959 M37 12 gauge that my Dad bought for me. It s been rebarreled and restocked. I used the stock on a different M37. A M37 16 Deerslayer, and a 12 M&P.

I'm left handed and a bit biased when it comes to pump shotguns. Me thinks that the Ithaca Model 37 is the best pump shotgun of them all. Although I am partial to the Winchester M97, and have little affinity for the Win M12 or the Rem M870.

I've owned and hunted pheasant, deer turkey and other vermin with Ithaca 37's since I was 14 years old. I now have two Ohio 37's in 20 and 12 gauge. I think the older Ithacas are the best but these come in as a close second.

I have had a love affair with the 37 for as long as I can remember.

I carried a DSPS for years in LE they are great guns.

I picked up a very clean 1956ish M37 16 gauge about 2 years ago and it is fast becoming a favorite. Something about that gun just oozes class.

I cut my bird hunting teeth on a 37 in 20 gauge that I bought in high school and used, heavily for many years as my only bird gun.

I've always had a problem with short shucking, though, probably due to my shorter reach. I suspect I'm not the first gal to deal with this. As pumps go, I could at least manage a 37 (model 12s, no way). That's the good news. The bad news is that short shucking a 37 is a huge no no. Locked that 37 up so bad at times that I needed help to get it shooting, again.

Eventually decided that pumps were not for me and moved on to an 1100, but what memories I have with that 37 and some of my old bird dogs! Those were the glory days for bird hunting. Grab the dog and the 37, then walk out the back door and hunt pheasants and quail all day. Wow!

My Ithaca is a 1938 12 gauge. It is all original I believe. It was a hunter much of its life. It shows its use, but works good. I got it from the grandson of its original owner. It had sat much in its later years. It shoots great.

I have a 1953 37 in 12 gauge. Even though it shoots only 2 3/4 and has a full choke it probably the best bird gun there is.

I have three, a 16ga solid-rib 37R made in 1941 (the first gun that I ever fired, 53-odd years ago) a 20ga 37R also made in 1941, and a newer 28ga.

I've always liked the looks of the M-37, but I never owned a M-37. An old gent I knew who grew up on the Midwest could wax eloquently for hours (and hours) on the virtues of the Model 37 and Grumman canoes for duck hunting. With the steel nonsense in California I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity to own another Ithaca made in Ithaca.