16ga.com ~ View topic

Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 265

16gg,

I know it's a 37, just giving you a hard time.

On a somber note, what is the deal with Ithaca? There is a black cloud hanging over that name. First Steven Lamboy, then Ithaca LLC now the new Ithaca. God knows I would not buy anything direct from Ithaca. I would go through a dealer.

Well, I got the Itaca 16 ga 37 Featherlight on Friday evening. It has what apears to be a factory installed Simmons rib on the barrel. I wonder if Ithaca had these ribs added by Simmons or did them themselved under licence. It also had the original Lyman Raybar front sight and a mid bead too. Very nice I think. It also came nicely packed in a Doskinil gun case included in the price. Very nice of the seller I thought. It came right to cheek and shoulder and said Hello as all good fitting guns do. That was a break. Not stock carving would be necessary here if the barrel would only shoot where I look. (It has a dead straight bore and did exactly that as I found out later at the club on Sunday on trap targets.)

On the way home from my chosen ffl transfer dealer's, my cohort and I stopped at Kelly's Roast Beef on Rte 1 on the North Shore, and pigged out on fish filet sandwiches, roast beef (for him), clam chowder, the world's best hand cut, hand battered, deep fried onion rings, french fries, and cokes. we then waddled out to the car and home we sped, him to wife and three Shorthairs, me to Heidi the aging but always tailwaggingly wonderful wonder dog.

The gun was a gooped up mess of congealed grease, varnished up gun oil, dust, dirt, a few minor rust specs, a ding here and there on steel and wood, and a smattering of white paint probably from someone not bothering to move it out of the closet corner it languished in for decades. It looked like someone just painted around it and dribbled paint on it here and there.

I went to bed at about 11:30 PM, but quickly realized the usual Gerd medicine wasn't going to counter my deep fried late evening repast, so I got up, got redressed, and went to town on the gun cleaning, polishing and removing the paint with OOOO steel wool and some mineral spirits. When I got through about 8 am, the gun looked far better than I'd hoped for. All the paint was gone, the wood was 90% restored, the light spots of rust were gone with very little trace of damage to the bluing except on the left side of the barrel which has a small handful of worn spots about mid way back from both rust and abrasion. Everything else was squeeky clean, regreased, reoiled or waxed back to decent.

I had managed to also clean out 95% or the goop inside the action without disassembling it completely. I also learned that Ithaca 37 guns are not the model of simpicity I had been led to believe. they are a tad complex. The dual actiion shell lifter/ejector and the bolt, and carraige are only slightly more complex than your average chinese block puzzle. You even have to remove the stock to drop the trigger plate out of the action backwards. There goes my idea of a simple to disassemble gun for rainy day use.

Remington's brain dead management could easily capitalize on this simple fact by bringing out a 16 ga. 870 on the LT frame. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if its anywhere near as nicely balanced and light as this 16 ga 37. I'm betting a bunch of other folks would too. The 870 is the model of simplicity I have in mind. Oh well. Convincing a Dinosaur like Remington that it doesn't know sh*t from Shinola about gun and marketing trends isn't easy. You first have to get their attention. I can't lift a stick big enough and long enough to jab them in their nether regions to do it. So there we are. Laughing

Anyway, the gun has a 28" full choked barrel that hits trap targets nicely. I also did fairly well on skeet with some of the polywad insert based spreader loads I cobbled together last year for the AYA "Matty." That is, I did all right as long as I remembered to pump the damned gun. 20 years of not handling a pump gun shows. However, when I did what I was supposed to do, the gun worked flawlessly. I did have some initial problems with it firing on the second load on doubles. This was traced to left over goop in the firing pin channel. Some WD-40 into the bolt face via the little red tube, followed by some compressed air, and a tad more WD did the deed. There were no more hiccups if I fully stroked the forend as one is supposed to. The gun seemed to shoot itself right in. It is also obvious that this gun is typical of many 16 ga. guns made after 1960. It has suffered more from neglect than use. The inner workings including the bolt face look relatively unused/new.

I have gotten lucky again. the gun shoots well and functions flawlessly so far. At least there is not side ejection port to pick up rain on a bad day. A simple removable gun sheath over the action should do the job in a downpour. A plastic bag or very small plastic sheet will do to keep the rain out. The barrel is very easy to remove. The bolt and inner workings can easily be sprayed out with WD to displace any moisture. The gun will do nicely for me once the barrel is cut and the chokes installed. I could also stand a short increase in LOP, especially for trap. I whacked my nose with my thumb a time or two with the 1 ounce trap loads. The 3/4 oz skeet loads were a joy to shoot in the gun as they are in any light weight 16 ga gun.

I have no need to refinish the 37 as I thought I would. A lttle judiciously applied Phospho Blue has covered 90% of the few small worn spots on the back of the action. I suppose the barrel could stand to be hot blued again. But I can wait until I have enough stuff to reblue. The place that does my work will reblue 8 pieces of moderate size for the same inexpensive price if I do all the prep work and repolishing prior to the hot blue job. For me, that is the easy part. Anyway, there it is. Ole Dumbass got lucky again. 16GG.

16GG no doubt knows this but the Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly/Disassembly walks you through the Ithaca M-37 very nicely and my experience has been that you do need to get the stock off to really get the gunk out of the action. On re-assembly, it's alot easier to hold the bolt, slide piece, and shell lifter together and slide them all into the back of the receiver. Be sure and scrub out the inside of the magazine tube (easy with a M-37)-amazing amount of gunk, weeds, pieces of plastic shell case, etc. accumulates in there.
Wonderful guns and I'm still looking for a M-37T made in 52' for fun.

Member Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 358 Location: Houston

16GG,

Regarding the 870, don't overlook one of the earlier vintage guns. My Wingmaster from 1955 is much different than the recent models. Haven't studied why that is, but check them out sometime--I'm betting you'll like them. And you can get a decent one for less than $200 pretty easily.

As for assembly/disassembly, you're right--the 37 isn't as easy as an 870, but I think the Rem 31 tops them all. That was a bear!

Sound like a great plan 16GG, and a lot of fun building your designer pump.

I have to second what 662 said. I have a '52 vintage 870 that weighs in at 6# 9oz. with a 28" barrel. It also has sling swivel studs installed (not by me) which probably add almost an ounce. I plan on getting the barrel cut to 26" and have tubes installed by Mike Orlen. This will drop the weight to under 6 1/2#. From what I have heard this is very close to what the model 12's and 37's weigh. It is the BDL model with cut checkering and the matte strip along the barrel top and is in 90%+ condition. It is light to carry, quick to mount, swings nice, and is not at all muzzle heavy like the new ones. You would never know when carrying or shooting it that it is built on a 12ga receiver. I only paid $220 for it a year ago.

I looked at the new 870's, handled them and didn't like the weight and balance. I don't know what year Remington went to the heavier profile barrels but there is nothing wrong with the older ones, at least not the ones made in the 50's.

Dennis

I agree with the assessment of the early 16 ga. 870 models. They are substantially lighter than the later ones and also very nicely made. However, none have a barrel rib. Putting the new heavy weight ribbed barrel would defeat the weight advantage pretty much. I've already posted that I can't shoot a plain barreled gun for beans. It due to the sight picture I've become used to and not any fault of the plain barrel.

The 37 isn't real bad to service. It's just more complex than today's simplified designs. And yes, the Rem 31 can be exasperating to disassemble. So can the model 29. Just getting the barrel off these two is a pain. I think both were actually reengineered model 17/37's. If I'm not mistaken, I think the 37 was one of John Browning's brainchilds. You can't really improve much on one of John's designs. All you can do is make it more complicated and screw it up. The 29 and 31 did this nicely. Laughing

However, they are still very slick guns, like the 37 is. Boy, talk about shuckability. Snick-Snack- Bang. Gotta love it. Thank you again John.

Revdoc, the mag tube was thoroughly scrubbed out with a 10 ga. bore brush dipped in solvent and then competely wiped out with clean patches and a lightly oiled one last. I also plan to remove the stock and barrel, soak the action in solvent, then blow the resulting crap out of the gun. However, there is virtually no shooting residue in there. The gun was not shot much. I probably put more rounds through it in a few hours than was ever fired through it in the last 3 decades. This gun is definately a closet orphan someone decided to get rid of finally. Good for me, too bad for him. Its a keeper for sure.

Last night, I went to the club for the April meeting. I got there early so I could play some more with the "Ithiky." I loaded and fired three, 5 shot strings of my favorite skeet reload as fast as I could pump and squeeze em off. Not a hiccup or a misfeed in the bunch. When I got down to the clubhouse, one of the guys asked me about my new autoloader. I just smiled and said, "37 pump shucker!" he nodded and said, "Good gun." I then said "16." He replied, "Really! Granddad loved his." I replied back, "Yup. Smart fella, your grand!" We both just smiled smugly. Some things remain true not matter how much time passes or BS gets thrown around.

Again, thanks to all for the kind words and suggestions. I got mine. Now you go get yours. They are really fine guns. 'Nuff said. Wink

16GG.

Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 4

http://refugeforums.com/refuge/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79094

This is a link to very nice directions for takin that
model 37 down and puttin her back together.

Gary