Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns A plug for Ithaca Gun Company, Upper Sandusky, Ohio

I bought two sequentially numbered Ithaca Model 37s directly from Ithaca a few years ago. Serial numbers ####44 and ####45. This is the "new" Ithaca in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. One of them has a 24" rifled slug barrel (and a spare 28" vent rib barrel) and is my primary deer shotgun. The other sports a 26" vent rib barrel. I've shot them quite a bit and have been pleased with them. Both are chambered for 3" rounds.

The M37 with the slug barrel developed a timing issue, which was particularly apparent when cycling Hornady SST slug rounds through it. Occasionally, I would fire a round, cycle the action, and the next round would come out of the magazine and fall to the ground, not having been picked up by the carrier. On a couple of occasions, it would double feed a round into the receiver and jam the gun, and I would have to push the second round back into the magazine.

This isn't necessarily a quality issue. It's an issue inherent in the design. I've owned several M37s made by different Ithaca companies and occasionally it happened with those, too. Depending on the ammo. Other's have reported similar issues. And many of the Hornady shotgun shells I have are out of round, have wonky rims, and are different lengths than Federal and Remington 2 3/4" shells.

So I called Ithaca in Upper Sandusky. A live person answered and it was precisely the person I needed to speak to. No call transfers. I was greeted warmly and the service rep referred to me by name. He asked how my M37s that I bought on ##/##/20## were doing. Told them what was happening. He asked me to send both guns in to be checked by their gunsmith, though I only experienced the issue in one of them. They sent me a prepaid shipping label. I boxed them up and sent them in. They were there less than one week before I got a notice that the work was complete. The gunsmith not only fixed the timing, put in new shell stop springs, and honed some parts, Ithaca installed a rear sling swivel stud on my slug gun at no charge (I requested the stud at my expense). I told them I appreciated the quick turn around and was told in return that Ithaca immediately moves any warranty issue to the front of the service line, that they take pride in their product and stand by them. I got my shotguns back in factory boxes, along with a note from the gunsmith explaining exactly what he did and how to minimize timing issues. They also work on previous Model 37s not made by them. Two M37, there and back in right about 10 days.

That's how you run a gun company. And now I've added a new sling that isn't a butt cradle type.