Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why I like the Ithaca 37

It makes me look almost 25 years younger.

I like it because from my standpoint (as a full time gunsmith with about 1/2 a century of experience) I believe the M37 Ithica is the best pump action shotgun ever made anywhere at any price.
I do not own one myself because I just don't hunt birds enough to have a use for one, but in all the years of doing gun work I have to say the 37 action is the best one I know of for longevity and reliability. I love my old M12 20 gauge Winchester too, but in my years I have had to make repairs to M12s a few times.
Other then wood work I have never had to repair a 37.
Not one. Not ever.

DigitalDan,

NICE pump-gun & a NICE hog too.

The Model 37 is my favorite, as I'm a southpaw.

yours, tex

The 37 with the one action bar is the slickest pump I have shot. Have a fondness for the Winchester Mod. 12 for the same reason, just for me not quite as quick. John Browning as usual got a lot of things right on the Ithaca style pump action.

Well hell, there can be little doubt about its superiority and status as the world's finest pump gun.

Dad purchased that one used back in '61 for mom so she could quail hunt with us out in Oklahoma. It had a couple of issues inflicted by the previous owner that were quickly remedied and life moved on. Around '93 it was passed to me and I discovered the barrel had been cut down and it patterned poorly. Sent the barrel off for choke tube installation, tried the modified tube for starters and never had cause to change it. Following the events in the photo it accounted for 70+ hogs in a little over 2 years on property about 30 miles north of Dublin, GA that was part of the Oconee River bottoms with Commissioner Creek running thru the east portion.

Couple years passed and I took it quail hunting for a long weekend just west of Tallahassee, FL and ran 42 birds straight w/o a miss over a 3 day hunt. Cold dead hands and all that.......

Dayum, I was a handsome devil back then.

Come on! That photo was taken last week!

And they are great shotguns.

I'd like one for the just because reason. I've danced all around a 37, with a Remington 17 and Browning BPS, without ever owning a 37.

I really like them as well plain barrel fixed choke they are a natural pointer.

Had a M37 Featherweight Riot Gun once.

Better mind how you shot it... It like to have broken my nose!

It’s John Browning’s last pump shotgun design to be put into production. Mine is always loaded and ready to go. Love the smooth and sure action and bottom ejection.

my beater turkey gun is a Mod 37 from the original run in '37

I inherited two from my dad. One he bought from an uncle and the other he bought within the last 10 years. Both are 16 ga.

The story behind the first makes it very special in addition to the fact that I hunted with it as a kid. My maternal grandfather was a serious quail hunter. In the mid seventies he and my dad and two uncles were quail hunting. My dad only had a single shot shotgun. My uncle David was always trading an he was hunting with this Ithaca 37C. During the Hunt he turned to my dad and said “Harold, you need this shotgun”. Before my dad could answer my grandpa said “Red, (my uncles nickname) I’ll take it”. To which my uncle replied “James, you have more shotguns than you know what to do with. Harold don’t”.

The gun came home with my dad for a very reasonable 1970’s price and with its brother, resides in my safe. I and my oldest son killed our first quail with that gun. I have given it to him and it’s brother to my youngest son. I like the 37C.

I own a M-12 and a M-37. I've taken both apart to give them a thorough cleaning and saw the genius in the M-37. The M-12 may be the Rolex of pumps but I give the nod to the Ithaca due to less parts and equal craftsmanship. The only down side to the older Ithacas (pre-72 IIRC) is barrels have to be fitted to each gun.

I've always disliked them ever since we invited Larry and his M37 Ithaca 16 gauge along to go pheasant hunting back when we were kids. Dave and I carried a heavy 12 gauge Stevens and a Browning A-5 and Larry had those two roosters that we flushed on the ground before Dave and I could even mount our guns. Then he took both of them home and Dave and I went hunting that day for the exercise. Last time we invited Larry and that M37 along to go hunting. I grew up in the paper shotgun shell days and always heard that those M37's had some issues with reloaded or swelled paper cases.

I haven’t shot a paper shell in 30 years but both my 87 and 37 digest every reload I have put thru them, even the steel based crap made today. Others may have issues but I haven’t with mine.

I am left handed and the Ithaca 37 handles like a dream for me. I had a 12 gauge that was stolen while i was away at college. When i got home I replaced it with a 20 gauge, since I only planned to hunt upland game with it. It was so light and it pointed perfectly for me. Once while rabbit hunting I handed it to a cousin so I could cross a fence, He commented on how light it was compared to his Browning A5 twelve gauge. Those A5s were beastly heavy. Before I even shot that 20 gauge I sent it to a gunsmith to get a left hand safety installed. It became the perfect left hand shotgun: left hand safety and bottom loading and ejection.

I have my dad's old 16ga. full choke, shells are a little hard to find around here, and pricey, but I take it out once in a while. I'll go along with it being the slickest action pump gun, at least in my experience.

My 'bump in the night' Ithaca

16 gauge ammo on the shelf is rare here too, even Walmart no longer stocks the 16 gauge stuff. Academy occasionally has the cheap Remington black hull stuff, but Cabelas has the best deal with the Herter's pheasant loads for under $9 a box. I tried them last year and like them. A cousin and i will probably order a case and call it good.

I bought my 12 gauge for 200 dollars a long time ago.

It had the stock as well as the barrel cut down shorter.

I found a stock and the barrel i found has choke tubes.
I don't shoot it that much because my son has claimed it.