Won this one without a struggle the other day. Very pleased. Shot a couple rounds with it yesterday, but have to work on my loading routine for it. It’s slicker than snot on a doorknob.
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/976860652
Now that is a good deal. Beautiful Ithaca 37!
Somebody said you can’t find a good deal on Gunbroker, you certainly did.
Good looking 37. I'm not a 37 guy what's the deal with the forearm. I don't remember seeing that. I had a 37 in 16 gauge featherlight
Earlier ones had the corncob. This is my third from the early 60s before barrels became interchangeable. Later on, they went to impressed checkering typical of that era from most makers.
In case you didn’t know, that knurled knob turns a few times, allowing the barrel to rotate and disengage the interrupted threads. The barrel gets lifted out of that horseshoe thingy. Forend and tube stay with the receiver, unlike the Model 12. Like the model 12, all the parts are lovely machined steel, not stampings, MIM, or polymer (formerly known as Plastic).
I told the seller I felt like I stole it. He felt the same way! He thinks he failed to explain the Simmons rib properly, which might have put some buyers off. Like everything else, these are going up and I saw others in worse shape priced out of my comfort zone that same day. My other two, purchased a few years back, were less than $400. I really regret selling the 20ga 26” Deerslayer, as the clunker I applied that money to went down the road pretty quickly, and that 20 was pretty nice. My son has the other 12.
Awesome old shotgun. I'd love to have a 20 gauge version in that same good condition.
I have a 16 gauge from 1962 that is similar to yours. Mine is a VRD (vent rib deluxe). Has the same Simmons vent rib and recoil pad. Forearm is a little different and is checkered along with the stock. Mine has some really nice wood on it. It was a modified when I got it. I had it threaded for the thin chokes and do everything with it now. The RIO 1 oz. 1325 fps. loads shoot real well. I hope I can get some more of those in the near future.
You're very lucky, because if I had seen it, I might have bid on it. I love 37s. The very first gun I ever had of my very own was a mid-to-late '70s vintage Model 37 Featherlight 26" fixed I/C choke 12 gauge. Stupidly sold it years ago but found another with the same specs and of the same vintage that was in near-new condition. Old 37s are great, great guns. The new ones are fantastic, too.
Glad I caught you napping!
Last year I bought a 20ga Model 12 from a friend, and while they are awesome guns as well, I like the 37 better. My uncle had a 20” Deerslayer, the first scoped shotgun I ever saw, and aside from it’s inability to feed paper-hulled Brenneke slugs, it was a deadly deer gun. It was deadly on the back end too, not only the recoil, but there’s a lot of DNA on the eyepiece of the Weaver K4 mounted in a pivot mount. I’ve shot it, but managed to keep my face from becoming “involved”, unlike so many others.