ran across a Win. 410 single shot today like iv not seen before md 37 lever break open, but instad of a hammer it had a switch that you slide forward to cock the gun! also stamped in large letters across the bottom of the reciver WINCHESTER, its a 3" 410 full choke, had a kinda short but big around forarm. Kinda neat old gun, was in good shape but alot of blueing wear. anyone own or know anything about these?

You sure you have the model number right? The Winchester M37 and M37A that I'm familiar with have hammers. I know Savage/Stevens had a single shot with a thumb safety. The cocking action takes place when opening and closing the gun I think.

I have on old Westerfield 100B single barrel in 20 gauge like that. Cocking tab is in front of the safety tab.

No hammer per say. Worked fine for years.

Yes I dont have the gun but its in LayAway 37A the switch must be a safty, but sure seemed to cock it NO hammer, the dealer said something about it being a RED winchester, My 1st gun was a Win. 37 20 gage and it had a Hammer! One reason Im getting it have never saw one like it before, and kinda wanted a 410 again.

Found some on Gunbroker its a Md 37 Steelbild 1st edition! they are bringing pretty good prices! Im in for about 1/2 of what there going for!

The M37 is a hammer fired single shot shotgun with a top tang lever to break the action open for loading and unloading.

Take a look on gunbroker and you will see that there is NO Hammer! one ad said these were made 1st in 1936

Link? I'm really curious about this. A M37 Steelbuilt .410 was my first gun, then a 20 gauge came a few years later. A 12 gauge was my grandpa's favorite gun to tote behind his pack of beagles while chasing rabbits. Hammers on the early M37's were small and curved backward. Might look like a "switch" or safety button in a picture. If I remember correctly Winchester didn't call that first version piece a hammer. They had some other name for the part but it was a hammer all the same. The M37A was redesigned with a more conventional hammer spur. Grandpa hated the redesign and strongly preferred the original Steelbuilt.

I have a couple of old model 37's in 410. They are built well and are very fun to shoot. Yours sounds like it's a red letter which are worth a little more if Winchester is engraved on the bottom of the receiver. They also have a cocking lever (hammer).

Model 37's most definitely have a hammer\cocking lever.

Yes it does have WINCHESTER engraved on the bottom of the receiver, and does have the cocking Leaver/ hammer just not the reg type hammer!

It is a hammer that you pull back to full cock, not a switch you slide forward to cock it, as you said in your original post. That was damned confusing.

Agree. It's a hammer.

Looks like they swapped the location of the opening lever and the hammer part way through production. Interesting.

My old Model 37 12 ga

???

I have a M37.. It has no safety. The hammer's cocked by pulling back that thumb-sized button just aft of the top lever.. If your description is accurate ("switch slide forward), that's not a M37..

We need a PICTURE of this critter. I've had a bunch of 37s, 37As, and 370s and none of them were as the OP describes. (My first gun was a 37, a .410 with 28" bbl. bought new in 1951 for $23.50; still have it, still hammers cottontails).

Nor do my references site any prototypes like that. Seeing is believing. And, like Fox Mulder, "I wanna believe!".

The original Winchester Model 37 has a weird hybrid action which seems to me more like a 'striker-fired" action than a simple hammer-type action. That thingey on a model 37 that you pull back on to cock the gun, is cocking lever connected to a long striker-like firing pin. Not really a hammer, even though you operate it like one.