So a sorta-fixer Ithaca 37 followed me home, thoughts?

Clean up the crown, leave it at 18.5" for now, install a bead. Clean, oil and shoot it and then decide. Great score BTW!

You can always have a barrel fitted to the reciever by Diamond Gun Smithing in New York.

Thats all he works on is Ithaca's. Just give them a call he just might have a extra barrel on hand. That way you can have a choked barrel for hunting and a open bore barrel for what-ever.

No need for a bead anyway - LOOK at your target; shotgun 101

Carried one every day with the L.A. Sheriff's Dept. I bought one of my own to carry on the tradition.

Clean it up and Shoot it. Fine looking shotgun.

That's a good-looking shotgun, especially for $100. Looks like you've cleaned it up real well. I'd put a nice finish on the muzzle and, yes, I'd put a bead on it. Not strictly necessary, of course, but it will look unfinished without one.

Great-looking gun! I'd send it to Michael Orlen for screw-in chokes and let him install a bead while he's at it. I had the Colonial Arms Sporting Clays choke(s) installed in my 18.25" Auto 5 and it suddenly became my favorite shotgun to shoot for a lot of uses. I'd always been an O/U and SxS guy, but the shorter barrel and chokes transformed the Auto 5 to a super sweet gun in my hands.

Nice score. I want one just like it. I passed up a 37 at gun show for $150 because it had a minor dent in the barrel. I was going to cut to 18.5 anyway. Thought about it overnight but it was gone the next day. I see them going for $250 and up on gun auction sites.

That style buttstock alone sells for $100.00 on eBay. $10 to $20/$25 for the barrel yoke, another $35 to $50 for the foreend wood and slide assembly, $20 to $35 for the magazine cap if the knurling is all good, $18 to $25 for the magazine tube.

You got a good deal.

If you ever decide to build yourself a really cool field gun, then you get a post serial nbr 855,000 gun (chambered for 2 3/4 of course) swap all those good parts onto it and that guns parts back to the home defense gun.

I have scavenged parts from that era to build up later era 16 and 20 ga guns. The later models had press checkered wood of different dimensions. If you are a hunter of game or clay birds, the dimensions of that stock are better than the later model guns (in my opinion).

I saw that posted on NES and knew it wouldn't last long. Nice score.

Since the barrel has lost it's "collectability," you could send it to Rose Action Sports for a thread-in choke and front sight bead. I did that with a Rem Mod 11 someone had chopped the barrel on, and now I have a very serviceable shooter. Outstanding work, and fast turn, too.

Great purchase. Looks good as it sits now.

Home gun

I have a silver soldered ramp front sight and a Wiliams Peep on a 20" barrel.
Sits in the bedroom corner with a trash bag to keep off the dust.
Might work for you.

ABTOMAT said:

What's a typical cost of getting a barrel threaded for screw-in chokes?

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Here's my Auto 5 that he did (lengthen and polish forcing cone and chamber, install the Colonial Sporting Clays screw-in chokes). It patterns great with the screw-in chokes.

Awesome buy

Is there any choke left after the cut down ? Just wondering.

Sav .250 said:

Is there any choke left after the cut down ? Just wondering.

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The most likely barrel length for a shotgun of that era would be 26 - 30". If it's 19" now, somebody cut off at least 7" of barrel from the original barrel length, so I doubt if there's any choke left.

First shotgun I ever used for hunting was an old Ithaca Model 37 20 gauge. The pump action on that gun was so slick and smooth nothing else since then has even come close. At $100 that gun is a fantastic buy! Clean it up and shoot it!

If that was mine and I had $100 dollars in it, I'd file a Form 1 and cut the barrel to the end of the tube. A SBS model 37 would be pretty sweet... Especially for just $300 dollars.

Good buy.

I was thinking of doing an SBS on a M37 with a 5-rd tube too; to be a little brother to my M37 DSPS w the 8rd tube... ah, another future project to look forward to!

Fine looking shooter I adore my dsps. Nothing like an old 37