Howdy -
This is my first post here, but I certainly enjoy reading about some of these fine guns.
I'm 66 years old and have been around Ithaca shotguns for a while - I have my grandfather's side-by-side Ithaca Flues 12 ga, my father's 1940 Model 37 12 ga and the 1961 Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight Premium that my parents gave me when I was 17 years old and it's in nearly new condition with a 28" barrel changed to IC by the factory before shipping only because my father thought the 28" barrel might provide a better sight length for wing shooting. It's the only Ithaca I've ever seen that has "I CYL" stamped over "MOD".
Anyway, I thought some of you might enjoy a story and some pictures of the 1940 12 ga M37. Along with some other guns, my father gave me his M37 shortly before he died in 2001. It was completely disassembled, with all of the action parts in a plastic sandwich bag. It looked quite nice and I told him I would like to put it back together and shoot it, but he warned me it probably wasn't any good - and that it was missing some parts. So, for the past 10 years it sat untouched, with me not wanting to give it away for nothing, with the words "no good" a constant reminder every time I looked at it.
A couple of weeks ago, I had some extra time for messin' 'round and decided to try to assemble the gun and see what it needed. If you've never disassembled and assembled an M37, I can promise that it's an assembly puzzle - but it can be done. I rubbed the action parts with some emory cloth to remove any wear edges, oiled the parts and put it back together to find there were NO missing parts at all.... they were all there. Certain there would be a problem, I loaded the magazine and was amazed to find it shucked shells perfectly. So, all that was left was to shoot it - and I did.......
All I can say is WOW! This old 30" Full Choke beauty is the best mounting, smoothest swinging, crispest shooting, slickest and best sounding action I have ever shot..... and I have some nice shotguns. This one is nearly perfect........ but I keep wondering why he told me that it was no good. Was it because he took it apart and couldn't figure out how to reassemble it and didn't want to admit it? Dunno, but it was taken down many years ago, because I don't remember him shooting it after about 1950 - and at least 4 of those years between 1940 and 1950 were spent in WWII - so the gun has seen little use. Here are a few pictures - all original finish, but with signs of a butt pad that melted a little finish and a scratch on one side of the butt stock - I did replace the shrunken butt plate and grip cap with newer Ithaca replacements:
Frank