Thanks, Dave and all. Good thread.
Been thinking about history lately, due to a couple of questions from other places, and it strikes me that a whole lot of modern folk don't realize just how good we got it these days by comparison. One of the questions prompted me to dig out my 1996 copy of the 1994 West Point tape series on the history of small arms by then- MAJ Art Alphin (later of A-Squared) and watch most of the 6 hours again for review. (Gotta get that on DVD, the VHS ain't gonna last...)
One of the interesting phrases that has survived into modern abuse is "heavily armed." Think about that a bit. Not too many dozens of years ago, that meant pretty much exactly what it said. A man who might need to fire several shots in quick succession pretty much had to have a separate (single shot) firearm for each of those shots. I remember reading descriptions of early Western travelers being laden with hardware, to include substantial knives as well. Those were the days of muzzle loading flintlocks, complicated and often unreliable.
But progress was made.
Through a long series of inventions and improvements to inventions we came to have self contained reliable cartridges. We came to have reliable repeating firearms designs to use them in. We should all be so deeply grateful to the long line of inventors who brought us to where we are.
A singularly American preference developed around the pump shotgun. That could not have happened without standardized, reliable ammunition to feed the guns and without dependable designs to utilize the ammunition. When those two factors came together the results were absolutely revolutionary and changed the firearms world forever. These new shooting machines could thunder repeatedly at game animals, interloping predators, or various forms of bandits before reloading was called for. Very quickly enterprising law dogs and market hunters were fitting extended magazines, some holding up to ten or eleven rounds.
The American slide action tubular magazine fed repeating shotgun was birthed in 1882 with the design introduced by Sylvester Roper and Christopher Spencer (of repeating rifle fame). John Browning's 1890 patent for a slide action shotgun appeared as the Model 1893 and soon evolved into the legendary Winchester Model 1897. Widespread adoption by police, security companies and the military fed the M97's growing popularity. Winchester's Model 12 carried on and built on that line for the New Haven company. The later Model 1200/1300 saw military and police use as well as considerable civilian popularity.
Meanwhile Remington's Model 10 (a John D. Pederson design much like the Ithaca Model 37) and the later Browning- designed Model 17 (even more closely related to the later M37) founded the lineage that would lead on through the Model 31 until 1950 saw the introduction of the now- famous Model 870.
Ithaca Gun Co. had concentrated on their well known SXS guns from their inception in 1880 until 1937. The fast- growing popularity of repeaters cut heavily into the double gun market, however, and Ithaca began to cast about for a reliable repeater design. By the mid-1930s Browning's patent for a closed sided, bottom ejecting repeater was a front runner, and Remington had stopped manufacturing their Model 17- and more importantly, the patents had expired. Thus no one objected when Ithaca picked up the basic design and firther refined it to make a lighter gun, first marketed in 1937 as the Featherlight. It was an immediate commercial success and later a military and law enforcement favorite as well.
Numerous others ventured into the slide action market- Stevens, Savage, High Standard, Smith and Wesson and others. The best known of the later arrivals was Mossberg, introducing their Model 500 in 1961.
Pump guns pretty much domnated the 20th Century in the United States. They were quite effective, reasonably inexpensive, and few Americans cared about or could afford the panache of a best grade double gun. Americans were a nation of working people who had leisure time to pursue their choice of sports, and many of them liked to go shooting. For shotguns, the working man's choice was most often the pump.
It still is...
lpl/nc
"ker-plunk" 
