ITHACA 37 E

[Richard Flanders]

I've owned 6 of them I think. One 20, one 16, the rest 12's. I started hunting with a 1941 vintage 30" Full choled 12ga with a solid rib; I like them with the solid rib. I've been shooting them for 48yrs and have never once had an older one malfunction on me in any way. Not once... ever. Can't say the same for the 870's I've seen friends hunt with. My neighbor bought a new 12ga about 2 yrs ago?? It got through about 10rds before locking up solid, and before it puked it was releasing a shell from the magazine before the shell from the bbl was ejected; that was fun to deal with. He had to send it back with a shell in the chamber! They worked on it and this time it made it through 6 shells before it wouldn't even extract a shell, even though the slide worked. Off it went again, this time with a fired shell in the chamber. In there somewhere he sent it back because they had scratched/dinged the hell out of the stock working on it and got a new and very nice stock. Finally, he now has "Ithaca ver. 4" and we're hot to see how long it lasts this time and will hopefully find out on Sunday if it's above 0deg. This is a totally new gun. I am not impressed with the performance so far. The metal work on the new ones is nice; the stocks are way too thick and clubby. They are not a fwt any more. My nicest one was a 20ga in mint condition. 5.25#. 26" IC bbl. What a sweetheart. It would make a great Hun gun. I shoulda kept that one.

I forgot. I still own a 20ga mod 37 slug gun that is the perfect southern Michigan deer gun

[StubTwist]

I own two Ithaca model 37's. 30" 12 gauge with ventilated rib and raybar front sight. Love the bottom feed and eject. Easier to retrieve and pick up empties that land right in front of you. Butter smooth pump action and never had a problem with feeding or ejection. My personal home defense (WSHTF) gun is a 1976 20" with parkerized finish which I think is a good choice since the shells will get thrown down instead of off to the side ricocheting off hallway walls and can bounce in your face / eye in an emergency situation.