I want an older Ithaca Model 37 riot gun. Badly. - Page 1

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - I want an older Ithaca Model 37 riot gun. Badly. (Page 1 of 3)

Posted: 2/13/2011 7:57:19 AM EDT

For some reason, I really want to get my hands on an older Ithaca 37 riot gun. A buddy's Dad had one of these, and we used to fire it quite a bit. Now I want one for myself. 20" cylinder bore, parkerized, like this one:

Does anyone out there like Ithaca weapons? Seems like it would be a damn nice (daylight) gun for HD. And yes, I already have a few 870s, one with a Surefire 618FA mounted.

Posted: 2/13/2011 7:59:09 AM EDT

[#1]

I had a shot at a couple over the years....MOSt ex-PD guns for under $300.00 and i kick myself every day for NOT getting one..now you cant find them anywhere...unless you want to pay out the ass for them.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:03:16 AM EDT

[#2]

Yeah, I've noticed they go for some money, and they are damn hard to come by.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:04:09 AM EDT

[#3]

Pull the trigger once, KEEP it pulled and rack away.
Makes bowling pins and bad guys go away.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:06:29 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
Pull the trigger once, KEEP it pulled and rack away.
Makes bowling pins and bad guys go away.

Yeah, I DEFINITELY have to get an older one. The newly-manufactured ones are not slamfire.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:08:15 AM EDT

[#5]

Someone's been watching Terminator...

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:10:10 AM EDT

[#6]

Actually I haven't see Terminator in a long time, but yeah....I must have Kyle Reese's shotgun!

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:10:34 AM EDT

[#7]

Single loading looks like a bitch though.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:11:06 AM EDT

[#8]

Yep, great guns..............I wish I could find one as well. A friend of mine has 2 and wont sell them for anything

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:21:47 AM EDT

[#9]

I have one.

Doesn't have the extended magazine though.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:22:01 AM EDT

[#10]

I too have a thing for Ithaca 37 riot guns.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:22:17 AM EDT

[#11]

There was one identical to the pictured on here at a local shop. It was rather dusty and somewhat rough, but only $200. I went back the next day to buy it and it was gone.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:26:12 AM EDT

[#12]

I picked up a Norinco Model 37-2 several years ago for a couple hundred bucks, NIB. Used it in a week long NRA L.E. Handgun-Shotgun Instructor's class right after I got it. Ran fine.

Just had it out & apart for it's annual lube & wipe down. It's still a heavy pig but I like the bottom-load / bottom-eject action and am familiar with it since I've had an Ithica 37 Featherlight in 20ga since I was 15 years old...damn...41 years, now.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:26:22 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
I have one.

Doesn't have the extended magazine though.

Yeah...same here! Got it from a gun store in Orlando, FL in 1987...My first shotgun! Still have it, but don't care for it so much.

Single slide bar...but it's pretty smooth...and it does have that slam-fire trigger. Strips easy, too.

Doesn't lilke the newer, "Walmart 100-pak" 12 ga. ammo with the shortened brass on 'em.

Posted: 2/13/2011 8:32:16 AM EDT

[#14]

Saw one at a gunshow recently for $350. Knew I should have bought it...

Posted: 2/13/2011 9:26:26 AM EDT

[#15]

The one thing I notice about my 37 20 gauge is the positive ejection. Man that thing kicks them out the bottom like nobody's bness.

Posted: 2/13/2011 9:30:32 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Saw one at a gunshow recently for $350. Knew I should have bought it...

I'm going to a gunshow at the end of the month. Hope I run across what I'm looking for. And $350.00 is a great price....you should have picked it up!

Posted: 2/13/2011 10:31:17 AM EDT

[#17]

My dad bought me one for my birthday back in 1982 (1981 mfg). Ithaca Model 37DPS.
I still have it but I've rarely found a reason to shoot it. Although I killed a bunch of crows on the property with it soon after I got it.

8 shot, 2 3/4'', parkerized, 20" barrel. Slam-fires all the way. Cost about $300 new wholesale at my father's gun shop at the time. They weren't a very popular shotgun back then. However this model was widely used by the LAPD back in the 80's, from what I understand.

Other than the safety location, I cannot think of a single thing that's wrong with this wonderful shotgun.
It's the only shotgun I own or ever needed.

Posted: 2/13/2011 10:42:01 AM EDT

[#18]

I've got one, having shot it a whopping four times in fifteen years I'm not sure why I keep it. Had same type gun in Vietnam. Nostalgia is a powerful fool.
Send me an IM and if I decide to let it go you'll be the first in line. (I'm almost 60 - be patient- all this shit has to go somewhere sooner or later)

Posted: 2/13/2011 10:42:53 AM EDT

[#19]

My ex-PD 37 riot gun is a blue 18" Deerslayer with rifle sights.

Holds 4-5 rounds only, but I guess if I can't repel the house pirates with that many I'm not going to make it anyway.

Posted: 2/13/2011 10:44:22 AM EDT

[#20]

i have one

Posted: 2/13/2011 10:45:50 AM EDT

[#21]

I was going to point out that they are being made again, but then I saw that you wanted the slamfire feature.

Posted: 2/13/2011 10:57:49 AM EDT

[#22]

I have 2, a nickel one and a parked one. paid $350 for the nickel one and $300 even for the parked.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:10:53 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
I picked up a Norinco Model 37-2 several years ago for a couple hundred bucks, NIB. Used it in a week long NRA L.E. Handgun-Shotgun Instructor's class right after I got it. Ran fine.

Just had it out & apart for it's annual lube & wipe down. It's still a heavy pig but I like the bottom-load / bottom-eject action and am familiar with it since I've had an Ithica 37 Featherlight in 20ga since I was 15 years old...damn...41 years, now.

Had a 37 Featherweight 20 gauge years ago, was a dove-slaying machine.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:11:37 AM EDT

[#24]

I have one just like the one pictured. It fan fires nicely.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:14:09 AM EDT

[#25]

I have a gorgeous 37 in 16ga. I love old Ithaca guns..

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:15:29 AM EDT

[#26]

I want an Ithaca Roadblocker. Badly.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:32:35 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
I want an Ithaca Roadblocker. Badly.

Good luck, they never sold well and that was one of the designs that got sold early when the company had financial issues.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:37:02 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:

Quoted:

I want an Ithaca Roadblocker. Badly.

Good luck, they never sold well and that was one of the designs that got sold early when the company had financial issues.

Exactly why I don't own one.

Nothing says, "Go away!" like 54 00 buckshot pellets.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:42:49 AM EDT

[#29]

Could never find one, so I did this:

bought a 28" Model 37 with the corncob forend for $150 on gunbroker and had it cut down to 18.5". I've done this twice (sold the first one––it was a late 40's model and it was pretty rough. My current one is a '59 and it isn't going anywhere!)

Love these guns.

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:52:35 AM EDT

[#30]

no riot gun, but I have an 87 deer slayer in 20 gauge

Posted: 2/13/2011 11:59:52 AM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:

Yeah, I've noticed they go for some money, and they are damn hard to come by.

I had a near mint M37 Riot Gun. And a sweet M37 Deer Slayer. Some fuck in Dayton Ohio liked them more than me and stole them. Along with the first gun my dad bought me as a kid. An 870 Wingmaster in .410ga.

Posted: 2/13/2011 12:02:29 PM EDT

[#32]

I have a Ithaca M87 featherweight 12ga riot gun.

Pretty rare from what I understand, only around 1000 made before they moved the plant?

The thing kicks like a pissed off donkey getting anal raped with a cactus stalk using crunchy peanut butter as the lube.

It's a beast to shoot.

Posted: 2/13/2011 12:07:29 PM EDT

[#33]

My grandpa is a huge fan of 37's, and told me just the other day that he wants another one. Don't see many of them around here anymore, but I always keep my eye open.

Posted: 2/13/2011 12:08:04 PM EDT

[#34]

Heavy? While the 8 shot version has to be heavier than the 5 shot the M37 is the lightest 12 ga. pump out there.

I've had a 5 shot blued 12 ga. bird gun since I was 12 (1969). My dad got one in the early 50's (traded a 39 Pontiac for it) and liked it so well he bought one for each of us (3 sons) and we bought ourselves more and I bought them for my sons. Never had a single one break.

I always wanted an 8 shot parkerized gun and finally found one a few years back at a little gunshop nearby. Paid $250 for it and it looks like new.

Great guns. If/when I want to change from buck shot to slugs (or back) I pull one from the magazine (release is right there inside the bottom of the receiver where you load the magazine), put in the round I want and work the action once. That ejects what is in the chamber and loads the round I put in the magazine.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

Posted: 2/13/2011 12:12:52 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
I have a Ithaca M87 featherweight 12ga riot gun.

Pretty rare from what I understand, only around 1000 made before they moved the plant?

The company went through several of its many lives in the 80s-90s. Many owners, and steadily fading sales along with its move from Ithaca up the lake. One of its owners renamed the 37 the 87, but it was brought back as the 37 before its last NY facility was shut down prior to the move to OH. Yeah, probably not many 87s out there, compared to 37, as the nomenclature was used for a relatively short time.. although I think 1000 would be a low estimate.

BTW, they finally got around to tearing down the Ithaca plant last year. If you google "Ithaca gun pictures" there are several that pop up of the site pre-and post-destruction.

Posted: 2/13/2011 12:23:46 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:

Quoted:

I have a Ithaca M87 featherweight 12ga riot gun.

Pretty rare from what I understand, only around 1000 made before they moved the plant?

The company went through several of its many lives in the 80s-90s. Many owners, and steadily fading sales along with its move from Ithaca up the lake. One of its owners renamed the 37 the 87, but it was brought back as the 37 before its last NY facility was shut down prior to the move to OH. Yeah, probably not many 87s out there, compared to 37, as the nomenclature was used for a relatively short time.. although I think 1000 would be a low estimate.

BTW, they finally got around to tearing down the Ithaca plant last year. If you google "Ithaca gun pictures" there are several that pop up of the site pre-and post-destruction.

From my research on it, which I admit is limited, you are correct in saying they basically changed the numbers from the 37 to the 87 before the move from Ithaca NY to Kings Ferry NY. When Ithaca Acquisition Corporation bought the original Ithaca Gun Co they got around 1000 unfinished model 37's and when the plant opened in Kings Ferry they took those 37's and finished them as the model 87 as sort of a 'grand opening' gun for the new plant.

This is where my research falls apart...

Out of the 1000 or so unfinished guns they finished a good number as deer slayers, then they had a run of some for something like the US Dove Association which are really rare, and the rest got polished off as riot guns.

I cannot find where mine fits into that picture but always wondered.

Oh, and to correct myself they called them 'Featherlight' not 'featherweight'

ETA - To my understanding they only ran the 37's from the Ithaca plant that were bought in the acquisition as 87's. The new guns coming out of the Kings Ferry plant were labeled at 37's?

Posted: 2/13/2011 12:37:34 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
ETA - To my understanding they only ran the 37's from the Ithaca plant that were bought in the acquisition as 87's. The new guns coming out of the Kings Ferry plant were labeled at 37's?

I'm going completely off memory here but as I recall, they dumped the 87 designation while they were still in NYS

edit: trying to refresh my memory on the issue of dates, found this notation on, of all places, CTD
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/everygun/GunMfgCategoryDetail.aspx?id=946
So yes, the 37s were again made in NY after the 87.

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:30:59 PM EDT

[#38]

Ithaca 37 combat shotguns used in Viet Nam were either riot guns (18-inch barrels) or trench guns (20-inch barrels). The stocks and forearms were wood and the exposed metal parts were Parkerized (manganese phosphated). The caliber was 12 gauge (2-3/4 inch shell) and the barrel was cylinder bored (without any choke or restriction) for maximum shot dispersion. Capacity was 6 shots. Trench guns had a barrel shroud or ventilated hand guard over the barrel and could mount the M7 bayonet of the M16 rifle. Sling swivels were provided for the standard 1-1/4 inch web rifle sling. Sights consisted of a brass bead mounted on the end of the barrel and a flat, grooved sight plane milled into the top of the receiver. The forearm latch (bolt release) was located at the right front of the trigger guard and the safety was located at the rear of the trigger guard. Shotguns procured for issue to U.S. forces during Viet Nam were in the 9XX,XXX serial number range.

http://www.warboats.org/stonerordnotes/Ithaca%20M37%20R4.html

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:36:56 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
Ithaca 37 combat shotguns used in Viet Nam were either riot guns (18-inch barrels) or trench guns (20-inch barrels). ...Shotguns procured for issue to U.S. forces during Viet Nam were in the 9XX,XXX serial number range.

Most of the military Ithacas were left behind when we left that country. Relatively rare to find a .mil Model 37 because of that

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:42:59 PM EDT

[#40]

I have a clone. Nice guns. No slamfire, though.

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:53:00 PM EDT

[#41]

About 15 years ago I was at a gun show in Huntsville, AL, a dealer had a barrel full of police trade in 37's for $150 each. They were all scratched up & a little rusty .Cool shotguns for sure, I have an old Ithaca 51. I want an old original Ithaca Deerslayer, with the factory Hi-Viz rifle sights.

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:56:11 PM EDT

[#42]

When I was a kid, Ithica 37's were the only shotguns my family owned. Love em.

ETA: Im looking for and older one myself, to Restore.

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:57:27 PM EDT

[#43]

My first shotgun was a plain barrel Ithaca 37. I stupidly sold it because I wanted a vent rib gun. I've had my eye open for an extended magazine Ithaca 37 riot gun for years, I've seen exactly ONE and the price on it was outrageous.

Quoted:
I want an Ithaca Roadblocker. Badly.

Way back when I worked in a gun shop that was closed Sundays. I could shoot any of the used guns on Sunday when the store was closed. We had a Mag-10 Roadblocker for a while, I took it to the range a few times. It was a bad ass gun, a gun that takes a grown man to shoot!

Posted: 2/13/2011 1:59:43 PM EDT

[#44]

Is that one of the old shotguns you could slam fire by holding down the trigger while pumping it?

Posted: 2/13/2011 2:06:56 PM EDT

[#45]

Ithaca Deer Slayer police special, with Choate side folder. Sitting 'cruiser ready' in the bedroom.

Posted: 2/13/2011 2:28:36 PM EDT

[#46]

No riot gun, but I have a model 37 deluxe with the stamped checkering. 12 gauge, 26 inch modified choke plain barrel. Bought it new, more than a couple years ago. Great shotgun. It was in like new condition until one of my sons decided to use at Scouts.

Posted: 2/13/2011 2:58:39 PM EDT

[#47]

Quoted:
Is that one of the old shotguns you could slam fire by holding down the trigger while pumping it?

Slam fire isn't quite the right phrase, but you have the right concept. The Ithaca M37 and Win M1897 were two that could be fired by holding down the trigger and pumping the action. I think the early Win Model 12 could too.

Posted: 2/13/2011 3:10:08 PM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Is that one of the old shotguns you could slam fire by holding down the trigger while pumping it?

Slam fire isn't quite the right phrase, but you have the right concept. The Ithaca M37 and Win M1897 were two that could be fired by holding down the trigger and pumping the action. I think the early Win Model 12 could too.

That is correct.

Posted: 2/13/2011 3:15:45 PM EDT

[#49]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Is that one of the old shotguns you could slam fire by holding down the trigger while pumping it?

Slam fire isn't quite the right phrase, but you have the right concept. The Ithaca M37 and Win M1897 were two that could be fired by holding down the trigger and pumping the action. I think the early Win Model 12 could too.

I will call it "awesome fire" then

That is pretty interesting. I'd like to try it out. Not sure where it would be practical, but I imagine it would be great for showing off how fast I could get the RSO to yell at me.

I kid, I kid. Uncontrolled fire is not kosher.

I think my old man has a 37 hanging out in the closet. Need to check this out.

Posted: 2/13/2011 3:37:51 PM EDT

[#50]

So what year did they cease manufacturing this slam fire type model?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - I want an older Ithaca Model 37 riot gun. Badly. (Page 1 of 3)

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