Ithaca 37, Front Sights, and Ghost Rings

S

Skofnung

New member
Hello.

I have an old Ithaca 37 D.S. Police Special that I would like to fix up. It has rifle sights on it, but the rear sight (dovetailed) is missing. I could make or buy another rear sight for it, but I would rather get a ghost ring setup for it. So, I have three questions.

1) Who makes a ghost ring rear that will fit on an Ithaca reciever?

2) The front sight is a funky contraption (a steel ramp) that has a removable blade that is made of an orange plastic much like a hi-viz light collector, only its triangular. The blade that is on the gun is a little beat up, and I would like very much to replace it. Do any of you know what kind of sight this is, and where I can find a replacement blade for it?

3) Would this front sight work with a ghost ring rear?


Thank you
 
No one knows the answers to my questions? Have I stumped ye olde experts?:D

Where can I go to find an answer to these questions? Are there any Ithaca experts out there?

Thanks again
 
The problem is that the gun is older..

And the answers you seek are best given by folks who make the sights. The Benelli/Remington/Mossberg clan is pretty much 99.9% of the serious social shotguns.

www.brownells.com is pretty much Mecca for parts. They have replacement factory sights for your DS.

MMC has a Ghost ring set-up that will fit your M37. Mec-Gar also lists Ithaca's for guns they will fit.

Best bet is to check MMC (http://www.mmcsight.com/index.html) and see what the cost is to have them install it.
 
I installed ghost ring sights on an Ithaca 37 once. I won't do it again. There are two problems.....

1. The extractor rides in a groove that is dead center in the top of the receiver. The two screws that mount the rear sight would be in this rather thin area. There is enough meat to hold them, but it's not an ideal situation. Either MMC or LPA would work.

2. The barrel does not index to the receiver like most pump or semi-auto shotguns. If you don't lock the barrel down very tight, it can slop around and change windage.

The Ithaca 37 is a good shotgun, but it is best left alone.
 
DML, my observation, owning both 870s and an Ithaca is that the barrel to receiver lockup is much tighter on the Ithaca since it's a threaded fit, not merely a slip fit...

...can a ghost ring sight be epoxied on a receiver?
 
Thanks for the links Gizmo99.

DML, you may have just saved me a big chunk of change. I knew where the extractor was, but I thought that the reciever was thicker than you describe. I do not want ro risk hurting this this gun, as it belonged to my father. Thanks for pointing this out.

I guess I will just replace the rear barrel mounted rifle sight, and order a new front sight insert from Brownells. There is nothing wrong with rifle sights in my mind, I just wanted to try something new.

Thanks for the heads up fellas.
 
Romulus:

The problem is that the barrels on the 37s that I have seen do not index on a fixed point. They can be rotated left or right to the point where the extractor groove doesn't line up with the receiver.

If you check the barrels on Remingtons and Mossbergs you will see a notch that indexes the barrel. On Remingtons the notch mates with the ejector.

A rear sight can be mounted on the Ithaca receiver. It just a bit touchy IMHO.
 
Erick:

This is off the topic, but I have installed about 200 Scattergun front sights and, to the best of my knowledge, none have come off. I have seen a few that did come off and without exception the failure was due to NOT FOLLOWING THE DAMN INTRUCTIONS!

Most guns that are sent to me to have MMC sights installed and already have Scattergun front sights require a torch to remove the front sight. I just reinstalled one that I removed awhile ago just to see if I could knock it off with a hammer. I beat on it until the barrel squashed and it didn't budge. I will try to post a picture later.
 
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