The King of Pump

B

Bushmaster1313

New member
I found me a first year three digit Ithaca 37T :)
Single digit temperatures prevent me from taking it to the range today to try it out

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Nice restoration it seems - very well done, even down to the sunrise pad. Looks like it will be fun to shoot when you thaw out.......:D
 
Nice restoration it seems - very well done, even down to the sunrise pad.
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Not restored.

Metal is original and I wiped the wood with a little Ballistol.

Pad is obviously a replacement, but Frank Vallone at Sycamore Hill Designs did a very nice job.
 
that stock wasn't restored/refinished? It looks like it must have been sitting in a safe all these decades; very nice wood for something that old.
 
Very nice !!! Of course I will have to tell you that over on the forum also.

that stock wasn't restored/refinished? It looks like it must have been sitting in a safe all these decades; very nice wood for something that old.
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typically the T (traps) and S (skeet) guns were taken care of much better than the standard field guns were, which were typically hunting guns. Next in line as far as condition are the R (solid rib guns) and then Full choke guns which kind of went out of fashion as shot shell technology improved.

In the Ithaca 37 line, the gun pictured above is one of the "Holy Grail" guns that every one that hoards, collects, acquires, accumulates wants to get, whether they admit it or not.

The Ithaca 37T's ARE the "King of the Pump" shotguns and the 37S's are the Queens (or vice versa)
 
The features that made these guns so desirable were the grade of wood and the wide "Knick" rib.

Add in the fact that the gun above is a very early in production pre-war gun, makes it qualify as a "Grail" gun.

The T's and S's shared the rib style with Knick single barrel trap gun. These guns were made by people that were craftsmen. Due to labor cost these guns today, would be prohibitively expensive. The ribs were all soldered on by hand and the barrels are not "Hot Blued". The same with the solid rib guns, soft soldered on. Cannot be hot blued or the rib will come off.

Here is a high condition 16ga 37S. (he might be priced a bit high, it has been out there a while, just an example to share what an "S" looks like)

If you click on the photos, they will open in another window and then if you keep clicking, it will walk you through all the photos like a slide show.

http://www.gunsinternational.com/Ithaca-37-S-rare-16-gauge-Skeet-grade.cfm?gun_id=100194663

These below are the Knick SBT (short for Knickerbocker) (none of these are mine, just examples showing what I mean).

http://www.gunsinternational.com/It...-Shot-12ga-Knickerbocker.cfm?gun_id=100522708

http://www.gunsinternational.com/It...p-12-Gauge-2-3-4-Chamber.cfm?gun_id=100399552

http://www.gunsinternational.com/ITHACA-SINGLE-BARREL-TRAP-4E-KNICK-.cfm?gun_id=100423867

Back in the day that these guns came from, Ithaca, Remington, Winchester et al, built works of art, examples of the gun making craft that could hold their own with the guns made in Europe.

Notice the screw heads on the Knicks. As they came from the factory, the slots were all "timed" to run with the axis of the gun. You can tell if one has been taken apart as most folks simply don't take the time to learn how to retime a screw.
 
37!

Sweet 16!

Looking at your 37 brought back memories of my daughter's first pump...an Ithica 37 featherweight purchased second hand from a now gone little gun shop in NJ.

I can still hear, "but dad, that gun would be just right for me".
 
My Lord Man! That is a gorgeous piece! My dad had a 37 that for the life of me I cant even find pictures of. Extra fancy walnut monte carlo stock, 20" smooth-bore with rifle sights, gold deer head cap with red background. Wish he hadn't got rid of it. :( He traded it for a maruku citori back in the 80s.


I don't believe (in my opinion) that you can beat a good 37.
 
i own and hunt some times with a 37, but find it work to use it for trap, i find the 870 rem more user friendly for me and i,m left handed. eastbank.
 
actually it was a Pedersen patent that held it up, Pederson worked with Browning on the original design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_Model_17

here is a little more history on the gun

http://guns.wikia.com/wiki/Ithaca_37

http://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/guns/shotguns/pump-actions/2010/10/ithaca-m37-featherlight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_37

maybe later I will read that part of Walt Snyder's book on the Ithaca 37 (he became Ithaca's historian) and see if those sites have the correct years down
 
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