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I've thought often of getting one as a utility gun, but a nice sxs always seems to be the more attractive option. I should pull the trigger on one though. I grew up using them, and they are very efficient, and have a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in them also.

Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 3178 Location: NCWa

I have a Model 12 16 ga with a PolyChoke. It performs well in several applications but it sits in the safe because I'm so accustomed to shooting a break action gun that I forget to pump the slide after the shot. I press the trigger and nothing happens- when I realize that I need to pump the slide, it's too late. So it sits in the safe and I shoot a SxS or OU.

LOL 'Brought back a fond memory....Way back in the early 70's, my dad got a like new 3" Belgian Browning O/U.

Come Duck Season, I was shooting his old Model 12 and I'd laugh and
poke fun at him to no end when he'd be trying to pump that darn Citori.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

As many know I love my 16 ga. 1100, but at times I pull out the M37. For the last 5 or 6 hunts I have been shooting it and doing rather well with the M37. This is the most I have ever used it during a hunting season.

Just a lot of fun running that nearly 70 year old pump. The only part though is several times I have had the opportunity for doubles on both sharpies and huns but I have held back, just not feeling confident as the recoil effect is quite a bit more than the 1100. That plastic butt plate slides around a bit too. I really don't want to touch this M37, but I may rethink it and put on a Kick-EEZ pad. Of course that means cutting the stock....decisions, decisions.

Seems like a winter project.

Mark -- Keep the original buttstock "original", then scout around for another old stock for that 37 -- cut it, refinish it, install a recoil pad -- whatever you desire, and simply exchange it for the original whenever you want.

Cheers!
Tony

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

Thanks Tony, that makes a lot of sense.

I am selling my 835 to a younger fellow at work, seeing as how I have a 935 and a M3000 which I could use for geese and/or a loaner in a pinch.

I have an old 20 ga M37 that I have been thinking about using at the club, possibly get our skeet chairman to organize a "Pump Day" where we only shoot pumps for a prize. Probably would be good for a few laughs at a guy like me who is not used to it.

I shot this gun once the first time my Flues went down, downed a woodcock with it with one shot, thankfully. I remember looking into the age, 1950-ish IIRC. 5-something pounds, a delight to carry as I remember, but essentially a single-shot gun in my hands.

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1310 Location: Western WA

Citori16,

Yes the M37 20ga is a true princess of a gun. Not only light as a sprig, the balance is near perfect, neither whippy nor awkward. What’s truly remarkable is the fact that a mass production US repeater could deliver in every practical respect the handling qualities and effectiveness of a Best London SxS at a small fraction of the cost.

Learn to shuck it smoothly (it takes a slightly different rhythm than a M12) and your fellow competitors’ amusement will vanish. I daresay I could be tempted to turn in my 16 ga M37 for one of those 20 ga gems.

B.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

My first shotgun was a Mossberg 500, I had just turned 18 and it was the gun I could afford.

After a few years, I bought an 1100 LT-20 and moved on to mostly auto's and O/U's. I will occasionally shoot one of my 16 ga. pumps, that I had bought over the years, and after two targets I am right back to shooting a pump with no hesitation.

This M37 is the only shotgun that I could just pickup and shoot well without any modification to the stock....it just shoots where I am looking, but because it is light the second shot was kinda iffy, mostly because of that hard butt plate sliding around. This past summer a couple of us brought out the pumps. I brought the M37 and just figured it out. I shot well and for some reason I have just kept shooting it for the hunting season. It still needs a recoil pad to keep it in place and not rattle my fillings with my 1 1/8 oz. hunting loads.

I have a wonderful 1916 vintage M12, but it is so muzzle light that it is whippy, love the shotgun but hate the way it handles. My 870 has been made into my turkey gun. The M37 is just right. I don't shoot it as well as the 1100, but close enough, and as long as I don't miss too many pheasants I am going to keep on using it.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

My first shotgun was a Mossberg 500, I had just turned 18 and it was the gun I could afford.

After a few years, I bought an 1100 LT-20 and moved on to mostly auto's and O/U's. I will occasionally shoot one of my 16 ga. pumps, that I had bought over the years, and after two targets I am right back to shooting a pump with no hesitation.

This M37 is the only shotgun that I could just pickup and shoot well without any modification to the stock....it just shoots where I am looking, but because it is light the second shot was kinda iffy, mostly because of that hard butt plate sliding around. This past summer a couple of us brought out the pumps to shoot some sporting clays one night. I brought the M37 and just figured it out. I shot well and for some reason I have just kept shooting it for the hunting season. It still needs a recoil pad to keep it in place and not rattle my fillings with my 1 1/8 oz. hunting loads.

I have a wonderful 1916 vintage M12, but it is so muzzle light that it is whippy, love the shotgun but hate the way it handles. My 870 has been made into my turkey gun. The M37 is just right. I don't shoot it as well as the 1100, but close enough, and as long as I don't miss too many pheasants I am going to keep on using it.

I'll have to give my M37 a try, especially now that the daughter has taken her 20ga A400 to bayou country and I have a bunch of 20 ga loads beggin to be shot. I'll end up sending her some of the better loads, but I prefer not to have her use the reloads, as they were done for a SxS I no longer have.

I like the Mossbergs for the tang safety, but they lack in so many other ways. Once I started seriously using the Citori for ducks, the 935 stayed in the safe until I get a good scout on geese.

Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 444 Location: WI

My first waterfowling gun was an 835. I think I paid $325 for it. I replaced it with an SX3, but still have the 835. It's the only pump shotgun I own, although I do have a Remington 7600 in .270.

My girlfriend has a 20ga Model 12 her mom gave her, and she also has her dad's 870 16 gauge he bought at the PX in the mid 60's, he told me his only regret was not buying one in 12, 20, 28, and 410 at the time also.