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<  16ga. Guns  ~  Ithaca 37.....add choke tubes?
dannypratt
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:37 am  Reply with quote
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Location: Napoleon, MI

Fellas,
I've got a 1956 Ithaca 37 FeatherLight, typical 28" modified plain barrel, unchecked buttstock, had been cut, but had it put right with a period correct Ithaca Sunburst pad from Galazan...looks just like it belongs there.

It's a nice gun. Excellent condition...BUT..its modified, and its 28" inch, and I'd like some more options..with this model it would require finding an early production barrel, fitting it, etc...$$$$

What are your fellas experience with removable chokes in these guns?
How do the chokes really pattern?
How about lopping it down to 25" like the UltraLights?
Do you think its worth it, or should I just keep it original for the occasional pheasant hunt?

Usually I can make these decisions myself pretty readily, but it's a very nice original condition (except pad) gun. And right now, I just dont use it. I've got other guns with modified choke barrels (as most of you do too) so often they get the pick for the hunt...

P.S. My dad hunted the last 45 years with a Browning Belgian Auto 5, 20ga, 26" modified choke VR gun as his ONLY bird gun....never seemed to hinder him a bit. So it's just possible that I'm just plain over thinking this whole thing.
Regardless of choke, you still have to actually be on target to drop the bird...

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-Danny Pratt
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RGuill96971
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:59 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 21 Mar 2019
Posts: 519
Location: Texas

If it all ready has removable chokes it don’t get any better in my opinion. Get a set of chokes and you can use it for anything. Most people want screw in chokes as they have realized how much better it will perform. Now with that being said. Go pattern it and see what it does. If it is good to go then roll with it. I am a big a5 person like your grandfather and I have the original modified barrel and have purchased a barrel with invector plus choke tubes. Guess which one sits in the safe? You guessed it the plain modified barrel. Never gets used cause I can screw in a choke and go to town. If your looking to keep it original then buy another gun. If your going to hunt with it, then it pretty much isn’t going to be a high dollar collector. The first scratch and its value is in the basement. I personally wouldn’t have one that I don’t use. If I could afford a holland and holland I would still shoot the shit out of it.
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Cold Iron
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:00 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Mar 2016
Posts: 746
Location: Mn.

I grew up with an Ithaca 37 in 16 ga. and Mod choke. Shot everything with that gun and one year went straight for 6 grouse with 6 shots with it. Didn't know at the time that you weren't supposed to be able to do that...

Had Briley install thinwalls in my 16 ga. RVD



Because it is a target gun and I might shoot skeet with it then turn around and shoot Sporting Clays with it. Cost me ~$350 by the time it was done but for me worth it. It was a Full choke and had no use for a Full now that I don't shoot trap. And yes it patterns fine.

For $350 you can pick up another Ithaca 37 Field with a different choke. I really like the 26" IC for grouse.



Depends on what you plan to use the gun for but another option is to open it up to ~.008-.012 and call it done. The older I get the less I like choke tubes, have boxes of them around here. Way too many.

I have tubes including custom for several of my 16 ga. guns. At the point now where unless I am shooting skeet I put a .008 in most of the time and call it a day. Then again this Spring ran the skeet field and thought I had the .004 in but when I took it out to shoot 5 Stand discovered it was the .012. No wonder I had some comments about me hitting them solid during the round LOL. Thought I was just seeing the birds better than normal.
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upstateduckman
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 3:07 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 19 Oct 2009
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Location: Erwin, NC

That's a personal preference question. I believe it can help if you want to hunt something different from time to time, like grouse and turkey. Given the age, another barrel would need to be fitted by a decent gunsmith. Les Hovencamp can do that in his sleep and last I knew it is $75 plus shipping to do that.

I had Briley tube my 1949 gun and they did a great job but the work plus a few chokes is about what I paid for the gun. I have steel rated tubes for it. I believe lead shot has its days numbered. But, I am sending lead and bismuth through it now.

I had another barrel for a post 855 barrel cut shorter and tubes by Mike Orlen for one of my sons. Good job and cheaper than a spare barrel. Those are Colonial and are a standard bore versus fitted to your barrel. Colonial are cheaper than Briley and can exchange between guns where Briley are set by bore diameter (0.665 or whatever).
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Beagleman
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 7:21 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 04 Oct 2015
Posts: 280
Location: Clemson

Have chokes installed. Have the barrel cut. Have the barrel reamed. Do whatever to make the gun useful to your purposes. You cant ruin a gun that has a cut stock. I like 37's but at the end of the day it's still just a 37, not a Parker Invincible.

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skeettx
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 7:27 pm  Reply with quote
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AMEN!
Rather use a modified gun than not use a non-modified gun.
When they stay home they cry and sulk

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John Singer
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:30 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 03 Sep 2014
Posts: 398
Location: Rochester, MN

Reading your post as I sit here at the airport in Baltimore, I cannot help but wonder what you are attempting to accomplish.

Sounds like you have a safe queen that you do not hunt with much. Are you attempting to put a dress on a pig? Are tubes going to get that gun out of your safe?

Like you, I have a number of shotguns, the only reason that I can come up with for installing tubes in one is if I felt the need to put in a full choke tube for spring turkey hunting in a gun that I wanted to also use for waterfowl or upland hunting in the fall.

Otherwise, a modified or improved cylinder (or something in between) is all I need.

My Savage 720 (like your recent acquisition) came with a fixed full choke. I reamed it to a modified and see no need to install tubes. Unless I felt the need to use it for spring turkeys. Truth is, I have killed several fall turkeys with that gun and its modified choke. If I limit my spring range to 30 yards or less, I could kill spring turkeys with it too.

All that being said, it is your gun. Consider all your options and do what you want.

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UncleDanFan
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 9:05 am  Reply with quote
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Beagleman wrote:
Have chokes installed. Have the barrel cut. Have the barrel reamed. Do whatever to make the gun useful to your purposes. You cant ruin a gun that has a cut stock. I like 37's but at the end of the day it's still just a 37, not a Parker Invincible.


+1000

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Savage16
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 11:12 am  Reply with quote
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So if you have other mod guns that always get picked over this one, why is that? Are you going thru a period where you just like semi's better for a repeater? Have you shot it poorly in recent outings? I like your sentence about overthinking it. Most of us ,me included, are guilty.

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dannypratt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 12:36 pm  Reply with quote
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Yep,
I just dont shoot the thing. Period. I like it, I've had a bunch of 37s, but something else just seems to get grabbed when I go out, either a Savage A5 clone or my Remington 31.

Its surely not a safe queen, it's just a very nice condition 37.

I keep thinking that maybe I should just sell it since it doesnt seem to gravitate into a gun case when I leave the house.
But the. Again, like the general opinion, why not just get it setup the way I'd like an all purpose pump gun to be...

I had an excellent pre war 16ga 37 with 26" IC choke barrel...that was a great gun. I sold it away in a time of foolishness. I should have just kept it. And now I've acquired this gun some years back and havent shot it once. It wont ever be that pre war 37, just not the same.

26" barreled 16ga 37s dont show up around here very often at all, especially in IC choke. I figure maybe this gun is a great candidate for a custom 37, since it's already got the cut stock/pad thing going on. And after all, it's an Ithaca, not a Parker.

Decisions decisions...

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-Danny Pratt
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dannypratt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 1:45 pm  Reply with quote
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Yep,
I just dont shoot the thing. Period. I like it, I've had a bunch of 37s, but something else just seems to get grabbed when I go out, either a Savage A5 clone or my Remington 31.

Its surely not a safe queen, it's just a very nice condition 37.

I keep thinking that maybe I should just sell it since it doesnt seem to gravitate into a gun case when I leave the house.
But the. Again, like the general opinion, why not just get it setup the way I'd like an all purpose pump gun to be...

I had an excellent pre war 16ga 37 with 26" IC choke barrel...that was a great gun. I sold it away in a time of foolishness. I should have just kept it. And now I've acquired this gun some years back and havent shot it once. It wont ever be that pre war 37, just not the same.

26" barreled 16ga 37s dont show up around here very often at all, especially in IC choke. I figure maybe this gun is a great candidate for a custom 37, since it's already got the cut stock/pad thing going on. And after all, it's an Ithaca, not a Parker.

Decisions decisions...

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-Danny Pratt
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John Singer
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:18 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 03 Sep 2014
Posts: 398
Location: Rochester, MN

dannypratt wrote:
Yep,
I just dont shoot the thing. Period. I like it, I've had a bunch of 37s, but something else just seems to get grabbed when I go out, either a Savage A5 clone or my Remington 31.

Its surely not a safe queen, it's just a very nice condition 37.

I keep thinking that maybe I should just sell it since it doesnt seem to gravitate into a gun case when I leave the house.


Is that not the definition of a safe queen?

You mention that you may sell it. That is always an option. Do not do that if you will regret it later.

However, if you really want to sell it or have to put a bag of cash into it in order to keep it and you already have Ithaca 37s, is it worth it to you?

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dannypratt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 6:42 pm  Reply with quote
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Haha John....yeah...that is the definition! I at one time or another HAD 37's in various combinations, but right now this is my only 37. I appreciate the machining, design etc, quite a bit, and the fact they weigh nothing but are still all steel. Pretty cool engineering and design.

I thought it quite interesting that there was mention that Colonial chokes are set up for a single given reamer etc, but Briley has multiple options. I would be most likely looking at Colonials as that is what my gunsmith installs, so I guess he'll have the final info if it would work in the current barrel length/wall thickness or if I could possibly shorten to 25". That will probably be my final deciding factor right there as to whether I will do any modifications to it or not. I think the other posts are pretty accurate in the answer that just holding out for a different 37, 26" barreled gun would be more cost effective.

I dont think I'll sell it off, unless it was in some kind of a trade or something, it's a nice example to have, and as a pheasant gun (and maybe some decoy ducks) it would be a real nice light gun to carry.

I think I better just start hauling it out in the field...one or two trips and I bet I'll love it as it is.

Come to think of it, it would be a dandy squirrel machine too....

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-Danny Pratt
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dannypratt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 6:56 pm  Reply with quote
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Well...

You guys managed to talk me into:

1) not selling the 37 (it's a great design and I've enjoyed the others I had in the past)


2) getting the gun as is out in the field on the next trip (just talking about the gun here got me fired up for it)

3) probably not changing a thing....

Because:

4) I could just but ANOTHER one with 26" IC choke and spend as much as changing this one. (Another gun never hurt anybody)

Nicely done fellas...this is why we stick together, we've got to maintain the quantity in the safes and on the racks at home...otherwise some other unappreciative type might try to get them from us.

I'm going hunting after work TOMORROW...just packed the 37.

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-Danny Pratt
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scraggley
PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:07 am  Reply with quote
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Hi Dan: So the barrel is marked modified! Is it really? My current M 37 is also marked as modified but before it came to live with me someone modified the choke. My bore gauge indicates only .006 constriction and a darn good grouse getter its proven to be. Patterning may be a pleasant surprise! :

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