What is your favorite pumpgun, and why? Personally, I liked the old Stevens model 520 - smooth as glass, great balance, daddy of a lot of later pumps, looked like an A-5, designed by John Browning, etc., etc - but the Packard was a great auto too, so.....
Now tell us, what is yours? Pro and con here ---

I like my old Ithaka Featherlights. Easy to shoot and easy to load.

I also use a Win. M61 pump for hunting. That's a nice rifle but its about impossible to load single shot thru the port and the tube is clumsy to use.

I like 'em all. Yeah, pumpguns are us!

From the Browning BPS 10ga mag, the Rem 7600 in 35Whelen, to the really old Rem 22 rimfire used to shoot rats in the chicken coop. Pumps are my kind of repeater. And I'm not alone. There's probably more pumps in the Pennsylvania game fields than any other style of repeater. It's been this way for decades.

Long live the trombone action.

Have to be my Win 97 take down .
I had a extra barrel choke tubed years ago .
It just seams to pump it self.
Oh I replace the checkered steel butt plate with a recoil pad.

Johnch

M37 Ithaca, one of the last of the John Moses Browning designs.

quote:

Originally posted by wildcat junkie:
M37 Ithaca, one of the last of the John Moses Browning designs.

Last design ever from Browning for a repeater-type shotgun. On November 26, 1910, Browning filed patent application for a pump shotgun that would incorporate some minor changes from Pederson and be marketed as the Remington Model 17. Interesting tidbit - John M. Browning died on this date, exactly ten years later, November 26, 1926.
Ithaca picked up the manufacture of the design when Remington dropped production in favor of a newer design. Ithaca beefed up the reciever and made some other minor changes to the design and named it the model 37.
Interestingly, Remington dropped the design in favor of the mod 29, a pump action, hammerless tubular-magazine, bottom-ejecting, takedown shotgun deigned by Loomis. This gun featured a take-down action but kept the bottom ejection port. The model 29 only lasted a couple or three years and was then replaced by the mod 31, Remington's first side ejecting pump. The 31 stayed in production until replaced by the Mod 870.
Pump shotguns are truly unique and interesting, at least to me. And they are also an American design!

My favorite pump has to be the winchester Model 12. Probably becasue that is what my Dad supplied me with to go hunting when I was a kid and that is what I used until I was old enough to buy my own shotgun.

Funny thing about it was that my Dad was kind of a safety kind of guy, and even though he provided me with a model 12, he made me use it as a single shot!! As a kid I never could understand it. Flocks of ducks all over the place and I am sitting there using a pump shotgun as a single shot!!!!

My favorite pump is the model 12 also. I have a 16 gauge, 28" barrel, that fits me to a tee.

However the old Remington 870 is the pump I've used most. I had an older 26" barrel , improved cylinder that was pure death on doves and quail. I pulled the plug during quail season (this was years ago) and it held five shells.

Both the model 12 and 870 can be loaded in the side and pretty quick. I shot 8 quail out of a covey once,.. (they were flushing one and two at a time) using the 870.

I've tried the Ithaca's but couldn't seem to hit with them and I didn't like the bottom load only and the feather weight 12 just kicks like a mule.

Winchester 62. Opps.....

Current guns, a tie between the 870 and the Nova.

Older guns, the Remington 31.

quote:

Originally posted by johnch:
Have to be my Win 97 take down .
I had a extra barrel choke tubed years ago .
It just seams to pump it self.
Oh I replace the checkered steel butt plate with a recoil pad.

Johnch

I have owned several pump shotguns over the years, but the only one I regret not having today is the short barreled 97. Easy to pack, easy to operate, a real close quarters gun.

Course, clays and birds are not my thing!

For what its worth
Winchester 1300 Ranger with chokes.
Has a very good finish for what i paid. With assisted pump is very quick.

Incidentally I am going to have to sell it. In Australia a pump or auto shotgun requires a special permit (can't use it many places now). Whereas i can go out and buy a pump centrefire with standard licence
Have had to go out and buy double when I all ready had all my shotgunning needs covered

Benelli Nova...great balance, faultless operation and points well.

I was left an old winchester 97 takedown when dad died-- took it out shooting clays--- it is my favorite pump now-- shot better than I ever did with my autoloader!!

870 in 28 ga 26" barrels

Model 12 in 12 ga 2 3/4" (still kills turkey and ducks)

870 12 ga 3" (geese)

Model 37 in 20 ga 2 3/4" (almost as good as the 28 ga 870 and great to carry with 26" bbl)

model 42 in .410 (mod choke is too tight)

The 28 ga 870 with an improved cyl and mod barrels (bought before Rem choke) is a wonderful gun for anything from snipe to teal, bunnies or anything else that size under 35 to 40 yds. Had to buy a MEC 650 to feed it. Try it..you'll love it!!

Great list lowrider

Which best liked pump shotgun.

Well started out with a Rem 12 ga 3inch, have three of them now.

BPS 10 ga Hunter

Winchester M12 in 20 ga, 12 ga, 12 3 inch.

Most used one is a Winchester M25 12 ga. that I rebarreled with a Remington 28" 870 vent rib barrel with choke tubes. Also converted it to 3 inch. It just fits so well and is lighter wieght than the 870's, just a dream to pack and shoot.
Have used it now for 10 seasons when not using the BPS 10 ga. for geese. Have one set aside for my son when he is big enough.

Jim Wisner
Custom Metalsmith

870 20 ga

12 gauge benelli nova with terror .655 choke
10 browning bps with terror.705 choke
12 browning bps

Mod 12 Winchester...my first gun. Bought it 38 years ago for $50.....

A truly sad commentary, especially for all of you that used and loved the Ithaca Mod 37:

Ithaca Gun office empty, phones disconnected

By The Citizen
The Ithaca Gun phone number has been disconnected and the company's parking lot is empty, but a member of the management team said the business has not ceased operating.

Whatever is going on at Ithaca Gun, the firearms maker has generated plenty of rumors and phone calls.

Cynthia Aikman, the executive director of the Auburn Industrial Development Authority, has not been able to reach any company officials.

Ithaca Gun had moved from its longtime home in King Ferry to the former Johnston Paper plant on Allen Street in late April. The company announced its arrival at the May 5 Auburn City Council meeting and said it was employing about 50 people.

But in recent days the company's phone lines - both the old number in King Ferry and a new one in Auburn - have been disconnected. The company's Web site has also been taken down.

And there has been no official word released by the company.

The Citizen heard from a gun owner frustrated because the company was repairing one of his guns and he was unable to find out what has happened to it. Aikman's telephone was also busy.

"A lot of people are calling, and I don't have answers," she said.

Billy Weston, the company's director of sales, said Ithaca Gun is not closing down permanently. He said he could not provide too many additional details, but said the company has gone into an operational hiatus as it transitions into its new site.

A lone Ithaca Gun van sat in the parking lot at the Allen Street building on Thursday afternoon.

Although Aikman is concerned about the company's future, she stressed that it did not receive any financial incentives from the city to relocate.

"The company moved here because they thought this would be a good location for them," she said.

Ithaca Gun had outgrown its former site, a converted school on Route 34B, where it had been for 17 years.

The 124-year-old company's financial struggles in recent years have been well-documented.

Ithaca Gun Company earlier this year had a $12,000 judgment filed against it by a Watertown educational television station because the gun manufacturer had agreed to underwrite a hunting show, but never paid. Several other judgments were filed against the company for unpaid bills as well and there were problems with the state Department of Labor regarding unemployment insurance payments. The labor department said in February the issue was being resolved.

I haven't owned a pump in years (except for an ancestral Winchester Model 12 and Model 42). But I was needing a gun to keep outside of the safe for quick access for an increasing frequency of yard varmints (skunks, dillos, snakes, etc., as I live in the country.) So I picked up a used-but-functional Ithaca Model 37 at a gun show this weekend. I'm impressed with its clean lines, light weight, and apparently flawless function. The only feature I don't care for is the action release, which is small and a tad difficult to operate, especially if you're a left-hander.

I have yet to use a pump better than my Model 12 16ga. Win., it's my goto ptarmagin (upland) gun. I really like my Rem. 870, tough to beat for a new pump (oh, it's gotta be a wingmaster, not their Express it's a turd) gun.

Nothing wrong with an Ithaca, Bennelli or Browning and I would'nt mind carrying any of them in the feild.

-Ron

quote:

a tie between the 870 and the Nova.

Gatogordo Im with you on that one!

Remington 870 AFTER I got tired of having my cheek beat to death and took a rasp to the comb and changed it so it angles down towards the action. Now I really like it. BUT, I take my 20 ga O/U out to walk the sage flats.

I have a model 12 20 that I just love I guess because my Dad gave it to me.

For all around beating around a 870SP I don';t have to worry about hurting it while hunting ducks and geese.

That said I use SXS's for most of my hunting I find the handle better then the pumps.

By far my choice is the Rem 870... It's easy to fix nearly anything yourself (if it ever does need any maintenance at all) and just unbelievably rugged in my experience. It's a very simple tool and they just don't quit! I've seen 870's that were incredibly worn and battered from decades of use and abuse and yet they still worked every time!