I have an Ithaca Model 37 DS Police Special riot gun. Most aftermarket barrels are for the newer guns (this ws made in 1975). It has a 20" barrel and is not much good for hunting. Could I have choke tubes installed so I could hunt turkey with it? If so, how would it work? Thanks.

Comet,

Back in the '70s I had Stan Baker up in Washington cut back the barrels on both an 870 and an 1100 and install his choke tubes. They made dandy combination upland / social shotguns.

With the advances in tube technology since then, there's no reason it can't be done.

Good luck!

Mark

Aftermarket barrels will fit all Model 37s with a serial number greater than 855000. Hard to say if choke tubes can be retrofitted to a DSPS barrel without measuring the wall thickness and inner and outer diameters. Unless your gun has an 8-shot magazine, just locate a different barrel.

quote:

Aftermarket barrels will fit all Model 37s with a serial number greater than 855000. Hard to say if choke tubes can be retrofitted to a DSPS barrel without measuring the wall thickness and inner and outer diameters. Unless your gun has an 8-shot magazine, just locate a different barrel.

My barrel has a number lower than 855000 and it has the 8-shot magazine. BTW, how easy is it to change to regualr size?

Ithaca changed the barrel shank threads, I think it was in the early 1970's. The newer barrels cannot be fitted to the older receivers. In addition, there were minor variations in the older interupted threads that made hand fitting tedious. If you could find a low number barrel, you might, with some patients and fit it to your receiver.

In the past, if you sent in a newer barrel and an old receiver, Ithaca would exchange and fit one of the older barrels for the cost of shipping. service like that is long gone.

Roger

http://www.briley.com/

Has done some choke tubes for me in the past and I have always been happy with their work.

John

So if I had a removeable full choke put in, how would it perform on Turkey. Again, it is 20" barrel. Thanks

I doubt that Ithaca made "special" barrels for riot guns. Most likely your barrel is just a shorter version of the standard contour, therefore the wall thickness @ the muzzle should be much thicker than that of a 26" or 28" barrel. That would make fitting aftermarket chokes feasable as the limiting factor is usually thin barrel walls @ the muzzle.

There are many many companies doing this today and I have heard of prices running from $50 to $60 a barrel, + the price of the tubes.

BTW I am not aware of "aftermarket" barrels for the M37, and Ithaca's are rather expensive. If anyone has information on M37 "aftermarket" barrels I would like to know, where to get them. I am a huge fan of Ithaca M37s. I believe it was John Browning's last design, certainly one of the last. I think the M37 is arguably the best pump shotgun made as far as handling, certainly the easiest to carry all day, and I like the looks too.

quote:

Originally posted by Comet:
So if I had a removeable full choke put in, how would it perform on Turkey. Again, it is 20" barrel. Thanks

Many of the "Turkey specific" shotguns have very shiort barrels. It would not "limit" the effectiveness. The long barrel is not needed for "swing" or follow through.

If it has sights that would be a real bonus as some "turkey chokes" shoot sooooooo tight that precise aiming is needed.

Back in the late 70's i had a Cutts Comp put on a M37 Riot. Made for one terrific quail gun here in So.Az. Guy I sold it to still uses it I understand. I don't know if you can still even buy a Cutts though. If I remember right the 37 didn't have a disconnector and if you held the trigger down and cycled the slide you would have a chambered round and the hammer down. That's the reason I sold it ,I would go to take the second bird on a covey rise and would almost squeeze the trigger off trying to fire that second shot. Very frustrating.

the change occured in about 1967. If you serial number is lower than 855,000 then its prrio to that date.

YOu can have choke tubes put in. i think about $100.

sure you can. i do it all the time. i only do non chromed single barrel guns and charge $60.00 with one tube as long as the barrel measures out right. the pattern has nothing to do per say with the barrel length just the choke constriction. i don't believe there is a small animal, turkey, or deer that will ever notice what ever velocity is lost by the shorter length.
max

quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
If I remember right the 37 didn't have a disconnector and if you held the trigger down and cycled the slide you would have a chambered round and the hammer down. That's the reason I sold it ,I would go to take the second bird on a covey rise and would almost squeeze the trigger off trying to fire that second shot. Very frustrating.

Yes you are coprrect about the disconnect. In fact, if you had slammed the action closed, it would have fired.

Sadly, Ithaca has reworked the trigger group and eliminated this entertaining little feature.

I believe the M12 Winchester was the same. Very useful for "trench sweeping".

I used to impress my friends by holding down the trigger and pumping the hell out of her while shootig from the hip.

One can fire 6 rounds in a little over 1 second that way.

quote:

Back in the late 70's i had a Cutts Comp put on a M37 Riot

Found this on EBAY would it work for Turkey?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73956&item=7136583257&rd=1

Sorry for the dumb question, but if I got this choke could I put another tube in? Put another way, is the threading proprietory between choke tube manufacturers?

Comet,
Forget about the Cutt's tube. It requires you to already have the Cutt's Compensator assembly installed.
Go with someone that can tube your barrel. Located near you would be a plus. Get a selection of at least three tubes, so you won't be looking for more at a later date. One of the latest facilities offering this in our area is Gander Mountain. I noticed yesterday, they are offering installation of tubes, with three tubes, for around $125. This is hardly a major outlay for "one of us".

yes, different choke tube makers use different threads for the tubes or put them on the tubes in different places. remington and winchester both use the same diameter and pitch on their 12 gauge tubes but they put the threaded portion in different locations on their tubes. the aftermarket tooling for them is a standard tap but different barrel reamers.