New bird gun?

[pupchow]

The buttstock of my Ithaca 37 20ga Ultra-Featherlight has had a crack in it for some time. I was thinking about it yesterday, and then it happened - a chunk of the stock came off. I didn't notice it until after crossing a steam, and was unable to find the piece. It was a gift for my 15th birthday, so I might look into getting the stock restored.



So... Light weight is what I'm after, for upland. I might even prefer a 20 gauge, for its slimmer body and 26" barrel. Savage 555 okay?

 

[arlow]

I did a ton of research a few years ago into the less expensive over unders on the market. I found two guns that pointed well. The mossberg Silver reserve II and the CZ Drake. both in 12 guage and 28 inch barrels. Everything else I tried under 1000 bucks was horribly unbalanced. The Savage was seriously barrel heavy. I have been hunting with the mossberg for 3 year now and it is great.

One great way to see if it is balanced right is to shoulder the gun and aim at a spot like the corner of two walls where they meet the ceiling. Dismount, then close your eyes and immediately return the gun to the same mounted position and open your eyes. If you are on target the gun fits and is balanced and points well.

 

[dixidawg]

Nobody can answer this for you. The best thing to do is go and fondle as many guns as possible and find which one(s) fit you. I was in the market for a 20 Ga o/u just as COVID broke. I had convinced myself that I had to have a Beretta Silver Pigeon. Problem was, I couldn’t find any for sale anywhere. After a few months, I discovered a friend had one. Met up with him so I could play with it and quickly discovered it didn’t fit me right. When I mounted it with eyes closed as Arlow mentioned above, I found that when I opened my eyes I was looking AT the barrel and not DOWN the barrel. So much for the Beretta! Shortly after I got my hands on a Browning citori. It fit me like a glove, and followed me home. I shoot better with it than I ever have with any other gun. Long story short, handle as many guns as you can, and then make the decision. Which ones fit you best at the price point you want to spend? That will be your best purchase.

 

[mitch28]

The buttstock of my Ithaca 37 20ga Ultra-Featherlight has had a crack in it for some time. I was thinking about it yesterday, and then it happened - a chunk of the stock came off. I didn't notice it until after crossing a steam, and was unable to find the piece. It was a gift for my 15th birthday, so I might look into getting the stock restored.

View attachment 685033

So... Light weight is what I'm after, for upland. I might even prefer a 20 gauge, for its slimmer body and 26" barrel. Savage 555 okay?

I got an Ithaca 12ga. as a gift at about the same age. I’m a
lefty so the bottom discharge was perfect. Still in good shape!

 

[Mark from MA]

I bought an old Ithaca 37 20 gauge with a horribly shortened stock with my C&R FFL. I restocked it, and it became my favorite go to.

I bought a stock from gunstocks.com and it came thru with some nice figure in the walnut. It fit fine, but needed to be slimmed down quite a bit on the sides. I could have done more but left it proud in case I wanted to refinish it again. Just used the regular Birchwood Casey gunstock finish. Came out pretty good you can see it in the pic.

If your looking for an O/U, Id go with the Drake instead of the Savage, CZ is made better and I know many guys with them, that shoot skeet and have no issues thru thousands of rounds.
Other than that, cant go wrong with a B gun. One that fits best. They will last forever.

 

[rudiewhitebwoy]

or

 

[weatherby]

My 37 was Christmas at 15.
I Guess a few of us have something in common.
Been a long time since I've been able to enjoy upland hunting.
I'm enough of a dinosaur that I find the aestics of a SxS more pleasant too.

Don't ignore the used market for something different while hunting for a new gun..
The last few years I've found an abundance of SxS shotguns
This was among them and it would love going upland.

 

[ccm75]

There are a lot of 37 stocks out there.
An FFL buddy of mine in NY, about 15 miles from Ithaca has a bunch and also has sources for the same.
Find a nice stock and get that great gun back in the game.
PM if you'd like to me check with my sources on where to find what you need...

 

[Bodhisattva]

Restock it, then save it for special occasions.

Don’t be afraid to take a look at the CZ1012. Shoots much softer than my wife’s Redhead Premier in 20ga, and is very light at 6.5lbs.

StackPath

 

[Upland]

I would source a new stock for it. A professionally done chip repair would probably cost more. I also wouldn’t worry about a perfect match with the forend. A vintage 37 that has been hunted will look fine. If your primary goal is lightweight I would stick with the 20gauge ultralight/featherlight, you can’t get much lighter than that.

20 and 28 gauge over unders and autoloaders are hot right now due to the modern hunting loads being almost as effective as 12 gauge.
A friend of mine who is really tuned in to the used shotgun market is telling me there are some good deals on older 12 gauge fixed choke shotguns Right now.

I have a couple Ithaca 37’s and owe them a walk in the woods soon!

 

[mitch28]

My 37 was Christmas at 15.
I Guess a few of us have something in common.
Been a long time since I've been able to enjoy upland hunting.
I'm enough of a dinosaur that I find the aestics of a SxS more pleasant too.

Don't ignore the used market for something different while hunting for a new gun..
The last few years I've found an abundance of SxS shotguns
This was among them and it would love going upland.

View attachment 685115View attachment 685115
Mine was a Christmas gift too!!

 

[pupchow]

Local shop had one O/U on the rack. A Mossberg Silver in 12ga. It fit me well and seemed balanced enough, so I took it home. It'll get dragged through the brush, so maybe that Mossberg logo on the receiver will get rubbed off. Thanks all for the feedback.