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Pheasant season opener
- Thread starter whacko
- Start date
1957 or 58; I forget. Full choke.
Agree on the mod choke but the price was right on this guy. A part of me wants to open it up, another parts wants to have it modified to accept screw in chokes but a big part of me just wants to leave it as it and enjoy it.
45collector
NES Member
My two favorite upland bird guns are the Remington model 11 made in '43 and the Ithaca model 37 made in '58. Both in 12gauge. The Remington is a hell of a lot heavier so I'll use that on days where I'm not walking too far. That gun is a kitten to shoot, even with full power rounds. The "featherlight" Ithaca is just that. Feels like a bb gun to carry, until you fire a few #6 high brass shells through it. I shoot well with both of them and yeah, the Ithaca is just a nice general purpose shotgun, and reliable.
Mark from MA
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The full chokes aren't all that bad on those guns...Id leave it. I have an very early 70's 12 gauge that I use on occasion that's mint, it's got a full choke and it shoots great.
Nice. I traded away an m37 in 16 gauge and regret it like crazy. DUMB. I've been looking for a good one ever since that is from the 1950-1970 vintage. Tough to find, I've seen a couple, but they usually are beat up.
Edit....HA....this post reminded me to look around and I found a 1957 (I think, Serial 680,XXX) vintage one in great condition, and bought it.
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Ha... love it.
Mines pretty beat up... it’s looks a lot better in that picture up against the tree then in real life. The woods pretty beat up and the blueing is staring to wear off in a few spots.
Over the winter I might tear it down and try my hand at a rebuild. Maybe new wood and reblueing everything. Think it’d be a fun project. Doesn’t get much simpler than a M37.
Checking in on RI Game Management areas. My buddy and I and his dog hunted Eight Rod farm for about a hour and forty five minutes we flushed 2 hens that we didn't have safe shots at and the dog chased down a half dead rooster. Lots of fields bordered by very heavy cover. Lots of shells and feathers it looks like this place gets a good amount of pressure.
We also tried the Sapowet Marsh are its very scenic next to the Sakonet river. We didn't see any birds but again lots of evidence of hunting it took us only about forty minutes to cover most of it.
We also tried the Sapowet Marsh are its very scenic next to the Sakonet river. We didn't see any birds but again lots of evidence of hunting it took us only about forty minutes to cover most of it.
Mark from MA
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Yeah.....its a fun project, I've done a couple of refinish jobs. It will kinda ruin the value, but if your hunting with it who cares. These are kinda overlooked anyway, and there are likely 2 million of them out there, so the value not all that high. Plus they still make them, but not in 16 gauge, so those would be likely the most valuable...but still we are talking under 500 dollars for perfect 16 gauge. A lot less for 12 gauge.
My buddy hunts with a 12 gauge M37 he bought at a hardware store new in the 60's when he was like 18 for like 80 dollars. He's a cop, it stays in the seatback of his truck year round, and maybe gets cleaned once a decade.
We bring out our fancy autoloaders, and crap, and once and a while have an issue with function. This year the another guy's autoloader trigger froze up completely...... He laughs and says....gotta get an Ithaca...don't even have to clean them. LOL!
He's not far from the truth, ....it rains, snows, etc, most of us, go home and clean our guns. He throws his in the back seat....til next time. He's never had a gun related issue in the 10 years I've been hunting with him.
Still chasing leftovers down in CT.... this WMA hasn’t been stocked since Dec 07.
There’s few birds left and they ones that are still out there are crafty, smart little guys that run run run. Emmit got on this guys scent today and tracked him down for 20 minutes. He knew that bird was there and he was gonna find it. He worked his tail off, pushed him all the way across the field till the rooster has no other option but to fly, and then it was game over. This was our first bird in 2019 and quite possible our last bird for the 18/19 season but I’ll certainly remember today’s hunt for a long time. It’s amazing how far Emmit’s come along since that first chucker he got introduced to over 1.5 years ago. Couldn’t be more proud of him.
There’s few birds left and they ones that are still out there are crafty, smart little guys that run run run. Emmit got on this guys scent today and tracked him down for 20 minutes. He knew that bird was there and he was gonna find it. He worked his tail off, pushed him all the way across the field till the rooster has no other option but to fly, and then it was game over. This was our first bird in 2019 and quite possible our last bird for the 18/19 season but I’ll certainly remember today’s hunt for a long time. It’s amazing how far Emmit’s come along since that first chucker he got introduced to over 1.5 years ago. Couldn’t be more proud of him.
45collector
NES Member
That's awesome. Some day I'd like to get a hunting dog. We have two dogs in our household, both of which were my wife's before I even met her 5 years ago. So neither of them are trained but years from now when my kids are getting close to 10+ years old I'd like to get a dog of a breed good for upland bird hunting. Preferably a short-haired variety. I know training takes a lot of work and I've never trained any kind of animal. So I'd have a lot to learn.
Emmit was pretty easy to train but training a flushing dog is a lot easier than a pointer. He comes from good genes and from a good breeder. Actually a couple of other NESers have pups from the same breeder.
He’s got a lot of natural ability and all I had to do was get him to discover it, introduce him to gunfire and make sure he’ll follow simple directions. It was that easy. He’s the first dog I’ve eve trained and I think he came out pretty good.
Mark from MA
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Most true upland pointing dogs are somewhat high strung. Pointers, GSP's, and the like....they require lots of exercise or they get into trouble because they love a challenge, and love to work and hunt. For people that don't have room for them to roam, or people that like a calm dog all the time, they are not a good choice. It takes them a couple years to settle down a bit. They do love training for the most part, its another challenge to them, but they can be a bit hard headed about certain things.
Not that my dog doesn't hang out, but she needs some type of daily exercise and full open running to not be a pain in the neck at night when it comes time to settle down. She's getting better, my last shorthair was better than this one. This one is a little needy, she sticks to me like glue around the house, unless she's out in the yard chasing birds. She would chase and find hit golf balls into the woods all day long if she could. She's a whiny pain in the car, because she thinks she's either going for a run, or hunting when we go for a ride. I understand these dogs are that way for the most part, Ive had 3 of them. People that don't understand end up unhappy......
For people that don't want that, a Lab is a good choice, way more laid back once it's past a year old. Good for ducks or waterfowl hunting. Not bad on pheasants, but most true upland pointing dogs will run circles around them and range and find 5 birds to their one. Also when older, a pointer or GSP will have more stamina from what Ive seen Labs tend to fatten up.
For in between look at a Brittany or Springer spaniel. Not as much of a handful, closer hunters, won't hunt as hard as Pointer, GSP, or Setter, but a small dog and easy to deal with. They are generally long haired breeds though.
If you like rabbits a beagle is good....but they tend to wander....my closest neighbor has one and she's lost it several times. Where my GSP stays pretty much in the yard and woods area now. Especially if I'm out there, it's wanting me to throw or hit a ball so it can find it.
Every bird we get, I keep thinking it’s the last one we’re going to find this season. But then Emmit gets out there and proves me wrong. Beautiful rooster today with a nice long tail.
O/U is my Franchi Instinct L 20G
O/U is my Franchi Instinct L 20G
Mark from MA
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boilermaker
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Took advantage of the Winter 1-Day permit through Mass F&W today. Brought some birds out to the Winimusset WMA and although the cover sucked and didn't have much to show for the effort, it was still nice to get out. I really appreciate this lack of snow.
Were you able to get birds in state? I've been thinking about doing it, just need to get some birds.
boilermaker
NES Member
I belong to a R&G club here in Mass which has birds. Although our stock is just about gone.
Mark from MA
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I think im going to do this if the weather keeps holdjng out. Its a bit cheaper than Addieville. Cover at Addieville is superb though. Even this time of year.
Will need to check if they have birds at my guy I buy them from.
boilermaker
NES Member
Just as an fyi the WMAs available are:
Houstonic Valley (Western)
Winimussett (Central)
Frances Crane (Southeast)
Bolton Flats (Central)
Herman Covey (CT Valley)
Martin Burns (Northeast)
Erwin Wilder (Southeast)
Houstonic Valley (Western)
Winimussett (Central)
Frances Crane (Southeast)
Bolton Flats (Central)
Herman Covey (CT Valley)
Martin Burns (Northeast)
Erwin Wilder (Southeast)
Wonder why such a small list. None of those WMAs are near me.... wonder what it takes to have a WMA added to the list.
boilermaker
NES Member
I emailed them. There’s a pheasant farm right down the street for me.
boilermaker
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No.. it’s right over the boarder in a Suffield, CT
Mark from MA
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For you Ithaca guys. Picked up a lightly used 1961 20 gauge featherlight on my C&R. It had a retardedly shortened stock and I got it for cheap.
Took it all apart cleaned all the internals and mag tube and springs. Metal is at least 90 percent original blue. In good shape.
Put a new Gunstocks Inc stock and buttplate on it for 80 bucks.
Just fit, sanded and finished stock with 6 -7 coats of hand rubbed tru oil. Came out real nice. Walnut had some tiger stripe in it.
Took it all apart cleaned all the internals and mag tube and springs. Metal is at least 90 percent original blue. In good shape.
Put a new Gunstocks Inc stock and buttplate on it for 80 bucks.
Just fit, sanded and finished stock with 6 -7 coats of hand rubbed tru oil. Came out real nice. Walnut had some tiger stripe in it.
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Looks awesome..... really nice job
