The Army’s best combat pump shotgun is back: Inland’s reissue of Ithaca’s M37 Trench Gun.Posted on 09/13/2017 10:22:17 AM PDT by w1n1
The Army’s best combat pump shotgun is back: Inland’s reissue of Ithaca’s M37 Trench Gun.
Two top-shelf Ohio-based firearms manufacturers have partnered to bring collectors and shooters a fine reissue – I hesitate to call it a replica – of the vintage U.S. Army Ithaca M37 Trench Gun.
This retro military model is made by the Upper Sandusky-based Ithaca Gun Company for their Dayton neighbor, Inland Manufacturing. The latter is best known for their excellent reproductions of World War II M1 carbines.
It was during World War I that you might say the Army got serious about shotguns. It was, after all, the biggest war they had fought to date. Close combat in the trenches, and especially night fighting, favored the massive firepower of fast-shooting pump shotguns.
Each 00 buckshot round blasted out nine .33 caliber pellets, increasing the chances of a lethal hit on the enemy. WWI trench guns could shoot exceptionally fast because they lacked a trigger disconnector.
This allowed them to fire with every pump of the action as long as the trigger was held back continuously. Today we would regard this as a safety flaw, but to the doughboy standing in an enemy trench in 1918, that extra bit of speed was regarded as an edge.
The Germans hated facing shotguns, and even filed a formal complaint that using shotguns was a violation of the rules of civilized warfare – to no avail. The trench gun was born. Read the rest of the Ithaca M37 Trench Gun here.
Id rather have an aa-12
I owned an Ithaca Model 37 many years ago. This was an earlier model with only one action bar. It was not the trench gun but the hunting version.
Basically a boringly reliable shotgun which handled well. If it needed two action bars John Browning would have put two on it.
For urban situations, home invasions and post-disaster looting moments.
Uh, John Browning DID design it..in 1915.
That is what I was saying.
He actually did not technically design the model 37 but it was a virtual copy of a Remington which Browning did design. He put only a single action bar on it.
I read an account of a Marine who used a shotgun in WW II. Said that he needed to be careful where he used it because it always drew tremendous fire when he did.
Still shooting the M37 Featherweight given to me by my dad.
Nothing says stay the hell out of my house than a shotgun with a bayonet...
Ithaca produced the Model 37 precisely to John Browning's design once Remington's patents lapsed: it's not virtual, it's exactly the same design.
As far as the single action bar goes, if JB designed it that way, then it's right. It works just fine and always has. I love "experts" who think they know more about firearms design than the Master.
We used them in Vietnam and they never failed us.
My Remington 870 with short barrel and pistol grip is my house cannon.
I’ve named her, Crowd Control”.
OTOH my dad has a Winchester 1300 Defender pump - eight rounds.
I’ll take a Winchester Model of 1897, thank you. Feeds either from the magazine or just drop one in the ejection port. There are probably still racks of M97s in an armory somewhere. Maybe CMP will release them some day.
Which is illegal in CA. Bayonet mount on a gun is unlawful there.
= = =
I thought bayonet mount was only a problem as a ‘feature’ on a semi-automatic centerfire rifle capable of accepting a magazine holding more than 10 rounds.
My Garand had a bayonet mount before it was lost in the big boating accident (and let me say it was very hard to find enough water to float a boat during the drought).
The 12 gauge with 00 buck is the most effective small arm in existence.
Out to 100 feet, nothing else even comes close.
I carried an Ithaca 37 in RVN, although not a “trench,” just a shortened-barrel 12g. It was a great personal defense weapon, and definitely not an official part of the armory inventory, just something that was passed from one Marine to another through attrition, rotation, etc. How it got in-country I have no idea, but I wish I still had it....
They may have extended it to other arms but in this case I think they showed an M1 carbine.
Ithaca M37 Featherweight with a pheasant etched on the receiver was my first shotgun. I was twelve and I think the gun was twice my age.
I'll bet the Ithaca NY crowd hates the company's name.
Makes me laugh
I just bought a Mossberg 500 last Saturday. She’s ugly but she sure is purty.
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