doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Is an Ithaca M37 question okay?

Please tell me what�s wrong with my M37.

It seems to function perfectly unloaded but, way too much force is needed to eject a fired hull. It loads shells correctly. I think it has seen a lot of use.

Any advice? Yes, it�s clean.

Thanks.

I suspect you are shooting either Winchester or Remington promo loads with steel heads. They can give fits to some pumps including new 870's. You can send the gun to Les Hovencamp former head gunsmith of the NY Ithaca factory. Les operates under Diamond Gunsmithing, Ithaca NY. I've had similar issues with my M37's and cheap shells. He will ream the chamber to more tolerant specs.

With exception of few target loads most case bases attract magnet yet vast majority do not cause extraction problems in my 870 or 37. If what he describes is the problem then going to Gordon cased shells such as used by B&P company is surely panacea to this issue.

One of my M37's would shoot RGL's fine, but not Win. My 870 wouldn't shoot RGL's (go figure) but would shoot Win. fine. With a simple cure that Les will do, no problems with any shell.

Ryan

What gauge?
If 12 or 20 try Winchester AA ammo or Premium Remington Ammo.

Also some have polished their chambers and had good success.

Mike

I had a brand new 12 gauge Remington 870 Express with such a rough chamber shells would occasionally hangup. I believe I first went over it with a automotive brake cylinder hone (available for maybe $10-15 at NAPA). and then I took a 10 gauge bore brush wrapped it in steel wool and dipped it in automotive rubbing compound (the orange stuff) and spun it in the chamber using a powder drill. The chamber soon had a high shine and I had no problems with sticking shells after that.

A cousin of mine once brought me a 37 that belonged to a friend of his to look at which would not extract "High Brass" shells. A couple of gunsmiths had already worked on it & one, or maybe both, replaced the extractor, but it would still jump the rim on a heavy loaded shell.
The solution on this one was something it would seem any gunsmith would have caught, it had a rusty spot in the chamber. A good chamber cleaning & polishing fixed this one & last I heard it was still a Shuking anything he put in it.

M-37 should cycle any brand shell that it is chambered for. If not then it needs a fix. clean chamber, new extractors and springs,check chamber tolerances.I have had some that required a little work on the extractor slot in the barrel because it did not align with the slot in the receiver and the rim would catch on the offset between them sometimes it stuck and then it wouldnt when I was watching things move in the action. that was because the shell changed position when I turned the action upside down.

Thanks to all for the advice. It�s a 12 ga. Shells tried are AA Win and Rem STS. I�ll double the chamber and slot alignments.

I had a similar issue with a model 12 16g. I won't load RSTs at all. It's a really nice gun but I think you'll see it for sale soon.