doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any issues with REMINGTON Model 17?

Been offered a REMINGTON Model 17, 20 GA. of course, full choke with a solid rib as part of a trade for a gun I have. It is almost mint metal wise but the wood has been cut, a nasty white line pad added and wood finish is fairly worn. Any issues with them that I need to know about? Wear problems or mechanical issues to look for.

Might pick it up and restock it into a nice backup dove gun. Might pick it up and just add it to the pile. I like old pumps. They send me back to my youth when the ability to pump a gun was a skill every boy wanted to master. My first shotgun was a Winchester Model 12 in 28 ga. with a case of shells as my Christmas present when I was 13. A very good year it was.

No issues I know of, it and it's knock off the Ithaca 37 are top tier pumps.

There seems to be legions of fans, here and elsewhere, of the M17. A hundred-year old JMB design that still has progeny in production. I would think that a solid-rib gun with almost-mint metal work would be pretty desirable trade-fodder.

One difference between the M17 and M37 is that Ithaca added an extractor to the top of the bolt. Early Ithacas in some of the the early runs of the first year didn't have the top extractor.
Whether there were problems without the extractor on top, I dunno, but Ithaca didn't make the 20 gauge in the first year, only 12 gauges. Despite the cut stock, the gun you are considering is a desirable one and would make a fine dove gun. In that the stock has been cut, I wouldn't hesitate opening up the barrel should you desire.
Do you still have the 28 gauge M12 or do you kick yourself in the butt for not having it? As you no doubt know, that one is at the top of the heap in both value and desirability.

Knock off of the Ithaca? Hardly. If Ithaca hadn't had to wait for Remington's patent rights to expire, it would have been the Ithaca Model 35.

Yes. Not a knock off at all. Browning sold the design to Remington first and then ithaca made the design once Remington stopped and the patents expired.

They are very similar to the 37s with some minor differences here and there. The bolt only has one extractor on it, as compared to ithaca's two.

I have a model 17 myself and it operates and shoots nicely.

Ithaca Model 33. Browning's patent expired in '33, but there were some J.D. Pedersen patents for improvements on the M17 existing until late '36. When all patents were gone, Ithaca started up sales.

Geez, there are HUGE issues with a model 17-I can't believe these guys didn't let you in on them.
First off, they didn't build enough of them, making them hard to shop for. You only find one or two beat up examples when your gun fund heals up enough to consider one.
The other thing, once people have one or three in their collection, they are loath to give them up. They hang onto those old guns for, like, 50 or 60 years, and you have to wait until they are dead until you get a shot at buying their model 17. What kind of gun do people want to hang onto for so long?
Like I said, these are big problems, so, when your trade gun comes along, you might just want to PM me here, and I'll take the thing off your hands.

Shouldn't be worth much.

Best,
Ted

You'll find the 17 to be the smoothest operating pump ever built. And they seem to have a lot of hand fitting of internal parts. The rib and barrel are one piece machined from a single blank. The metal is all rust blued. If possible I'd try to add a wood butt extension and keep the original.

I think a couple guys might be misreading postoak -- the way I read it, he's calling the 37 a knockoff of the 17.