Ithaca Featherlight Model 37

[slugman]

A quick question : I have this gun and two barrels , one is for field and the other is a deerslayer barrel with a scope. When I go to Ithaca's website they say the deerslayer has a rifled barrel , but mine is smoothbore. Was there a smoothbore deerslayer barrel ? Also , if anyone has this smoothbore , what slugs do you shoot ?

[dvdegeorge]

Yes before rifled shot gun barrels the deerslayer barrel was a smooth bore.Try a couple different brands of slugs,every gun likes it's own poison.Good luck, and if it where me I'd look into purchasing a rifled barrel for it.

[slugman]

looked , $199 for the rifled barrel. I use an H&R ultra slug most of the time , but have a few friends this yr that are new to hunting and I am letting one use the ithaca. Guess it'll be with a smoothbore , not paying $199 if I dont need to. Thanks for the info, so it must be an older version of the 37 , I picked it up at a gun show last year. Great gun

[8mm/06]

I'd advise you to do as was suggested above first...get several different brands of slugs and run them through the slug barrel you have and note the kind of results you get. If you get good results then I'd look into getting one of the No-gunsmithing scope mounts for your gun for the slug season....it will inprove your results even again.
If your results with your smothbore barrel are not what you want you'll be looking into a rifled slug barrel anyway and the sope would come in handy no matter which barrel you prefer.
Just my 2 cents. Course if you know you're going to be shooting short shots and your results come out good with the smooth barrel you are all set.

[Strut&Rut]

slugman,

I upgraded to the rifled storm series this spring, but for years used the smoothbore Model 37.

Some of the things I know...

Ithaca's iron sights are some of the most accurate you'll find on any gun. They are deadly accurate to 75 yards. I sight in at 50 yards, and at 75 yards it drops by ~1 inch.

If you have Remington slugs, you may as well throw them in the garbage []. I, and about 6 friends who have Ithacas, have never been able to get a Remington slug to shoot accurately or consistently from the smoothbores. The rifled barrels are another story .

I found that Federal, Kent and Brenneke slugs performed the best. I always took Federals into the field. I'm also assuming that you have an older M-37, so be sure you only use 2 3/4 rifled slugs, its not chambered for 3's or sabots.

Hope this helps.

S&R