I've noticed that when someone asks for opinions, on turkey guns around here there are a LOT of Rem 870's, Benelli's, Winchesters and Mossbergs-- and rightly so, they are fine weapons. I seem to be the only one championing the Ithica. I was wondering who else here shoots an Ithica and how long have you done so? What do you find to be its strong points or to be surpassed on it by other weapons?

Personally, I have shot my Dad's since I was old enough to hold it without help. Then I bought my own in 1968. I like the light weight, simplicity and reliability of the action, and the bottom eject. It fits me well and I like the ease of takedown either for cleaning or field servicing. The only drawback I have found is that it is just a bit maticulous to break it all the way down for a thorough cleaning, but even that isn't that bad.

barefoot,I purchased an Ithaca Deerslayer2 12ga.last year and so far I love this gun it is an excellent deer gun.I was considering buying a new turkey gun this spring and I've checked out a lot of guns(Rem.870 sps-t,Benelli nova,Moss.835)I'm usually very thorough about getting info before I buy a new gun.Now the Ithaca turkeyslayer really caught my eye(even though it only comes in 3&quotbut I'll be danged if I can find anyone who personally owns or knows very much about this gun, so how about it guys someone out there must know something about this gun
Dave

barefoot, I have two Ithica Model 37 pump guns. I took my first two toms with one and carried one of them for years. Last year I bought a Rem 870 SPT. The reason is my Ithica guns were not camo, they were 2 3/4 ", and they had factory full chokes built into the barrel. My 870 came in camo with a sling, 3 1/2", and had screw in chokes. I looked hard at a number of different brands of scatterguns before making my choice. I like my Ithica's a lot, but could not find a store in my area that carried them outfitted like I wanted, and the 870's are hard to beat so I went with one of them. I will still use my Ithica for pheasant,chucker and grouse.

Barefoot,
I have an Ithaca turkeyslayer that I won from the Ithaca website about 3 years ago. The gun is great and shoots well. Since it is an earlier model, I have upgraded it with the fiber optic sights (standard now) and a Kick's choke tube to replace the the Colonial(?) turkey choke that came with it. It's pattern is excellent out to 40 yards. I'm not a fan of 3.5" shells so 3" does great for me. The trigger has a nice pull since we shoot them almost as a rifle. The barrel is shorter than my other guns set up for turkey and the gun is a bit lighter. This makes for a nice compact high performance turkey gun. I have shot many different loads from it and have had very good success with most. The only draw back with the gun is that it will kick the snot out of you if you shoot the High Velocity shells out of it like I do. They pattern great though and I generally don't notice it in the heat of battle. For me, if I have a long way to walk or am going into thicker areas, then I'll pull the Ithaca out of the cabinet. Hope this helps.