Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight
Ithaca Gun Company · Shotgun · In Production · 1937
Also known as: Model 37 Featherlight, Ithaca 37 Featherlight
Overview
The Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight is the standard sporting and field configuration of the legendary Model 37 pump-action shotgun, and the model that has carried the line for more than eight decades. As its name promises, it is notably lightweight: a 12-gauge gun tips the scales at roughly 6.5 pounds while the 20-gauge drops to around 5.75 pounds, making it a favorite of upland bird and waterfowl hunters who walk long days afield. The defining feature of the design is its single bottom port: shells are loaded and spent hulls are ejected through one opening on the underside of the steel receiver. With no side ejection port, the action is sealed against rain, snow and debris from the top, and the gun is genuinely ambidextrous, handling identically for right- and left-handed shooters. Modern Featherlight guns ship with a gold-plated trigger, an AA-grade American walnut stock and forend, a ventilated rib barrel, and a set of screw-in interchangeable choke tubes. The barrel attaches to the receiver via an interrupted thread and detaches without tools by unscrewing the knurled magazine cap and rotating the barrel a quarter turn. Offered across 12, 16, 20 and 28 gauge in barrel lengths from 24 to 30 inches, the Featherlight remains in production today.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 2948 g (104.0 oz) |
| Overall Length | 1219 mm (47.99") |
| Barrel Length | 711 mm (27.99") |
| Action Type | Pump Action |
| Firing Mechanism | Hammer Fired |
| Trigger Type | Single Stage |
| Trigger Pull | 22 N (4.9 lbf) |
| Magazine Capacity | 4 rounds |
| Magazine Type | Tube |
| Effective Range | 40 m (44 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 12 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | Smoothbore |
| Frame Material | Steel |
| Barrel Material | Steel |
| Stock Material | Wood |
| Finish | Blued |
Calibers
- 12 Gauge · primary — also known as 12 ga, 12 bore
- 20 Gauge — also known as 20 ga, 20 bore
- 28 Gauge — also known as 28 ga, 28 bore
Features
- Firing modes: Repeating
- Feed systems: Tubular Magazine
- Safety mechanisms: Crossbolt Safety
- Features: Bottom Ejection, Single Loading Ejection Port, Truly Ambidextrous, Lightweight Construction, Gold Plated Trigger, Ventilated Rib, Screw In Chokes
Base model
Origin
Country of origin: United States
Designer: Harry Howland
Notes
Weights vary by gauge: approximately 6.5 lb (12 gauge), 6 lb (16 gauge) and 5.75 lb (20 gauge). The 28-inch ventilated rib barrel is used here as the representative configuration; barrels were offered in 24, 26, 28 and 30 inch lengths. Guns built after serial number 855,000 accept 3-inch shells in 12 and 20 gauge. The Featherlight has been the core Model 37 line since the model's introduction.
Background
Ask any old-timer to point out an Ithaca 37 in a gun rack and they will turn it upside down to show you the trick: there is no side ejection port. Every shell goes in and every empty comes out through a single opening on the bottom of the receiver, which is why the gun feels exactly the same whether you shoot it left- or right-handed, and why generations of duck hunters trusted it in foul weather that would foul a lesser action. The other tell is the trigger. Look closely at a modern Featherlight and it glints gold, a small piece of jewelry on a working gun that has become the line's quiet signature. Light enough to carry all day and built around a design that first left the factory in late 1936, the Featherlight is the version of the Model 37 that most hunters actually owned.