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A Trio of Hand Me Down Ithaca Firearms

Natty Bumppo

5 year old buck +
Rainy day here in NW Mass. In my gun room, doing some cleaning. Thought I'd post a thread about one of my favorite gun companies and see if anybody else likes an Ithaca.

The Ithaca 37 was my grandfather's. He was a lefty and preferred this shotgun because of its downward ejection. I have the bird barrel and the deerslayer barrel. I take it hunting every now and then...killed a few turkeys with it and a single doe. I think every gun collection needs an Ithaca 37. A classic.

The Ithaca 1911A1 was also my grandfather's. He carried it in WWII in the CBI theater as an engineer in the 1007th building and driving on the Burma and Ledo Roads.

The Ithaca X5 Lightning .22 was my father's. I shot plenty of squirrels with it when I was a kid.

Ithacas.jpg

In the early 2000's Ithaca came out with a Deerslayer II in 16 gauge. They teamed up with Lightfield ammo who made the sabot shells. Unbelievably accurate and a great gauge IMO for deer. I bought one the first year of production and killed a doe with it. But they only used a single forearm rail and the thing rattled like an old Mossberg. Way too noisy in the deer woods. Sold it that same year. Too bad because that was the most accurate slug gun I've ever owned.

But I can't resist an Ithaca....thinking about trying the Deerslayer III in 20 gauge. Gorgeous slug gun. Anybody have one?

Screenshot 2025-10-13 105244.png
 
I have my dad's 37 Deerslayer, which was the first long gun I ever carried afield for deer. I think that was the only time I ever used it. The pre hunt range trip was the last time it was fired and that's too bad. That was probably 1985?

I also have my maternal grandfather's Ithaca 66. That's one gun I own that I've never fired. Whenever I see it I think "I need to get that in the woods and hunt with it." That's the problem with being a "gun guy" or a "rifle looney", there's always something new I want to use and stuff like that gets left behind.
 
Shot my first deer with a borrowed Ithaca 37 in 20ga. Bought one of the first deerslayers in 12ga. They were proned to splitting the brass. So I moved on. But yes I liked the downward ejection.
 
Oh my goodness! If you ever want to get rid of the 1911 let me know!
All are BEAUTIFUL!!!
 
First pheasant I shot as a kid was with my grandfather’s a single shot Ithica with a lever action break. Loved that gun.


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I have my Great Grandpa's Ithaca 37. Shot trap a lot of trap in high school with it and still take it on a pheasant/quail hunt every now and then to keep it dust free.
 
I also have my maternal grandfather's Ithaca 66. That's one gun I own that I've never fired. Whenever I see it I think "I need to get that in the woods and hunt with it." That's the problem with being a "gun guy" or a "rifle looney", there's always something new I want to use and stuff like that gets left behind.

I hear ya about the new stuff. I make sure I grab the 37 every now and then for pure sentimentality. Actually when I'm tracking deer in inclement weather in Mass it's my "go to" gun. If it's snowing and blowing wind I'll take that over my scoped slug guns. I've shot two toms with it over the years...and weirdly or maybe just coincidentally I had to switch to lefty to make the shot.
 
Nice! So many guns I haven’t shot or haven’t in a very long time. That’s because I lost them all in the lake when my boat capsized! What a shame

Oh man. Were you moving them to a lake house or something?
 
Forgot about one. When I was 18 years old and just getting into turkey hunting I thought I wanted the biggest shotgun I could get so I bought an Ithaca Mag-10. It had three shot capacity and a 30" barrel...it was a goose gun basically. Very effective for spring turkeys. But the thing outweighed me and carrying it for miles every morning through the Berkshire hills chasing toms got old quick. Sold that one.
 
betcha didn' choot 97 tims to kill them mini-pigens 😉
 
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