I was doing a boiler inspection for a home owner that had recently bought a typical turn of the century farm house. Half basement, half crawl space under the house. I put my ladder up and used a flash light to peer back into the crawl space area to check the piping and hanger condition. I happened to look directly down, and right under my nose was an Ithica M37 12ga. Sadly the gun had been cut down to minimum at both ends. Barrel and stock both hacked off. Some gangsta wannabe ruined a nice gun. It had a light patina of rust from laying in the dirt for years. When the home owner came back down stairs we discussed the boiler condition, then I asked him if he knew about the gun. He did not. I got it down and showed it to him, and then explained the federal penalties for possession of a short shot gun, and the fact that it would cost more to repair than it was worth. He said I could have it. I removed the barrel right there, crushed and folded it in half in my vice, handed it to him, and told him to throw it away.
My daughter is a Dallas LEO, so I called her and had her run the serial number. It came back as 'no record'. So, I basically ended up with a free receiver.
Cash was tight at my house, so I bought an Ithica 18" cylinder bore barrel and a cheap pistol grip for it, cleaned and loobed it up, took it out with a box of game loads and found it to cycle them all without a hiccup. figuring it would make a dandy house gun, I leaned it in the corner behind my desk and it sat there for years.
I ended up needing knee surgery last summer and had 8 weeks off. Loves me some Ithica M37, so I decided that would be a good time for a project. I ordered a replacement stock set from the new Ithica Co. and gave it a make over. It had a Bubba job weaver rail drilled into the receiver, so I removed and filled the holes and polished it out to 800 grit. Despite the external abuse, I was pleasantly suprised to find the action to have little wear. I painted the metal with Brownell's Aluma-hyde and reassembled it. I think it came out pretty nice and it's a fine shooter.
Attachment 288019 Attachment 288020
https://shop.brownells.com/gunsmith-...074f789e38134c