M37 20 gauge turkeyslayer

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:47 am
FLASH:
At the time I wrote the below, Ithaca had not published on the internet nor in a catalog that it in fact it offered a 20 gauge Turkeyslayer. Zak told me on the phone that they had made a limited number and had a few available at the time of this posting. I have one on the way. 9/14/11


No, there isn't one, but I'd like one. There's a cadre of turkey hunters, including me, who prefer the 20 over the 12 because of a combination of lightness and lethality. With the development of new metals for shot with densities greater than lead, the 20 gauge has the lethality of a 12 gauge of 10-15 years ago.

I have owned the Ithaca NID 10 in 3.5" and the Mag 10 Ithaca auto. I abandoned them for the Mossy 835 for turkeys because of weight. I went from the 835 to the SBE. Both of the 12s now stay in the safe; for the past 3 seasons, I have carried a Youth Model Mossy Super Bantam in 20 gauge. It is tailor made for turkeys shooting my handloads of 1 5/8 oz. of tungsten 9s. Puny 9s? Not exactly. There are 340+ tungsten 9s in an ounce. There are 585 lead 9s in an ounce. The patterns are incredibly tight and the best choke is about .570. The penetration of tungsten is superior to lead because of small profile, density and hardness. It doesn't deform. Shooting tungsten in 12s is overkill. It is incredibly expensive, but shell cost is the cheapest part of turkey hunting. My Mossy 20 weighs 5.25 lbs. out of the box. The Trijicon Reflex amber dot sight, 4 ozs. With sling, PG choke, slip on pad to increase LOP and foam comb with neoprene sleeve, the weight is probably 6 lbs. It's quite a turkey killer, but it is no Ithaca. The trigger is miserable and not much can be done about it.

I would love a M37 in 3'' 20 gauge with camo synthetic stock and forearm, sling mounts and a plain barrel with deerslayer type sights BUT with tritium in the leaf and post for early morning and old eyeballs. No bluing on metal, please. Coatings are superior for wear and corrosion resistance. Firesights or fibre optics are not enough for my eyeballs under a thick canopy with an early flydown.
Drilled and tapped for optics would be nice. I would like to substitute an M37 for this Super Bantam 20
(the contraption below it is a 100+ year old roll crimper that I use to handload):

Image
Last edited by Gil S on Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:36 pm
Well...hopefully someone with Ithaca will read this and take it under advisement ! ;)

BTW...nice looking firearm !!
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:45 pm
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=111 I would post this up in this thread...
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 11:09 pm
Beautiful shotty. I have a mossberg 835 that i use for turkeys...I wonder how much lighter a 20g is to mine...
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