Ithaca Raybar Sight

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.270 WIN
Posts: 375
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:33 pm
Location: Nova Scotia,Canada
PostPosted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 7:58 pm
Just wondering if any of the Ithaca people here know when Ithaca first started using the Raybar front sight?Besides the Model 37 does anyone know what other Ithaca models it was used on?

Copper BB
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:14 pm
PostPosted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 5:28 pm
Ithaca added the Raybar sight to their Model 37s in 1955. The earliest guns with it have serial numbers starting around 574,000. The move was part of cost cutting measures after the war. The Raybar sight was added, but the more expensive pistol grip checkering, fluted comb, grip cap, and magazine cap lever-pin were dropped.

You will occasionally see pre-574,000 S/N guns with Raybar sights but otherwise period-correct features. After the Raybar came out in '55, Ithaca ran an aggressive campaign to fit them onto older guns. You could send your barrel back to Ithaca and have the new Raybar sight installed for just a couple of bucks. I think that Ithaca even paid the postage on the deal for a couple of years. My Dad had a Raybar sight installed on his 1947 M37 around 1956 or 57 and I think Ithaca paid the postage. He was enormously proud of the new sight and called it his "Raygun" sight. He was already a dead shot with the gun and liked to rib his rabbit hunting friends.

I'm not sure what other models got the Raybar.

.270 WIN
Posts: 375
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:33 pm
Location: Nova Scotia,Canada
PostPosted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 7:35 pm
SDshooter2 wrote:Ithaca added the Raybar sight to their Model 37s in 1955. The earliest guns with it have serial numbers starting around 574,000. The move was part of cost cutting measures after the war. The Raybar sight was added, but the more expensive pistol grip checkering, fluted comb, grip cap, and magazine cap lever-pin were dropped.

You will occasionally see pre-574,000 S/N guns with Raybar sights but otherwise period-correct features. After the Raybar came out in '55, Ithaca ran an aggressive campaign to fit them onto older guns. You could send your barrel back to Ithaca and have the new Raybar sight installed for just a couple of bucks. I think that Ithaca even paid the postage on the deal for a couple of years. My Dad had a Raybar sight installed on his 1947 M37 around 1956 or 57 and I think Ithaca paid the postage. He was enormously proud of the new sight and called it his "Raygun" sight. He was already a dead shot with the gun and liked to rib his rabbit hunting friends.

I'm not sure what other models got the Raybar.



Thanks for that information and story of your Dad's Ithaca,SDshooter2.

When I was younger and my brother purchased his Ithaca with the Raybar sight I thought it was just terrible a plastic sight on a shotgun.Everyone knew it had to be a brass bead.Now years later that I am using the shotgun I realize just what I was missing all these years. :)

You know until I was to my last gun show I did not know about the magazine cap lever pin on earlier Ithaca Model 37 shotguns. :oops:

What do you now have for Ithaca shotguns?

Copper BB
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:14 pm
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:43 am
I have five pre-1950 M37s. Three are 16 gauges (1940-'47) and two are 12s (1946 and 1949). I prefer the slimmer and lighter 16s, but I hunt a lot of ducks and the non-toxic shot choices in that gauge are limitted and expensive. South Dakota also went to non-toxic shot only on public land about ten years ago, so I now shoot a 12 gauge for most everything except pheasants and sharptail grouse on private land.

The price of '40s-era Ithacas are still fairly reasonable out here. Most guys collect Winchester M12s, if they collect pumps at all. There's fewer Ithacas around, but many are in better shape having been used on pheasants rather than dragged through every rabbit and grouse covert in PA, NY, or MI. Five years ago, I could still buy a M37 from the 40s in 80-90%+ shape for $250. Prices are higher now ($350-$475), but overall condition is still pretty high. Most are not quite collector grade, but still very solid shooters. And we get fewer Internet morons who want "one of them slam-fire guns" to cut down to a "home defense" shotgun. What are prices doing in your neck of the woods?

.270 WIN
Posts: 375
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:33 pm
Location: Nova Scotia,Canada
PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:18 pm
Do not run into Ithaca shotguns too often.The ones I have seen have been later models selling in the $250 to $350 range.My area mostly waterfowl hunters who wanted 3 inch shotguns so the Ithaca lost out on many sales.Most going to Winchester Model 12 and Remington Model 870 shotguns when the pump was still very common.Most waterfowl hunters I see today have auto loaders.

.22LR
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 10:44 am
PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:07 pm
My friend has one with the raybar sight, very nice. Agree chamber length has a lot to do with what waterfowlers are buying thse days. I live in an area that has migration flyways and the 3"-3 1/2" 12' ga./10ga. seem to be popular with the waterfowlers.

.270 WIN
Posts: 429
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:50 am
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:09 pm
Raybar sights went on the Model 51s as well. Not sure about the model 66s, but I think they more or less used the sight on just about everything they produced from that point forward. The Raybar sight was another of the firsts in the industry that Ithaca came out with.

.270 WIN
Posts: 452
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:07 pm
PostPosted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:24 am
I have a model 66 20 gauge and it does not have a raybar sight. But man I do love those raybars. I have one on a 1100LT, one on a 1974 12 ga model 37, and used to have a stevens 12 ga double that I had a raybar put on. All of my early 50's model 37's have the brass bead.

.410
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:18 pm
PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2012 2:48 pm
I have a 1954 serial numbered M37 with a Raybar site.
The book says that they were introduced in 1955. If a person bought a M37 in early 1955 with the Raybar sight it would have been made in 1954. It's the same if you buy a car early in the year, it would have been made in the previous year and serial-led accordingly.
T.W.K.

.270 WIN
Posts: 429
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:50 am
PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2012 9:25 pm
Many 54 models where sent back by jobbers in 55 to have the sight installed according to the book. Also Ithaca had an aggressive sales program to sell owners on the thought of "updating" older models with the new sight. There where counter displays and so on.

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