impala59

Someone paid up for this lot, over £1000 plus fees! Obviously, it has some provenance for a collector. Additionally all the Greeners went in the sealed bid auction, times past they would all be in the unsold lots. Perhaps the venerable GP is seeing a resurgence of popularity?

Same people I believe, nice relaxed shoot!

I took the M17 clay shooting today with one of its grandchildren, a 1947 Ithaca 16g M37. The M17 shoots like a dream, smooth action and totally reliable, not bad for 104 years old! I was also somewhat (pleasantly) surprised at the range the 20g was taking some clays at. Unfortunately, the 37 broke its slide stop retractor spring during the day, it was a mere 77 years old, so probably a little out of warranty! Nonetheless an enjoyable morning at Hawley shooting ground in Kent. The 37 was treated to a new spring set on my return home (my metric upgrade) although upon inspection, only the straight wire spring that failed seemed to have any weakness and was possibly a sub-standard replacement at some time during its history. All the other (coil springs) have been saved as reference templates. I have yet to check whether the 16g has different tension values to the 12g. I think not as all my metrics fitted and function perfectly. Back to the M17, this is a definite keeper, accurate, very point-able, great for clays, light recoil so my daughters can enjoy their occasional shoots more and a wonderfully light carry for my occasional pigeon shoots. They certainly knew how to build guns at the turn of the last century, Remington, JMB and JP, Thank you!

Update on the M17 some good and some not so good. The take down is the same as the M37, always remove the stock first to relieve the back pull on the trigger plate screw, all the internals are removed through the rear of the receiver with very little effort due to the combined design genius of John Moses Browning and John Pederson. JMB actually stated that JP was the best gunsmith of the age! That is some praise! The M17 was apparently the very last firearm that JMB had a hand in designing Aficionados of the Ithaca 37 will recognise much of the innards of the 17 though there are some notable exceptions. Firstly it only has a bottom extractor in common with the earliest 37’s. These early 37’s were later retrofitted with a top extractor to improve extraction with the more powerful 12g cartridges. The 17 being only available in 20g did not seem to suffer in this area. A surprise for me was within the trigger mechanism, the birds head shaped part is a disconnector, not available to Ithaca owners until the late 70’s and then mainly for law enforcement users. It would seem that Ithaca simply left it out and inadvertently created the “slam fire” reputation of the 37! The machine work in the receiver is superb, sharp perfectly square channels as good today as they were over a hundred years ago. Now I have decarbonised and lightly lubricated internally, the gun is a slick piece of machinery. The bad news. On this gun the yoke is fixed to the magazine tube. In rating this as S2, the mag tube has been permanently fixed to the receiver. What this means is that the forend cannot be removed for cleaning or refurbishment. It’s a real pain and in my opinion ruins what is otherwise a wonderful little gun. Not sure where I will go next with that, but thankfully there are no faults in that area. Just frustrating really. the internals, familiar to 37 owners I am sure! The superbly machined receiver, one block of steel that everything fits inside perfectly!

Thanks mate!

Not being very familiar with over and unders, a little advice please! I needed to convert my Miroku to manual safety as it is to be used in slug shooting competitions where speed loading is very necessary for multi barrels. I removed the auto safety actuator bar and screw and the gun functions exactly the same with or without it. My question is, the aluminium floating box attached to the top of the trigger has to move side to side to allow it to fire the second barrel. Does this function occur due to recoil only, or is there some other device I am missing? If I fire(dry) the first barrel nothing happens unless the block is moved backwards, when it resets and fires the second (either barrel selected as first) I have also realised that with the stock on, by banging the butt pad the mechanism resets. Is this all normal operating system? I have not yet tried with live ammunition as I am working on a few projects at the same time, but would like some re-assurance that I have half a chance of the thing working on the range!

I have only lightly oiled the polished areas where obvious metal to metal contact is needed for function. I am over the fear of stripping it now and found that using pin punches as temporary pivots and part locators works well for reassembly. What I am now, is in awe of the gunsmiths and engineers who developed these old guns, I love levers, cams, pivots etc but all these working parts within a machined box is quite frankly amazing. I would love to see a cutaway Greener cycling the bolt, extract/eject, auto safety and cocking mechanism, with one short lever action and only one spring! Wonderful engineering!

I think, to be honest it was the fouling, the main spring is fine, so much tension when putting it back together! As always with these things we tinker with, 20 minutes to carefully it take apart and 3 and 1/2 hours to get it back together, I sort of understand the Greener advice not to take apart! However removing a whole pile of various gritty substances has left it smooth and slick in operation, the disc at the base of the pin was grinding on the shaft walls it moves in, now polished with a light oiling it moves freely and without resistance. Back on the range will hopefully confirm!

Appeal for information!! My GP suffered a few light strikes over the weekend, so I have dived in and taken it down to component level to try and sort the problem. I am concerned that maybe the pin section of the striker is possibly a little worn. It mics at 7.79 mm measured from the flat disc to the tip. If anyone has a good striker and could measure I would be much obliged! additionally, the whole mechanism was full of grit, unburnt powder, dirt, carbon and other unpleasant gritty stuff (which in itself may be the cause of a slowish strike) When the striker is in the bolt and is fully exposed, the pin protrudes 1.14 mm (possibly easier to measure) Any advice, measurements would be very much appreciated. I can see why it is not advised to take these guns apart, but with the amount of crud in mine, maybe a full service every few years would be advisable! In pieces! What have I done?! The striker, showing the pin measurement

Thanks for the advice! And apologies for not being clearer initially!

Yes, for an old pump gun that a friend managed to chip a corner off the extractor by not aligning the barrel correctly. (after cleaning he cycled the thing, thought it was a bit stiff so kept on cycling it! ) he admitted his guilt when I pointed out the damage on the barrel cut-out and the broken extractor. Hopefully will be able to repair ( he was going to put it in an auction to get rid!) Ah! you know me so well! Another 37 saved (I hope) I will be making him an alignment tool also!!

The Remington M17 a couple of pictures to get started. The parentage to the Ithaca 37 is very obvious, removing the barrel is identical with the early 37’s with the sliding pin to assist rotation. As all who know the venerable 37, the next thing is to remove the stock, so as to release the sideways tension on the trigger plate screw. Problem #1 it would appear that some time in the last 105 years or so someone decided that the butt plate screws were insufficient and glued the butt plate on! So, cautiously working a scalpel around, it’s going to take some time as I don’t want to cause any marks or damage, watch this space!

It runs into a machined slot but doesn’t impact steel to steel. The extractor spring allows it to ride over the cartridge rim and then keeps it in place when extracting. The ejector is a separate fixed block on the opposite side of the receiver which imparts a spin on the fired case, thus ejecting and releasing the case from the extractor.or in this case fingers which flip the case out Cheers! Great advice!

I am looking at single piece semi auto/ pump so no soldering, but your advice will be kept as my club mates do bring in some weird and wonderful stuff ! thank you!

Following previous advice from the PW massive, I now always use silver steel for the various firing pins I have made and modified. Heating to cherry, oil quenching, polishing then heating to blue and again oil quenching has been totally successful. I have made for myself and also for friends, something like 30 to date, reviving many cabinet loiterers. my question is, would this be the same process for extractors? It would seem so to me as the only hard connection with anything is with the case, much as the firing pin only connects with the primer. I should be grateful for all advice!