pump action shotguns

[lancer425]

On 17/12/2019 at 22:50, impala59 said:

My favourite still and always will be the Ithaca 37, the fewest parts, simple action, all steel (apart from the ultralights) and when properly maintained, as slick as you like. All Ithaca’s hold an attraction for me, I love the history and story of the company and with the 37, the fact that it’s been in continuous production for 82 years says it all for me.

The JC Higgins probably edges the slickest action prize though and while JCH’s are hard to find, the Squires Bingham is the same gun, just as smooth and a lot less money. The JC Higgins brand was a Sears brand which applied across their stock range and included bicycles etc too. It was first manufactured and sold as the High Standard 200 (Flyte king if my memory serves me well) not many High Standards made it across the pond and are very collectible now. HS made the JCH. It is in fact still being made as the Rock Island Armoury M5. All can suffer from breakages where the alloy trigger group contacts the receiver (usually caused by poor maintenance/heavy handedness during disassembly etc) but aside from that they are great pumps. As far as I am aware, after High Standard, all are and were made in the Philippines by  Armscorp.

I sold my BPS to finance something else and have been looking for an early one ever since, I really must learn to hold on to the stuff I love, that was my third BPS!

edit

it occurred to me this morning that I may have missed another candidate for slickest pump, the Remington M31, aka the ball bearing gun. A contemporary of the Ithaca M37 (indeed the M37 could have been also called M31 but for some pesky patents) the Remington was a masterpiece of metal to metal smoothness. It was the forebear to the venerable 870, which was created to reduce manufacturing costs. I am still looking for a 31, my previous one having been sold by a relative who had it on his SGC temporarily 🤬🤬difficult to forgive that one

Thanks for the Info on the JC higins, and you are right you should try to hold onto to treasures. The pittence i got for my Higins added to other guns and a couple of bikes  i sold financed the Extension, but looking back 15 years i gave them away. But needs must and  life gets in the way.