The Army’s best combat pump shotgun is back: Inland’s reissue of Ithaca’s M37 Trench Gun.Posted on 09/13/2017 10:22:17 AM PDT by w1n1
The Army’s best combat pump shotgun is back: Inland’s reissue of Ithaca’s M37 Trench Gun.
Two top-shelf Ohio-based firearms manufacturers have partnered to bring collectors and shooters a fine reissue – I hesitate to call it a replica – of the vintage U.S. Army Ithaca M37 Trench Gun.
This retro military model is made by the Upper Sandusky-based Ithaca Gun Company for their Dayton neighbor, Inland Manufacturing. The latter is best known for their excellent reproductions of World War II M1 carbines.
It was during World War I that you might say the Army got serious about shotguns. It was, after all, the biggest war they had fought to date. Close combat in the trenches, and especially night fighting, favored the massive firepower of fast-shooting pump shotguns.
Each 00 buckshot round blasted out nine .33 caliber pellets, increasing the chances of a lethal hit on the enemy. WWI trench guns could shoot exceptionally fast because they lacked a trigger disconnector.
This allowed them to fire with every pump of the action as long as the trigger was held back continuously. Today we would regard this as a safety flaw, but to the doughboy standing in an enemy trench in 1918, that extra bit of speed was regarded as an edge.
The Germans hated facing shotguns, and even filed a formal complaint that using shotguns was a violation of the rules of civilized warfare – to no avail. The trench gun was born. Read the rest of the Ithaca M37 Trench Gun here.
Takes the allure away for me.
i'll stick with my M37 M&P thank you very much... 
That’s the one!
Buckshot to 100 ft.
Then slip in deer Slugs!
Did You use Buckshot exclusively ?
Have had one with a pistol grip for several decades. Always draws a crowd at the range. Always repels an Amish crowd inside 50-feet...
Mostly I used whatever I could scrounge.
I believe that the GIs nicknamed it the Trench Broom.
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