Canuck CC37 - Ithaca 37 copy?

Thanks, It was easy to do, the original forearm did come back too fat over the receiver, I own several sxp's and thats the one beef, these new guns with the enhanced trigger group are a much nicer gun than the older sxp models, Ill post the sxp trench and the cc37 canuck together when it shows up
 
Review in the Caliber magazine with not so much new details.

Want a wood-and-steel trench gun, based off a timeless pump-action design? Canuck's new CC37, spreading out to dealers over the past few weeks, may fit the bill for you.

The word "iconic" is over-used, but if there is such a thing as an iconic combat shotgun, then the Ithaca Model 37 would qualify. Due to its use in the Vietnam War as well as many American police departments, the Model 37 has a long reputation for reliability and usability. Alas, the Model 37 is getting very expensive, with American pricing for the Home Defense model starting at $1099 USD. If you're looking for a similar shotgun but with easier Canadian availability and lower pricing, we now have the option of the new Canuck CC37.

Looking at the CC37, it looks like a very faithful interpretation of the old Model 37 design (which, remember, was itself an update of a Remington shotgun originally designed by John Moses Browning—no need to break into outrage over intellectual property rights). Same bottom ejection, same squared-off receiver shape with pronounced pistol grip, same button safety behind the trigger, same barrel retention nut, same single action bar. Perhaps closer inspection will reveal some refinements or changes to the Ithaca/Remington design, but at five paces, this shotgun looks like the same thing. No word yet on whether there's slamfire capability, like the Ithaca riot guns of old, but that seems unlikely.

Canuck's re-design does include a barrel threaded for Mobil chokes (there are three included with the gun). There's also a heat shield and front sight blade for a bit of a retro riot gun/trench gun look, although the 20-inch barrel (chrome-lined) looks a bit more like a deer gun than a combat shotgun. Note that there's no rear sight, so accuracy with slugs is going to be somewhat limited.

Magazine capacity is 5+1, and due to the limitations of this design, it seems unlikely that extended magazine versions will be available.

In past years, Chinese companies manufactured copies of the Ithaca 37, but it seems this shotgun is built in Turkey. The stock and corncob forend are Turkish walnut, much better quality than the junk wood often found on Chinese firearms. Having said that, we haven't had the chance to handle one, to tell you how the fit and finish looks.

While some buyers may still prefer the made-in-the-USA version, those are roughly twice the price of the CC37, which sells for about $650 in Canada, depending where you shop. Ask your local retailer if you want more details; specs and other information for the CC37 haven't even been uploaded to the Canuck website yet.
 
Here's an actual review where they had the gun, ROCK ISLAND ARMORY

I love shotguns, and I love historic firearms. You mix the two, and I’m a fan. I’m quite fond of ‘Trench’ guns and ‘Riot’ guns from a historic and shotgun appreciation perspective. Most actual historic shotguns are quite pricey, and they aren’t guns I’d torture and enjoy. This is why modern replicas like the Rock Island Armory TPAS are guns that I can’t help but love.

What does TPAS stand for? I have no earthly idea. Uhm, maybe Trench Pump Action Shotgun? That’s all I got. The TPAS replicates the Ithaca 37, specifically the old school riot or trench gun version. Well, it does lack a bayonet lug, which is disappointing, but I can get over it. Rock Island’s website might be confused as the description lists it as the T1897 pump gun. It’s very clearly an old-school Ithaca 37 clone. (Although, I hope this means Armscor might be importing an 1897 clone, and someone just got the description wrong.)

Anyway, it’s a Turkish-made shotgun from Derya Arms. I’m really picky about my imported shotguns, and I know nothing about Derya Arms, but I trust Rock Island Armory. They’ve imported a ton of great shotguns. I’ve shot their VR series a ton and enjoyed them immensely. I had high hopes for the TPAS.


The TPAS – An Ithaca by Another Name
The Ithaca 37 is just “one of those guns.” It saw widespread use by the military and numerous police forces and is one of the hall of fame combat shotguns. Like a lot of shotguns, the Remington 870 came on in and replaced it with dual-action bars, a slick action, and a fairly affordable price point.


I hope you don’t mind a single action bar (Travis Pike for TTAG)
Even so, the ability to own a classic without breaking the bank and to enjoy it without babying it is fairly attractive. The MSRP is just $599, but they seem to be sold for less than 500 dollars on a good day. The TPAS is an attractive gun overall. The stock and pump are both wood. The wood features a shiny clear coat. No MLOK handguards in sight.


It’s slick and glossy (Travis Pike for TTAG)
The pump is a classic corncob-style design. It’s small but fairly accurate for the guns at the time. The wood stock has nice checkering along the pistol grip that’s tough to hate. We get sling swivels and even a sling, but the sling seems rather dainty. Across the barrel, we get a fixed metal heat shield for those trench gun vibes.


Heat shield? Sure, why not? (Travis Pike for TTAG)
The TPAS gives us a shiny black finish that’s not quite blued, but it looks like a classic gun. My only real complaint is the paragraph worth of text on the absolutely huge receiver. We have tons of text that takes away from the gun’s appearance.

The Layout
The TPAS clones the Ithaca 37 down to the controls. This includes the larger pump release forward of the trigger guard and a safety that sits behind the trigger. It’s a simple and effective layout. Ergonomically the controls are easy to run either left- or right-handed, with little advantage for shooters of either stripe.

You’ll also notice a lack of a side ejection port. The Ithaca loads and ejects out of the bottom of the gun. It’s not throwing shotgun hulls anywhere but downwards. The lack of an ejection port means an emergency reload isn’t easy, and a slug select drill requires a different manual of arms than most guns.


The controls are simple, and effective (Travis Pike for TTAG)
At the end of the TPAS barrel sits a rifle-style Ithaca sight. It’s not exactly a replica of the Ithaca deer slayer sight, but fairly close. There are no rifle rear sights, which would have been an amazing touch if Rock Island Armory went that route. Even so, the height of the sight makes it just perfect for putting buckshot where you want it.

At the Range
Oh man, one of the most impressive things about these affordable, imported shotguns is the action. It’s abnormally smooth. I didn’t expect a gun imported from Turkey to be this slick. The TPAS action glides rearward, and you’ll feel the pressure when the action meets the hammer, but it’s still super smooth.


The Corncob grip is great, although small! (Travis Pike for TTAG)
Color me impressed. The ejection is positive, reliable, and consistent. The front sight has a white color applied to the ‘bead-like’ portion that’s easy to see. I ran a series of snap drills with clay pigeons, which, as you’ll note, are relatively small. Against a timer, I started with an empty chamber, with the hammer down, so it was cruiser ready. I landed plenty of sub-second shots on the clay pigeon at 10 and 15 yards with a standard load of 9 pellet buckshot.


The TPAS gives you a pretty authentic Ithaca experience (Travis Pike for TTAG)
I fired two rounds on two targets in 1.35 seconds. The sights work, and the action is slick and smooth, which makes those follow-up shots easy. The pump is very small but allows me to tight grip the gun and work the action without it slipping from my hand. I tried the snap drills with the chamber loaded and safety on and did find the small safety tougher to hit and engage.


It’s retro, and awesome(Travis Pike for TTAG)
The gun is a little hefty at 8.10 pounds unloaded, but the weight helps with recoil. What also helps with recoil is a good push/pull technique. The downside of the TPAS is the length of pull. Like a real Ithaca 37, it’s fairly long at 14 inches.

Loading Up
The TPAS keeps things close to the real Ithaca 37 and only chambers 2.75-inch shotshells. That’s mostly okay. In terms of practical application, there aren’t any issues with using 2.75-inch shells. The only real downside is how small the loading port is. You can barely get your thumb behind the shell to shove it in. Doing fast reloads isn’t as easy as a gun that chambers 3-inch shells.

Like most imported shotguns, you are limited to a five-round magazine tube. The nature of the TPAS design means adding a magazine extension isn’t possible.

RIA delivers another nice surprise with a crisp and short trigger pull that’s too good for most shotguns.


the sight is simple, but effective (Travis Pike for TTAG)
The older 37s could slamfire, but the TPAS can’t. Slamfire isn’t really useful, but it’s fun. The first thing I did with the TPAS was load two rounds, go outside, and see if it slam fired. Sadly no, it does not.

I used a mix of 100 rounds of Fiocchi birdshot sent by RIA, 100 rounds of birdshot from Federal, 25 rounds of buckshot from Monarch, and 100 rounds of buckshot from Sterling. Inside of all of those rounds, I only had one small issue.

One round of Monarch seemed to do something to the action after the round was fired. It became heavier and took some effort to eject. Upon inspection, I couldn’t see any reason why. The shell looked fine. Monarch ammo is fairly cheap and not always the most reliable or consistent ammo.


You can’t beat a classic, even when it’s a Turkish clone (Travis Pike for TTAG)
Patterning was predictable from a shotgun with a cylinder bore. With standard buckshot, it patterned nine pellets within a 10.5-inch circle. Not bad, not super awesome. With Federal FliteControl, it punched a golf ball-sized hole into a target at 15 yards.

I’m curious how compatible the TPAS would be with Ithaca stocks and accessories, but unfortunately, I didn’t have any on hand to test. I’m picturing this being a good way to make the Ithaca 37 Stakeout I’ve always wanted.
 
If the Canadian importer can ask the Turkish manufacturer to make a clone of the Ithaca 37, i'm sure they could ask the same company to build this:


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thats pretty close to what it is

It's close but not quite, 18-18 1/2" with a rear sight instead of the heat shield and no checkering on the wood with an oil finish would be a winner.

I would be tempted to shorten the one your getting and adding a rear sight or going to a simple raised bead on a pedestal.

A heat shield model needs a bayonet lug to make sense to my mind.
 
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If the Canadian importer can ask the Turkish manufacturer to make a clone of the Ithaca 37, i'm sure they could ask the same company to build this:


mAJ6IRK.jpg
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No doubt, they should knock off a couple of the more classic trench and riot models along with the short stakeout.
 
It's funny how they figure out what to market to us. I had a Ricol 20 ga OU 15 inch that was a real head turner. ( The one's Corwin brought in). Just beautiful wood and metal. But what does one do with a 15 inch OU? It sold in minutes at our gun show and the guy admitted he had no idea what he would do with it. Such an appealing little gun. Yet, never seen anything like it since!
 
Here it is everyone, not a piece of plastic or aluminium on it, all steel just like the original ithaca M37, beautifully made, amazing finish and wood, I will try fit original wood on it this afternoon and vise versa.It does appear to drop the hammer when slam fired but doesnt fire, Im sure if i have a look at the original trigger group and this one, it will be as easy fix to make it slam fire, I will advise later today. As far as those sitting on the fence on this one, buy one, they are an amazing value really for how its made and what you get, cycles like glass, in fact if you hold it up after you cycle it and price the slide release on the trigger group, the slide will cycle itself downwards without moving the gun!!! I just ran 20 rounds through it in my back yard and its a dream!!!
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So for the slam fire bunch , for me its a no go, the hammer rides forward WITH the bolt and on the ithaca it holds the hammer back until its almost in battery and then it full force drops the hammer to discharge the round, this gun is missing two things outside of my scope of abilities, the small little "sear that holds the hammer back and the curve to the bottom of the bolt carrier that "trips" the little sear and lets it fire forward as soon as the bolt stops when you are slam firing, the machinists and such in our CGN group could im sure make it happen.

Trigger group is close to the ithaca but with slightly updated internals and springs, still very simple and made out of solid steel

This gun comes apart in the exact way an original M37 does

The Ithaca stocks from my M37's fit on this gun and the nice wood on this gun will fit on the Ithaca, so those looking for wood a stock may have an option, as far as the forend goes, its a different size, looks identical until you hold it up to the Ithaca , the original is longer and will not fit on the slide unit, all screws dont seem to fit, close but a little off , barrel attaches in the exact manner as Ithaca but you will need to loosen off the heat shield to remove the barrel, front sight is nice and straight all steel, I dont feel there is a need for a rear sight. Nice to see that the standard leather slings, although tight, fit the permanently mounted sling swivels.

As i said before I am very pleased with the quality of this gun, it feels substantial and is glass smooth
 
Thanks Hunter, Slam fire is a bit overrated.

I assume the issue with the heat shield is where there is not enough clearance at the magazine lug that also has the sling loop on the bottom?

Is the only thing holding the heat shield in place the screw near the barrel lug? Any chance you can take a picture with it removed? It sort of looks cool but in reality the heat shield just makes things harder to clean. It makes more sense with a bayonet setup and a zombie invasion.

Also, what's the measurement from the muzzle to the barrel lug? Looks just a bit to short to add a bayonet heat shield setup...
 
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