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How tight do most folks tighten the magazine tube nut on their DS-I's or any other M37 that switches barrels. I currently have mine as tight as I can get it with my fingers and can still grab the barrel and twist it a little. I'm thinking for the nbest accuracy I should use a pair of soft pliers and go one more notch. Any suggestions or opinions considered.

Hornet22savage wrote:How tight do most folks tighten the magazine tube nut on their DS-I's or any other M37 that switches barrels. I currently have mine as tight as I can get it with my fingers and can still grab the barrel and twist it a little. I'm thinking for the nbest accuracy I should use a pair of soft pliers and go one more notch. Any suggestions or opinions considered.

Before you go and do that, check the alignment between the barrel yoke and the barrel. That is part #46 on your schematic. Loosen it up slightly and give it a little wiggle and then try to remove your barrel.
if those things are out of alignment with the barrel, or screwed down too tightly (a firm snug is optimal) they can throw the alignment between receiver and barrel out the tiniest bit which can throw the alignment between barrel and nut out enough to make removing it a real pain. Remember Ithaca's have very tight tolerances and it doesn't take much to make things off.

the best way to put the yoke back on after removing it is to get it on and tighten it just enough so it won't fall off. put your barrel on and snug it. Then check the clearance of the barrel over the nut.

try that before you do anything else.

I was told once that part of the reason that the leverage leaver was taken out of the magazine cap. folks where over tightening them causing the guns to shoot high. I would never recommend using a tool to further tighten this nut, if one was needed the factory would provide it.

1977cutcher wrote:I was told once that part of the reason that the leverage leaver was taken out of the magazine cap. folks where over tightening them causing the guns to shoot high. I would never recommend using a tool to further tighten this nut, if one was needed the factory would provide it.

Overtightening, either up or down can cause alot of unnecessary wear on the parts up to and including damaging the magazine tube. a good snug is all you need.

My question was directed more towards installation of the barrel not removal. Trust me I figured out the whole barrel yoke deal when I bought the barrel and could not get it on. I spend a lot of time on different fourms dedicated to slug guns and accurazation of them. The main theme seems to be on a switch barrel gun that if the barrel moves independant of the receiver that you are not getting the best accuracy. My question was directed at the fact that with my barrel installed and the magazine nut as tight as I can get it with my fingers I can still twist my barrel a little bit. Is this going to effect my accuracy or is it ok?

The Ithaca 37 is the best accuracy you will get from any current production removable barrel shot gun. Much better that a simple slide in barrel. The interrupted thread assures a very positive lock up witch is why it is used on take down rifles including vintage Winchester, Marlin, and Savage leaver rifles. I believe Marlin may still offer a take down rifle and Rugar has been advertising their 10-22 take down all featuring the same basic barrel attachment system. Now this will never be as good as a fixed barrel but the object is to hit a deer at one or two hundred yards not hitting a squirrel 3 mountains over.

If the yoke is aligned properly, tighten the nut finger tight, I know this is a subjective measurement, but it works. A removable barrel system will never deliver the "BEST" accuracy, but many deer have fallen to this system. Over tightening can also cause damage to the barrel lug, under the force of recoil it can cause the joint between the lug and the barrel to separate, or worse yet shear the lug in half, I have a barrel with such a lug that I purchased to fix.

Stan Rose wrote:If the yoke is aligned properly, tighten the nut finger tight, I know this is a subjective measurement, but it works. A removable barrel system will never deliver the "BEST" accuracy, but many deer have fallen to this system. Over tightening can also cause damage to the barrel lug, under the force of recoil it can cause the joint between the lug and the barrel to separate, or worse yet shear the lug in half, I have a barrel with such a lug that I purchased to fix.

And with the pounding a slug can give a gun, you know that lug is under some serious force

Thanks for the information I had never thought about the forceon the barrel lug. I just got the gun back from Ithaca, I had them put a Thumbhole stock on it and the work looks great. I test fired the gun when I got it back and al seems well. I still have not settled on a slug for it yet. I started out using the Winchester Plutnium Tips but those are now discontinued. I then switched to the Remington Core-Lokts but these have gotten very expensive. Last year I shot the Remington Accu-Tips, however I'm not satisfied with their performance. I tested a few weeks ago the Winchester Dual Bonds, Winchester Partition Golds and the new Federal Trophy Copper. The Dual Bonds did the best at just over an inch at 100 yds. Then came the Trophy Coppers at about 2 1/2 and the Partitons came in last at about 3. I did however recover all of the sabots and the one partition sabot did not open all the way could have been my flier that opened up the group since the first two were together.

I've always liked the Winchester slugs best. They just seem to be more accurate over a wider range of guns.

I have had really good results with Hornaday over the last few years.

This is an old thread but very relevant to my current state of affairs. I recently bought a Remington 870 Police shotgun, new, and discovered that the barrel has the tiniest amount of wiggle to it, drove me crazy that this expensive shotgun has some wiggle in it's very expensive barrel but an inquiry on the Remington forum garnered responses that stated this is normal in many 870's.

I then checked my new Mossberg 590A1 and same thing, and I posed the same question on the Mossberg forum and my local forum, same responses, some people had the wiggle on their 590's, some didn't.

Though I have NOT yet bought an Ithaca, I asked this same question on this forum and some respondents have stated that a tiny amount of wiggle is normal in these guns with removable barrels, some have it, some don't. I have not yet bought an Ithaca 37, though...

You are going to have some play in any take down design. If you are worried about play, Ithaca offered fixed barrel defense style shot guns.