Old Model 37

My grandfather was a spiteful, bitter old man. Not the kind of man that you would call Grandpa, certainly not the kind of man that you could ever love. While I grew up in his house, I did my best to stay out of his way. To this day he is a stranger to me.

I don’t have many memories or mementoes from my grandfather except for a 16 gauge Ithaca Model 37 shotgun. It had been stored for decades in the back of a cedar closet, making its way to me years after his death. It is a nondescript little shotgun, and with millions in production, it has no value or worth other than sentiment and nostalgia.

Surprisingly enough, it was the first gun that I ever duck hunted with. I was perched in the bow of a small Jon boat with the Model 37 resting across my lap. My cousin rowed us gently with the current as a drake Wood Duck flared from the wild rice further downstream. It was an old gun yet new to me, so too was duck hunting.

My cousin cautioned that the bird was too far out, I took the shot anyways. We were both surprised when that drake crumbled and disappeared into a raft of tall reeds near the shoreline. It took us some time, and a bit of bog stomping, but we found that very first duck.

Shortly there after, the Model 37 stopped working. A gunsmith diagnosed an internal failure and returned it to me more broken than before. Sadly, that Model 37 languished for decades passing from closets, to gun safes, and even spent a short stint as a wall hanger in my son’s bedroom.

Duck hunting isn’t new to me anymore, neither are shotguns. This winter I decided to disassemble that Model 37 and see if I could repair it. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the trigger assembly had worn down to the point of failure. It was a simple defect caused by time and excessive wear.

I can’t help but wonder if the same thing had happened to my Grandfather. Was his life so difficult that it just wore him down to the broken man I feared as a child? I can’t save that old man from his legacy, but I was able to save that old Model 37. And that’s worth something to me.