[ithacaartist]

I arranged for mine through Tommygunner.com in Olivebridge, N.Y. I dealt with Damon, who appears to run the show. They also offer parts and accessories discounted slightly from MSRP, as are the rifles and Thompson pistols. Depending on which state in which one lives, and if you're able to make the arrangements and pay the SBR tax of $200 on top of all the other expenses, you can obtain a Tommygun which differs from the icon only in the open/closed block (full and semi-auto , respectively) firing system.

Damon advised it's unnecessary to be extra rigorous in break-in regimen, maybe clean and polish the internals after first 10 rounds, as they are hardy and put up with crud well. The owner's manual mentioned that new guns may be tight in the frame/receiver juncture. I may be able to actually measure the extent of the play at either or both ends of the receiver, to have data to give to Kahr when I get ahold of them.

In the early 70's, my wife at the time worked in the service dept of Ithaca Gun Co. I'd pick her up when I was finished with classes at Ithaca College and she was done with work and wait in the waiting area if I was early. Once, a ccustomer came steaming through the door with two Model 37 shotguns; he seemed pretty upset as, red faced, he huffed and puffed his situation to the receptionist--somewhat loudly, as I recall. He wanted to know why there was such a difference in the two shotguns. One was brand new, current production, the other was about 30 years old. He held one in each of his extended grasp and shook them. The one from the 30's was absolutely silent; the brand new one rattled and clacked alarmingly. "How in the world are you supposed to sneak up on a deer with something like this?!" he queried. A good question...

It boils down to money. To produce and hand fit parts to create a good snug action costs more. Statistics concerning tolerances predicts that, given an appropriate range of tolerance for each part, assembly of the firearm is an additive process whereby the parts on the large end of the allowable tolerance add to the total of overall tolerance, while those which are on the smaller end subtract from it. Statistically, an assembly will go together OK if the sum of all the tolerances, negative and positive, is within its own range of acceptability. When too many over-tolerance parts are used, you literally run out of room to fit them together. In this case, one would dis-assemble the action, toss all the parts back into their respective bins, and start over; and usually the law of averages would predict the next assembly to be acceptable. I can see, however, in the case of an overburden of under-spec parts, that one could get the action together easily, but it would be sloppy with the play from dimensions the parts simply do not take up, because they're too small. In the case of a loose action, I think a judgment by Q.C. would be the arbiter of what went out the door, or not.

(Our model 37 20 gauge was bought as a blem at the employee store. She arranged for the guys out in the service area to go over it and tune the action. It must have been magic: The day it was ready, the woodwork had become Supreme Grade Walnut, and an extra vent-rib modified choke barrel accompanied its Deerslayer bbl.!!! Um, unfortunately, I did not receive custody of the '37 in the divorce...)