Watch: DiResta Modifies an Ithaca Model 37 Shotgun Stock

Jimmy DiResta is a superb craftsman, and we’ve watched him create a number of things over the years: an AK-47 guitar, trigger-fired wrench slingshot, a steel hatchet handle, and even a cannon. This time, he’s working on a scattergun. Specifically, he’s drilling some huge holes into the buttstock of an Ithaca Model 37 pump shotgun.

His goal is a means of carrying spare shells onboard his gun, so he bought an old stock and drilled a half-dozen holes in the top, to slip shells into. This sucks in my opinion, but hey, it’s his gun.

After the holes were drilled, he surprised me, as DiResta usually does. He went to work making even more alterations to the stock, this time with a wood chisel. It’s his artistic eye at work; he wanted to enhance the mod by carving away some wood between the holes.

After that, he deepens the hole for the stock screw and then shortens the screw, to prevent interference between the screw and the spare shotgun shells.

A little modification inside the holes (did he just add a little glue for a friction fit?), and he’s ready to fire the smoothbore. Of course, hitting something intentionally will be purely accidental since he can’t lay his cheek against the stock to sight down the barrel, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

At least he still has the original stock, so he can restore it back to original.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.