Ithaca Auto & Burglar: Pre-NFA34 Factory Sawed-Off (Video)

The “Forgotten Weapons” guy, Ian, gets to fondle a lot of unusual firearms and does pretty good videos about them. Here’s one about an interesting gun called the Ithaca Auto & Burglar.

Made from 1922-1934, it’s essentially a factory-made double barrel shotgun with short barrels and a pistol grip instead of a butt stock.

Designed to provide fast shooting at close range, it was marketed for self-defense on the road (“Auto”) and/or at home (“Burglar”). I have no doubt that it was effective.

Shotguns are usually not fun to fire without a shoulder stock, and Ian makes note of this in the video.

This is not going to be a particularly comfortable gun to shoot. This is not for the average milktoast.

Essentially outlawed by the National Firearms Act of 1934, the gun became horribly expensive to purchase and was thus discontinued.

This gun was made in two distinct styles. One of them used a unique-looking receiver, curved downward in the rear and with the triggers actually sloping. The pistol grip has a fairly graceful curve to it, as well as a spur to prevent the grip from slipping down in your hand when you fired the gun.

After 1926, changes were made and the receiver and triggers began to look more or less just like that of any double-barrel shotgun. The grip portion was much like a butt stock where it adjoins the receiver, but makes an abrupt downward turn to form the pistol grip portion.

Apparently, the old model sold recently for a whopping $4,500, but the new model found no buyer.

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.