Wall hanger only. There are plastic parts inside the receiver that have to be replaced periodically. Those parts are no longer available. It's a shame. They're sweet little shotguns. Easier to clean than a 1100. But that's my recommendation.

 

I owned one, great shooter and pointed well but, after having to replace the action bar twice I finally sold the gun.

 

Owned one in the early '70s. Great gun. Plastic buffer was replaced and the action bars were repaired after several thousand rounds. It had 30% fewer parts than a 1100 if I remember correctly.

 

I purchased a new Model 51 Deluxe Trap in 1974 (my first trap gun). The purchase price was $250 and it came with a “Lifetime Warranty” (I still have my warranty card). Beautiful Monte Carlo stock. I shot less than a flat of shells through it before going into clay shooting “retirement” for 40 years.
Turns out the Model 51 had a design flaw whereas the recoil spring (in the stock) was too short and the action bar took a beating and frequently broke. After Ithaca went under the action bars soon became unavailable. The late Les Hovencamp, a retired Head Gunsmith for Ithaca (26 years) started producing a longer recoil spring and often welded broken action bars (besides repairing and restoring all models of Ithaca's at his Diamond Gunsmithing shop in Ithaca). He also sold less fragile buffers for the Model 51.
I brought my Model 51 out of “retirement” in 2020 and upgraded the spring & buffers and shot a few rounds with it before purchasing my first break action trap gun. It is unfortunate that the spring design flaw and subsequent broken action bars that were irreplaceable reduced many Model 51’s to scrap or parts. I still take mine out occasionally and the 30” full choke barrel still smashes targets with very light recoil.
Ithaca sold 12 & 20 gauge Model 51’s. The 12 gauge was sold in a field grade along with the Deluxe Trap and Deluxe Skeet models. I also believe they sold a sighted rifled slug model.

 

Never owned one but the 3 that were around here liked to throw the bolt handles.

 

I'm a huge Ithaca fan, but these guns just didn't hold up very well and I don't think the engineering was thought all the way through.

 

I agree- I owned a 51 field gun many years ago, and had troubles all the time. Great marketing back then too- "Lifetime Warranty". The 37 pumps were the bread and butter guns for Ithaca for many years. Their 10 gauge semi-autos were well made too, back when this was a popular gun for geese/turkeys.

 

Worked at IG when they made the 51. They didn't make a rifled slug barrel but did make a Rifle Sight Deerslayer barrel for the Model 51. I think they knew about the slide arm problem but released them to the public any way.

 

That's too bad about the internals, this thing looks dam near unfired and fits me great. Plus its cheap! But you guys pointed out why.

Good info!

 

I am the second owner of my 12ga model 51 which I bought for about 200.00 since 1990 I mostly used this for pheasant n duck hunting. Had a gun smith look at it a couple yrs ago. I read up on which plastic buffers n parts were weak and bought those and and a spring or two. He replaced some plastic pieces and a the couple springs. He said the gun still did not show significant wear but replaced the parts i supplied. So obviously I don’t put hundreds of shell through this gun annually but I’ll shoot it till I break something that I can not fix or replace. Then I might put it on the wall as a fellow suggested

 

Can anyone post a picture of one

 

I have one and have replaced the action bar twice, spring three times, plastic buffer three times. Finally, I could not find anymore action bar so I had it welded together. Great shooter but stay broken most of the time.