Trouble was, of course, Ithaca had to wait until Browning’s patent-owned by Remington-expired before it could utilize the features of the shotgun, so not much could be done until 1932. It eventually chose a design patented by John Browning in 1915 and put forth as the Remington Model 17, a contemporary of the Winchester Model 12 that everyone seemed to want at the time. Ithaca needed to come up with a magazine-fed shotgun to hold its share of the marketplace. The company enjoyed some success during the Edwardian latter years of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, but mechanization and technology continued its relentless pursuit of all things efficient at the expense of all things aesthetic. By 1887 Baker had left Ithaca, and McIntyre, Vanatter and L.H. Baker was a longtime gunsmith of good reputation for design and execution, but like many gunsmiths he had relatively little capital to work with, which sent him on an endless search for underwriters. Founded in 1883 in Ithaca, N.Y., by William Henry Baker, Dwight McIntyre and John Vanatta, its original plan was to build fine double-barrel shotguns. Like most gun companies, the Ithaca Gun Company has had a checkered path in terms of successes and failures.
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