diff --git a/docs/api-guide/viewsets.md b/docs/api-guide/viewsets.md
index 1062cb32c..4fdd9364d 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/viewsets.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/viewsets.md
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ The actions provided by the `ModelViewSet` class are `.list()`, `.retrieve()`,
 
 #### Example
 
-Because `ModelViewSet` extends `GenericAPIView`, you'll normally need to provide at least the `queryset` and `serializer_class` attributes.  For example:
+Because `ModelViewSet` extends `GenericAPIView`, you'll normally need to provide at least the `queryset` and `serializer_class` attributes, or the `model` attribute shortcut.  For example:
 
     class AccountViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
         """
diff --git a/docs/topics/release-notes.md b/docs/topics/release-notes.md
index f9ad55f76..e6085f592 100644
--- a/docs/topics/release-notes.md
+++ b/docs/topics/release-notes.md
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ You can determine your currently installed version using `pip freeze`:
 
 * Add in choices information for ChoiceFields in response to `OPTIONS` requests.
 * Added `pre_delete()` and `post_delete()` method hooks.
+* Bugfix: Responses without any content no longer include an HTTP `'Content-Type'` header.
 * Bugfix: Correctly handle validation errors in PUT-as-create case, responding with 400.
 
 ### 2.3.9
diff --git a/rest_framework/response.py b/rest_framework/response.py
index 5877c8a3e..1dc6abcf6 100644
--- a/rest_framework/response.py
+++ b/rest_framework/response.py
@@ -61,6 +61,10 @@ class Response(SimpleTemplateResponse):
             assert charset, 'renderer returned unicode, and did not specify ' \
             'a charset value.'
             return bytes(ret.encode(charset))
+
+        if not ret:
+            del self['Content-Type']
+
         return ret
 
     @property
diff --git a/rest_framework/tests/test_renderers.py b/rest_framework/tests/test_renderers.py
index 76299a890..f7de8fd72 100644
--- a/rest_framework/tests/test_renderers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/tests/test_renderers.py
@@ -64,11 +64,16 @@ class MockView(APIView):
 
 
 class MockGETView(APIView):
-
     def get(self, request, **kwargs):
         return Response({'foo': ['bar', 'baz']})
 
 
+class EmptyGETView(APIView):
+    renderer_classes = (JSONRenderer,)
+
+    def get(self, request, **kwargs):
+        return Response(status=status.HTTP_204_NO_CONTENT)
+
 class HTMLView(APIView):
     renderer_classes = (BrowsableAPIRenderer, )
 
@@ -90,6 +95,7 @@ urlpatterns = patterns('',
     url(r'^jsonp/nojsonrenderer$', MockGETView.as_view(renderer_classes=[JSONPRenderer])),
     url(r'^html$', HTMLView.as_view()),
     url(r'^html1$', HTMLView1.as_view()),
+    url(r'^empty$', EmptyGETView.as_view()),
     url(r'^api', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework'))
 )
 
@@ -219,6 +225,16 @@ class RendererEndToEndTests(TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(resp.content, RENDERER_B_SERIALIZER(DUMMYCONTENT))
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, DUMMYSTATUS)
 
+    def test_204_no_content_responses_have_no_content_type_set(self):
+        """
+        Regression test for #1196
+
+        https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/1196
+        """
+        resp = self.client.get('/empty')
+        self.assertEqual(resp.get('Content-Type', None), None)
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, status.HTTP_204_NO_CONTENT)
+
 
 _flat_repr = '{"foo": ["bar", "baz"]}'
 _indented_repr = '{\n  "foo": [\n    "bar",\n    "baz"\n  ]\n}'