The Rifleman's Rifle

"The Rifleman's Rifle" was the modified Winchester 1892 that Lucas McCain, as portrayed by Chuck Connors, always carried in the television series The Rifleman.

The Rifleman

The Rifleman was the saga of Lucas McCain, a homesteader in the Old West struggling to make a living off his ranch and make a man out of his son, Mark. Chuck Connors, a former professional baseball player, won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lucas, and young Johnny Crawford, a former Mousketeer, was also started on a successful career by this series. The series ran from September 30, 1958 to July 1, 1963 for a total of 168 episodes and the rifle was a key feature in each episode.

The setting was the town of North Fork, New Mexico, whose Marshall Micah Torrance (Paul Fix) seemed incapable of handling any of the numerous desperadoes who infested the series (as they did all western series) without the help of Lucas. Unlike most men of the era who would have handled the situation with a six shooter, Lucas McCain chose to use his modified Winchester with a large ring which cocked as he drew. Supposedly, he could fire off his first round in three-tenths of a second, which certainly helped in a showdown.

Modified Winchester 1892

The 1892 Winchester caliber .44-.40 carbine with a standard 20” barrel that was used on the set of The Rifleman appeared in basically two different style levers. The backwards round D style loop was used in the early episodes. Sometimes the rifle he used had a saddle ring.

The style changed to a more flattened lever instead of the large circle loop. This one had no saddle ring. The 8/32”set screw that was tapped through the trigger guard for the rapid fire action also came in different styles. Some were silver; others were black with a silver nut under the head of the screw. Sometimes Chuck Connors had the screw head turned inside close to the trigger. Most of the times he had it on the outside of the trigger guard. In some of the episodes the screw was taken out completely when rapid fire action was not needed.

This rapid fire mechanism was designed originally just to keep Chuck Connor's finger from getting punctured by the trigger as he fired and cocked the rifle very fast. The role demanded that. To have a rifle modified in this way certainly presents a safety hazard since the gun will fire in a semiautomatic fashion as the lever is cocked if the screw is turned in to initiate the trigger. The Rifleman cocked the rifle in two unique fashions. He spin cocked it and swing cocked it. These two cocking methods enabled Chuck Connors to cock the rifle using only one hand. The rife for the show was designed by the Stembridge Gunsmiths (no longer in existence). Ammunition used on the show was also made by Stembridge. They were five in one quarter load blanks. Most, if not all the sound effects for the rifle shots were dubbed into the footage which is why the rifle sounded so different from the other gunshots on the show. The 1892 Winchester rifle holds eleven shots, although a twelfth shot was dubbed in to the famous opening scene of the show.

Another modification was needed since the '92 rifle is a top eject and the top is completely open when the lever is cocked forward. The empty shells are then ejected straight up in the air when the lever is pulled towards you. When the rifle was swing cocked down by Chuck Connors side the rifle cartridges would have fallen to the ground when he had it upside down. So they had a rifle with a special plunger built inside that would hold a bullet in place for this trick. The 1892 Winchester rifle, a descendant of the Henry rifle and 1866 "Yellow Boy" rifles were made from 1892 until 1941 and total production was in excess of one million pieces. Many variations and calibers were introduced over the course of the 50 years production, but the basic design was largely unaltered. Winchester made 27 different variations of their 1892 rifle. Like the earlier model 1873, the light and handy Model 1892 was chambered for what are thought of today as handgun power cartridges.

Since Chuck Connors was truly ambidextrous and after much practice, he handled the rifle left-handed and right-handed with the same ease. To shoot it with rapid fire succession it takes as much force to push the lever forward and eject the shells before pulling it back to fire. It takes a lot of practice to handle it with the look of ease that Lucas McCain did.

How Many Shots?

Question: "How many shots were fired in the opening of the TV series the rifleman?"
Answer: The opening scene of The Rifleman staring Chuck Connors was edited as are all T.V. shows. The 1892 Winchester in .44/.40 caliber used on the show only holds eleven bullets. The audio track was dubbed over the video track. They are not entirely in sync. You may hear 12 or 13 shots fired in the audio portion, and you may watch him pull the lever back on the rifle a different number of times. This is what makes it a trick question. The editors could have made it look like he fired as many shots as they like by piecing the two segments of the opening scene together as they did. The difficulty with this question is that as that when the editors dubbed in the rifle sound they crammed in as many shots as they could in the given time period for the opening instead of noticing how many times Chuck Connors was pulling the lever on the rifle to fire the gun.This Q&A is from [http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_shots_were_fired_in_the_opening_of_the_tv_series_the_rifleman WikiAnswers.com] .

Stagecoach

Viewers of the John Wayne film "Stagecoach" will notice that John Wayne carries a rifle that bears a strong resemblance to the Rifleman's Rifle. This rifle was referenced when Chuck Connors and Arnold Laven were looking for design concepts for the unique rifle that would be carried by The Rifleman. It is not known if the exact rifle used in Stagecoach was eventually used and modified to become the Rifleman's rifle, however it certainly influenced the design process.

True Grit

A similar modification was also seen on a Winchester rifle that John Wayne used in the film "True Grit". This rifle was modified by Hollywood stuntman Yakima Canutt. While this rifle did have the large lever, it did not have the screw modification that enable the rapid firing. John Wayne could spin and cock the rifle, as evidenced in the final showdown of the film where he is riding horseback across the meadow.

El Dorado

In the film "El Dorado", Robert Mitchum used a modified Winchester rifle with a large lever. And when Cole Thornton(played by John Wayne) pointed out that there was "something familiar with that gun", Mitchum's character replied: "I just had it fixed up the way you had yours". That Winchester was probably the same modified rifle as seen in the film "True Grit".

References

* [http://www.riflemansrifle.com The Rifleman's Rifle]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzJ6nn7ttEE The Rifleman's Rifle demonstration on YouTube.com]
* [http://www.northforkproduction.com/theriflemansriflephotoalbum The Rifleman's Rifle Information]

External links

* [http://www.riflemansrifle.com The Rifleman's Rifle]
* [http://community.tvguide.com/thread/Video-Blogs/Rifleman-Quotshootout-Cirlce/800032852 The Rifleman's Rifle demonstration on TV Guide.com]
* [http://www.northforkproduction.com/theriflemanchuckconnors The Rifleman Chuck Connors]
* [http://www.northforkproduction.com/theriflemansriflephotoalbum Rifleman's Rifle Photos]
* [http://www.riflemanfans.com Fans of The Rifleman website]
* [http://www.northforkproduction.com/therifleman1958 The Rifleman 1958]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051308/ "The Rifleman" on IMDb]
* [http://members.tripod.com/~northfork/ The Chuck Connors Page]
* [http://www.tvparty.com/rifle.html "The Rifleman" on TV Party]
* [http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/combined "Stagecoach" on IMDb]
* [http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/combined "True Grit" on IMDb]