page_title: The Rifleman
section_title: Rifle
hierarchical_section_title: The Rifleman / Production / Rifle
caption_attribution_description: English: Rifleman's extra large lever action detail
context_page_description: The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black and white, in half-hour episodes. The Rifleman aired on ABC from September 30, 1958, to April 8, 1963, as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first prime time series on US television to show a single parent raising a child.
  The program was titled to reflect McCain's use of a Winchester Model 1892 rifle, customized to allow repeated firing by cycling its lever action. He demonstrated this technique in the opening credits of every episode, as well as a second modification that allowed him to cycle the action with one hand using a technique known as spin-cocking.
context_section_description: Westerns were popular when The Rifleman premiered, and producers tried to find gimmicks to distinguish one show from another. The Rifleman's gimmick was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle, with a large ring lever drilled and tapped for a set screw. The lever design allowed him to cock the rifle by spinning it around his hand. In addition, the screw could be positioned to depress the trigger every time he worked the lever, allowing for rapid fire, emptying the magazine in under five seconds during the opening credits on North Fork's main street. 
  The trigger-trip screw pin was used in two configurations: with the screw head turned inside (close to the trigger) or, more often, outside the trigger guard with a locknut on the outside (to secure its position). In some episodes, the screw was removed, when rapid-fire action was not required. When properly adjusted, the screw “squeezed” the trigger when the lever was fully closed. The rapid-fire mechanism was originally designed to keep Connors from puncturing his finger with the trigger as he quickly cycled the action of the rifle. With this modification, it was not necessary for Connors to pull the trigger for each shot and therefore he did not have to place his finger in harm's way.
  The rifle may have appeared in every episode, but it was not always fired; some plots did not require violent solutions (for example, one involving Mark's rigid new teacher). McCain attempts to solve as many problems as possible without resorting to shooting, yet still manages to kill 120 villains over the show's five-year run. It is notable that McCain almost never carried a pistol, although he is a good shot with it especially when he improvised a crude gunstock for one when facing a villain who had stolen his rifle. 
  The rifle was an anachronism, as the show was set 12 years before John Browning designed any such rifle.
  The rifle used on the set of The Rifleman, an 1892 Winchester caliber .44-40 carbine with a standard 20-inch barrel, appeared with two different types of lever. The backwards, round-D-style loop was used in the early episodes. Sometimes the rifle McCain uses has a saddle ring. The lever style later changed to a flatter lever (instead of the large loop) with no saddle ring.
  McCain fires 12 shots from his rifle during the opening credits: seven shots in the first close-up and five more as the camera switches to another view. The blank cartridges are shorter than standard cartridges, so the magazine will hold more of the blanks. The soundtrack contained a dubbed 12th shot, to allow the firing to end with a section of the theme music. The rifle was chambered for the .44-40 W.C.F. (Winchester Center Fire) cartridge, which was used in both revolvers and rifles. He could supposedly fire off his first round in three-tenths of a second, which certainly helped in a showdown.
  Gunsmith James S. Stembridge modified two Model 1892s for use in regular and close-up filming. In addition, a Spanish-made Gárate y Anitúa "El Tigre" lever action, a near-copy of the Model 1892, was modified for use as a knockabout gun. The El Tigre is seen in scenes where the rifle is in a saddle scabbard and is not drawn; and in stunts where the rifle was thrown to the ground, used as a club, or in any stunt where there was the possibility of damage to the original Winchester 1892s. These three rifles were the only ones used by Connors during the run of the series.
  The now-defunct Stembridge Gunsmiths provided the rifles and ammunition. Ammunition was quarter-load 5-in-1 blank cartridges containing smokeless powder, which did not produce the thick clouds of smoke the genuine black powder cartridges of the 1880s did. Most (if not all) of the sound effects for the rifle shots were dubbed, which is why the rifle sounded so different from the other gunshots on the show.
  The 1892 Winchester is a top-eject rifle (opening the action by pushing the finger-lever forward moves the bolt rearward and thereby opens the top of the receiver). Loaded rounds or empty cases from the chamber eject straight up when the lever is pu
caption: Large lever firing loop on the Rifleman's rifle
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