The Retired Gun

"The Retired Gun" is the 17th episode of The Rifleman Season One and the 17th episode overall. Directed by Arnold Laven and written by Barney Slater, it aired on January 20, 1959.
==Synopsis==
A renowned gunfighter comes to North Fork to retire from gunfighting and live a simple life, in order to make his wife happy.
==Watch==
==Plot==
Famous retired gunfighter Wes Carney and his newlywed wife Clair arrive in North Fork intending to settle down in North Fork. They go over to Lucas's ranch, and Lucas reunites with Claire, who was one of Lucas's wife's dearest friends.
Over coffee inside the house, Wes tells Lucas about how he retired from gunfighting and took off his guns because Clair didn't like him being a gunfighter and now he's looking for another job. Wes received an offer to take over the marshal's job at Bolton City, but he turned it down because Clair thought it would just be another name for gunfighting. Lucas suggests that Wes buy a feed and grain store that's for sale in town. Clair expresses delight in the idea, and Wes kind of reluctantly goes along with it.
Downtown, Wes is setting up his new feed and grain store when a gang of five outlaws who know Wes ride up and chastise him, and claim to be moving to North Fork. Later, the outlaw gang continue to harass and belittle Wes and Clair and egg him on. One of them, Clyde, hands a gun to tempt Wes to a shootout, but Lucas interrupts before Wes can take the gun, gets the gang to leave and walks Clair and Wes back to the store.
Some time later, the outlaw gang enters Wes's store and harass him, destroy his merchandise, and take him out back where they whip him. Wes goes to Lucas's ranch afterwards, where Lucas helps him with lashes as Wes tells him about how he gave up his trade of gunfighting to make Claire happy. Claire then arrives at the ranc, and Wes tells her to stay out of the situation and let him handle it his own way, but she tells him that she already went and told Marshal Torrance what happened. Claire says that the outlaw gang have the whole town gagged, and it's up to Wes to bring charges to stop them.
Wes, Claire and Lucas go to the Marshal's office and Wes tells Micah that he's ready to press charges against the gang for the assault, but Micah says it's not even worth it because the gang killed a man at the saloon just the night before. He says nobody would volunteer to be deputy, and the gang are basically taking over the town. When Wes seems to want to volunteer to be deputized, Claire makes him go back to the store.
Lucas and Micah go out into the street to face up to Bailey and the gang, but Lucas then quickly goes back to the feed and grain store to tell Wes and Clair that he and Micah are facing up to the gang alone. Lucas starts telling him a story about an Indian fighter name Tom Hardesty who fell in love with a woman who would only marry him on the condition that he gave up his trade. Tom put down his guns, but one day a mail stage that Tom previously was tasked with guarding the route of was raided and everyone in it killed. Tom and his wife barely spoke after that and he lost all his own self-respect and the respect to his wife. Claire accuses him of making the story up, and Lucas leaves and goes back to join Micah in the street.
As Lucas and Micah approach the gang, suddenly Wes runs out of his store with his old gun and joins Lucas and Micah. Wes, Lucas, and Micah together are able to shoot down all five of the gang and Wes takes a bullet to the shoulder nonfatally. Claire reunites with Wes, and cheerfully tells Lucas that Wes is going to take the Marshal's job in Bolton City after all.
After they walk off, Micah asks Lucas why they changed their mind, and Lucas tells him about the story he told them, revealing that he did make it up after all.
==Cast==
===Main===
*Lucas McCain - Chuck Connors
*Mark McCain - Johnny Crawford
*Micah Torrance - Paul Fix
===Guests===
*Wes Carney - Robert Webber
*Clair Carney - Eileen Harley
*Clyde Bailey - Jack Kruschen
*Morgan Bailey - Herman Rudin
*Owny Kincaid - John Anderson
*Jeff Wallace - Duke Snider
*Mr. Moody - Joe Mell
==Trivia==
* At one point, Lucas refers to the outlaw gang as "Oat Jackford and his boys." Oat Jackford does not appear in this episode, so it's possible this was a slip up by Chuck Connors.
==Footnotes==
Category:Episodes
Category:Season One episodes
Category:Episode pages with completed plot sections
Category:Episodes where Lucas kills someone
Category:Episode pages with overly long plot summaries