I read somewhere that his rifle was rigged so that every time he cycled the loop to reload and returned to the cocked position it automatically fired. Watching this video it doesn't seem to be true in some instances he cycles the rife and takes aim to fire a shot.

 

He had a screw in the trigger guard. When it was screwed in it tripped the trigger each time. When screwed out he could shoot the gun normally. Watching this, I think he had heat seeking bullets since that barrel wobbles all over the place yet he always scored. In that one "quarto" scene where four guys died, the main dude packs two Colt Buntlines.

 

Yet he couldn't hit a curveball.

 

I vividly remember Micah, the sheriff, having to shotgun a bad guy cause Lucas was unconscious on the town street. Micah only had the use of one arm due to a stroke, IIRC. Watch reruns early saturday mornings before the rest of the house awakens

 

You never see empty shells eject when he rapid fires. And he rarely reloads.

 

As a young lad, I remember I had a rifle just like his. It was rigged with a little tab on the lever loop that when pulled out would fire the rifle every time it was cycled. The ammo consisted of spring loaded bullets. The projectiles would fire out the barrel, and the empty case would eject out the top. It was a grand piece for a kid like me at age 7 or 8.I also remember a series with Chuck Connors set in Africa. I think it was called "Africa Texas Style" or something like that. It was about Texas ranchers running a spread in Africa. Chuck carried a Colt "Peace maker" with Stag stocks, and a very sharp leather rig. I also had the toy replica of that set up as a kid. All metal gun, leather holster. The gun shot caps, and the name of the series was embossed on the holster. Fun memories of playing with those toys back in the day.

 

As a young lad, I remember I had a rifle just like his. It was rigged with a little tab on the lever loop that when pulled out would fire the rifle every time it was cycled. The ammo consisted of spring loaded bullets. The projectiles would fire out the barrel, and the empty case would eject out the top. It was a grand piece for a kid like me at age 7 or 8.I also remember a series with Chuck Connors set in Africa. I think it was called "Africa Texas Style" or something like that. It was about Texas ranchers running a spread in Africa. Chuck carried a Colt "Peace maker" with Stag stocks, and a very sharp leather rig. I also had the toy replica of that set up as a kid. All metal gun, leather holster. The gun shot caps, and the name of the series was embossed on the holster. Fun memories of playing with those toys back in the day.

I think those toy guns are on this search page. Including that Africa show.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Chu...e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=6jftUv7kNZD0oASU7IDQAQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&biw=1829&bih=866

 

It always pained me that he was so frowned upon by media that he met with Russian leader Brezhnev, presented him with a pair of Colt's that he used in "Branded" and was ostracized for doing so. It always hurt him that this had occurred.

The Rifleman meets Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

 

Yup that is them.

 

He "re-killed" some of those character actors so many times through the series seasons he needed a case of 44-40's to keep them down!

 

Wow........ Now that was some shooting. "The Rifleman" was one of my favorites, too, back in the day. Not all rifle handiwork, though. I counted at least four times he clocked the bad guy with a six-gun, and once with an axe or sledge hammer, too. I noticed close to the end of the flick he even fired from his right hip. But I really gotta give the pitch fork it's due.

 

A side note about the rifles used on the "rifleman", as I remember it there were 3 different ones used in case of a breakdown.2 were winchesters & one was an "El Tigre" all '92's,Rodd Redwing worked on this series a lot as a technical adviser & sometimes actor,Rodd told me he was responsible for the design of the trigger set adjustment from single fire to rapid fire,if you'll observe closely in the rapid fire sequence his trigger finger is wrapped around the trigger guard so he won't get stabbed by the trigger when the lever is slammed shut like he would if his finger was IN the trigger guard.

 

When I was a kid I had a toy rifleman rifle and the half sword from Branded. Jim

 

IIRC the Chuck Conner's series about Africa was titled: "Cowboy in Africa." There was a movie by that name also and I'm inclined to think he starred in both.

 

Africa Texas Style, ( 1967 ) starred Hugh O'Brien ( stag gripped SAA ). Was base for the Conner series.

 

I think I read somewhere there was some moveable part that would touch the trigger when the lever came into contact with it for quick lever firing and that part could be moved out of the way so it wouldn't touch the trigger if you didn't want rapid fire.

I would love to own an original series used rifle but they certainly would be rarer than hen's teeth.

 

I believe Chuck Connors was the only actor to star in two TV series at the same time. The westerns of that time era reflect a more innocent era and also its views about guns. The one show I don't see on cable and really miss is The Lone Ranger with
Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. Boy, what a flood of memories.

 

Trigger guard tapped for a set-screw. Chiappa offered this set-screw installed in their Rifleman comm.

 

120 dead bad guys!!! Cowboys never had to reload their guns and never lost a hat in a fight.

 

We were all luckey to grow up with tv westerns like this, todays kids don't have it good, public schools are indoctrination camps against this chapter of our history, and rappers are what passes for entrtainment.... pray for this country

 

This may be TV fantasy ,but I can tell you from experience , I can crank out those rounds real fast like from a 92 Winchester

 

It was pure TV fantasy, BUT Lucas was a very ethical & moral character who always taught his boy Mark to do the right thing no matter what the cost. That was the message it conveyed to me. As well, Chuck Connors seemed a fine man and as an actor had a little utilized penchant for comedy.


Here was a great scene of his:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ioRMsPEf8o

 

It wasn't just a screw,it was a small bolt w/an adjustable lock nut so that when turned in the end of the bolt would run into the trigger when the lever was slammed shut & fire the gun,if he was going to only shoot 1 shot the bolt was backed out so it wouldn't engage the trigger.

 

The Werewolf series was largely filmed in & around Salt Lake City.
I worked for a neighboring PD, and a good part of one episode was filmed in one of our junkyards.
I took my wife out to watch shooting one night, Connors wasn't in it by then but my wife got James Darren's autograph (actor turned director).

Couple nights later a fellow officer & I went out to the junkyard set again after they'd left for the night while we were on duty, looked around at how they'd set up various junked cars & tossed cattle bones around to make a werewolf lair.
Spent some time with their security guard, talked him into letting my buddy get a pic of me wearing the animatronic werewolf head. Looked neat in uniform. Tight fit on the head.

The following week wife & I went downtown to SLC to watch another outdoor shoot in an alley behind a bar.
Met Lance Legault (you'd know his face) during a break between scenes he was in. Outgoing type.

Got to visiting with the two prop guys, who told me one of the two leverguns the production company was using was one of the original Rifleman Winchesters. Dunno if true, but it did have the ringlever.
I had the wife ask for one of the 5-in-1 blanks fired through that gun during one scene, she was a lot cuter'n me & I thought she'd have a better chance.

The wife's long gone, but I still have that fired blank.
My tenuous brush with Hollywood firearms history.

Always meant to look up that prop company & confirm or disprove the gun, never got around to it.

Connors's character on that Werewolf series was not always really Connors.
One long shot I saw actually had him being played by a 25-year-old blonde gal too far away to see much more than the figure supposedly him in the dark lighting. Another was done with a male actor, from an angle that didn't show a face.
They tried to keep the character going even after Connors had left the show.
Denis

 

Wait now did anyone notice those very, very, very, very impossible accurate hip shots? He could hit bottles and cans off a fence of shoot apples off a tree from the hip.

Let's not forget he is in the cowboy hall of fame too.

Jerry Mckinnis is in the broadcasters hall of fame for creating bass fishing for what it s today but he actually fished. Lucas never really was in the old west.

 

Imaginary fantasy adventure in an American frontier western setting is always good entertainment for me. Westerns got better through the '70s, and some have made the true authentic grade. Most don't.
Lucas Mccain could neither keep his mouth shut nor mind his own business, which nearly always resulted in somebody gettin' their guts blown out.
And the 'righteous' moral of the story for the benefit of the impressionable young Mark Mccain seemed way out of place, in view of the murderous bloodlust that punctuated each and every episode.
In terms of gratituitous violence, the only thing lackin' was a distribution of 'pink mist' vaporized head shots. The shovel throught the skull was a nice touch, though.
The series is on, 2 episodes, every evening on the local old-time TV network, and try to catch every one I can.

 

Click here and see that trigger/lever arrangement...
Sweethearts Of The West: April 2011

And here's page two of MAD Magazine's parody of The Rifleman.
http://postimg.org/image/rfx5wk6mv/