and now for something completely different [View All]

[iverglas]

I often wake up of a Saturday morning and flick on AMC to watch an episode of The Rifleman. When I was a kid, it was a tradition: a half hour of The Rifleman with the traditional Saturday night after-supper snack, followed by interminable hours of Hockey Night in Canada with potato chips (and a library book) to alleviate the boredom.


http://luckypuppyoddfacts.com/TVMovies.html

So ... what is it? (Never mind the smirking Chuck Connors; many people can't stand to look at him, so I apologize in advance.)

An episode this morning had a stereotypical little English fellow with the new-fangled rifle he had invented wanting to kill Chuck Connors in a shootout in order to make his name and fortune. He referred to Connors' Winchester as "ring-fired", I believe, which is obvious from the pictures/video.

He also fires from the hip ... something everyone here advises against, of course, as likely to result in inaccuracy, those pistol grips some regard as being problematic thus being no problem at all because no one would ever fire from the hip when attempting to, oh, subdue a crowd of people in order to, oh, rob a bank or escape ... but I digress.

The site I lifted that pic from refers to it as "a Winchester carbine with an enlarged trigger guard (like that of Rooster Cogburn, in the 1969 film True Grit)". (Oh yeah, at 9:30, if you haven't already, you really quickly switch over to CBC News, or hit play on your East Enders tape, or something, lest you catch the beginning of the 36 hours of John Wayne that AMC has lined up for you.)

The classic opening sequence, bangbangbangbang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whG709cszo4

I see someone there seems to have mistaken the implement for a shotgun, which I was trying to figure out myself until I looked at it closely and saw only one firing barrel -- so okay, what is that reinforcement bit?


Do people still put rings on their Winchesters? Is it legal? ;)


I'll take this opportunity to mention again that if anybody should ever feel the irresistible impulse to gift me with a firearm thingy, something along these lines would be most appreciated:



Just give me notice so I can get the appropriate permit first!