TV 22 - Rifleman Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Old TV Shows Series
These caches are named after some of our favorite old TV shows from the 50's, 60's and 70's. We hope they bring back some good memories. All are hidden along a frontage road. For the easiest parking, start at TV 1 and you will be on the right side of the roadway.
The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black-and-white, 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 to have a widowed parent raise a child. Main cast Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, a rancher, Union Army veteran of the American Civil War and widowed father Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain, Lucas' son Paul Fix as Micah Torrance, marshal of North Fork The series centered around Lucas McCain, a widowed Union Civil War veteran (a lieutenant in the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment) and a homesteader. McCain and his son Mark lived on a ranch outside the fictitious town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. Rifle The Rifleman's rifle was the modified Winchester 1892 that Lucas McCain always carried. As with the guns in many Western movies, it is anachronistic as it is shown being used before it was manufactured in reality (in this case about twenty years before). The unique feature of the Rifleman's rifle was a screw pin attached to a large loop lever positioned to trip the trigger when the ring was slammed home; this allowed Lucas to rapid-fire the rifle similar to a semi-automatic rifle. 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. McCain fires 12 shots from his 11-round rifle during the opening credits: seven shots in the first closeup and five more as the camera switches to another view. The soundtrack contained a dubbed 13th shot, to allow the firing to end with a section of the theme music. The rifle was chambered in .44-40 caliber, which could be used as six-gun cartridges or rifle rounds. He could supposedly fire off his first round in three-tenths of a second, which certainly helped in a showdown. The 1892 Winchester caliber .44-40 carbine with a standard 20-inch barrel used on the set of The Rifleman appeared with two different types of levers. The backwards, round-D-style loop was used in the early episodes. Sometimes the rifle he used had a saddle ring. The style later changed to a flatter lever (instead of the large loop) with no saddle ring. The 8-32 set screw 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 Connors had the screw head turned inside close to the trigger, but he mostly had it on the outside of the trigger guard. In some episodes, the screw was taken out completely when rapid-fire action was not required. The rapid-fire mechanism was originally designed to keep Connors' finger from getting punctured by the trigger as he quickly fired and cocked the rifle. The rifle and ammunition were provided by the now-defunct Stembridge Gunsmiths. Bullets were quarter-load 5-in-1 blank cartridges. 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 rifle holds 11 shots, although a 12th shot was dubbed in to the show's opening scene. The 1892 Winchester is a top-eject rifle (the top is open when the lever is cocked forward). The empty shells are ejected straight up when the lever is pulled towards the shooter. When the rifle was swing-cocked down to Connors' side, the cartridges would have fallen to the ground. Therefore, the rifle was modified with a plunger which would hold a bullet in place. The 1892 Winchester rifle, a descendant of the Henry rifle and 1866 "Yellow Boy" rifles, was made from 1892 to 1941; total production was over one million. Many variations and calibers were introduced over the course of production, but the basic design was largely unaltered. Winchester made 27 different variations of its 1892 rifle. Like the earlier 1873 model, the light and handy Model 1892 was chambered for what are thought of today as handgun power cartridges.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures