Secrets Of TV’s The Rifleman: More Than Just Guns And Good Times

Interesting Coincidence

Johnny Crawford later played a sheriff in the series The Big Valley. In one of the episodes, he made a particularly symbolic gesture by handing a rifle to an outlaw who was pretending to be a returned sheriff. The moment was significant because the rifle looked very similar to the one that his character’s father, Lucas McCain, from The Rifleman used. McCain’s rifle was an 1892 .44-40 Winchester. The American western series The Big Valley aired from 1965 to 1969 and starred Barbara Stanwyck as the wealthy, strong and tough widow of a 19th century rancher in California.