Does anyone know the weight of the rifle McCain uses? And does anyone know if there was a "prop" rifle used on the set that may have been lighter? It appears to me that at times McCain is handling that rifle as though it were a toothpick. Is it possible that they used a much lighter substitute for the physical scenes?
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Here is a website that may answer some of your questions
http://www.riflemansrifle.com/the_riflemans_rifle.htm
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http://www.riflemansrifle.com/the_riflemans_rifle.htm
It appears to me that at times McCain is handling that rifle as though it were a toothpick. Is it possible that they used a much lighter substitute for the physical scenes?
Well Lucas was a pretty strong dude.
More to the point, Chuck Connors was a six foot six former professional athlete.
An 1892 Winchester to such a man is almost as easy to handle as a majorette's baton.
In 1966 I visited the set of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." at MGM. The prop guy invited me into his prop trailer and showed me all the guns. There were the real ones, then there were duplicates molded from compressed leather and colored black that were used for dropping or throwing, so as not to damage the real guns. Leather was used instead of rubber because it would've looked silly if someone dropped a gun and it bounced. The sound of a metal gun hitting the floor or the ground would be added to the soundtrack later.
shareI wonder why they didn’t use wood. Maybe the leather was more durable or looked better?
shareI don't know the actual answer to why they didn't make the fake guns out of wood, but perhaps wood would be more likely to break when dropped or thrown. The hard leather guns seemed to be pretty resilient. Just a guess.
shareI don’t know about the Rifleman in particular but it is common to have “hero props” that are well detailed that are used in closeups and then cheaper copies for far away shots or for extras in the background. Star Trek had hero phasers for main characters like Kirk and cheaper looking props for other characters. There were a few hero versions of the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard and a bunch of others they beat the hell out of.
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