Welcome to right now’s Photo of the Day! This beat-up Winchester 1892 doesn’t appear like a lot till you notice it’s the gun that launched Steve McQueen into stardom. Initially a normal 1918-manufactured rifle, it was chopped down into this distinctive “Mare’s Leg” configuration for McQueen’s position as bounty hunter Josh Randall in “Wished Useless or Alive.” The story begins with McQueen and his buddy Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard cooking up this wild thought in Von Dutch’s LA store round 1958. Take a lever-action rifle and switch it into one thing you could possibly put on in your hip. They sawed the barrel right down to 9 inches and reduce the inventory again to a pistol grip, creating what McQueen referred to as “the ability and accuracy of a rifle with the mobility and straightforward dealing with of a revolver.”
The title supposedly got here from McQueen’s vary classes with reside ammo. With no inventory to brace in opposition to, that brief barrel would buck like a mare’s leg. Even the quarter-load blanks used on set packed sufficient punch that the muzzle blast turned a priority throughout filming. This gun modified firearms tradition. The “Mare’s Leg” turned so common that toy firms began making replicas, and actual variations turned sought-after collector objects regardless of the NFA paperwork complications. Right this moment, a number of producers nonetheless produce “Mare’s Leg” pistols to keep away from short-barreled rifle restrictions.
The present solely ran three seasons, however this gun’s affect was everlasting. Not unhealthy for what began as a “gimmick” to assist promote a TV pilot.
Most of our POTDs make the most of photographs from our pals at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms public sale in the US. Take a while to browse their current auctions – who is aware of, perhaps you’ll discover a piece of historical past to take dwelling!
“Steve McQueen Display Used Winchester Mannequin 1892 ‘Mare’s Leg’.” Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/element/4095/44/steve-mcqueen-screen-used-winchester-model-1892-mares-leg. Accessed 12 Aug. 2025.
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