- 8.8/10198 votesLoading...8.8/10(198)Loading...
#1 - Two Ounces of Tin
Season 4 Episode 21
Aired 2/19/1962
Sammy Davis Jr. stars as Tip Corey, son of a man allegedly murdered in North Fork.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.7/10256 votesLoading...8.7/10(256)Loading...
#2 - The Sheridan Story
Season 1 Episode 16
Aired 1/13/1959
Frank Blandon, a man with only one good arm, wanders on to the ranch. Lucas gave Blandon a job to ""hire him and Mark a clear conscience"". General Sheridan and his patrol wandered by and Lucas offered to let them stay the night at the ranch. Blandon pulled a gun on General Sheridan, as it turned out Blandon was a confederate soldier, who once had General Sheridan in his gun sight during the war. Blandon hung fire, but Sheridan did not hesitate and blew out Blandon's shoulder. General Sheridan shamed Blandon out of exacting his revenge, then lifted Blandon's spirit by praising Johnny Rebs' fighting spirit. Sheridan ordered that Blandon be taken to a hospital to have his shoulder properly mended, carrying out his Commander in Chief's last order to ""Bind up the Nation's wounds.""
Director: N/A
Writer: Cyril Hume
- 8.7/10154 votesLoading...8.7/10(154)Loading...
#3 - Death Trap
Season 3 Episode 33
Aired 5/9/1961
Lucas recognizes Dr. Simon Battle as an ex-gunslinger with whom he once traded shots.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.7/10171 votesLoading...
- 8.6/10171 votesLoading...8.6/10(171)Loading...
#5 - The Money Gun
Season 1 Episode 33
Aired 5/12/1959
When his employer begins to suspect him of embezzlement, bookkeeper Asa Manning decides to hire a professional gunman to take care of the problem.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writer: Sam Peckinpah, Bruce Geller
- 8.5/10449 votesLoading...8.5/10(449)Loading...
#6 - The Sharpshooter
Season 1 Episode 1
Aired 9/30/1958
Lucas McCain and his son Mark arrive in North Fork, New Mexico. Looking to start a new life, they come across a ranch to their liking, which is for sale. Lucas enters a Turkey Shoot in hopes of winning the down payment for the ranch. Jim Lewis, the man who runs North Fork, has bet on Vernon, a young gun he brought in, to win. When talk of Lucas' reputation back in the Nations circulates around town, Mr. Lewis gets nervous and he makes trouble for Lucas by threatening Mark's life.
Director: Arnold Laven
Writer: Sam Peckinpah
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- 8.5/10302 votesLoading...8.5/10(302)Loading...
#7 - The Marshal
Season 1 Episode 4
Aired 10/21/1958
Micah Torrance, a once famous lawman, is introduced as a drunken derelict, who stumbles into North Fork. Micah, nursing an arm crippled in a gunfight, is hired by Lucas to help out at the ranch. Three outlaws ride into town looking for revenge against Micah. When they kill the sheriff, it's up to Lucas and Micah to protect North Fork. Micah becomes North Fork's full-time Marshal.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writer: Sam Peckinpah
- 8.5/10166 votesLoading...8.5/10(166)Loading...
#8 - The Deadly Wait
Season 1 Episode 26
Aired 3/24/1959
Dan Nowry, released from Yuma prison, arrives in North Fork intent on getting even with Marshal Torrance,who helped send him to jail.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.5/10106 votesLoading...8.5/10(106)Loading...
#9 - The Fourflusher
Season 2 Episode 32
Aired 5/3/1960
A sharecropper enters his colt in a horse race, hoping to win enough money to buy his farm from the owner, who has bet on Mark McCain's entry.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.5/10167 votesLoading...8.5/10(167)Loading...
#10 - Face of Yesterday
Season 3 Episode 19
Aired 1/31/1961
Lucas thinks he has seen a ghost when a young man, eerily similar to a man he killed in the Civil War, challenges him to a gunfight.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.5/10180 votesLoading...8.5/10(180)Loading...
#11 - Stopover
Season 3 Episode 31
Aired 4/25/1961
Trouble brews at Lucas's when a whisky salesman and a gunfighter fall for the same woman.
Director: Budd Boetticher
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10215 votesLoading...8.4/10(215)Loading...
#12 - The Sister
Season 1 Episode 9
Aired 11/25/1958
Rebecca Snipe is returning to North Fork after a long visit away. Before her stage left, she over hears a man saying he's going to North Fork to kill a big man with a big mouth. Upon Rebecca's arrival in North Fork, Mark is smitten with her and gets it in his head to play matchmaker between her and his pa. Thinking Lucas has intentions on their sister, the Snipe brothers come looking for Lucas to see if he measures up to their standard of being good enough for her.
Director: Montgomery Pittman
Writer: Montgomery Pittman
- 8.4/10203 votesLoading...8.4/10(203)Loading...
#13 - Young Englishman
Season 1 Episode 12
Aired 12/16/1958
Lucas accuses the young foreman of a neighboring ranch of rustling one of his calves.
Director: David Swift
Writer: Samuel A. Peeples
- 8.4/10190 votesLoading...8.4/10(190)Loading...
#14 - The Indian
Season 1 Episode 21
Aired 2/17/1959
U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart arrives in North Fork in search of renegade Indians suspected of the brutal killing of a Texas Ranger and his family, but the townspeople are suspicious of him when they discover that he too is an Indian.
Director: N/A
Writer: Cyril Hume
- 8.4/10163 votesLoading...8.4/10(163)Loading...
#15 - The Second Witness
Season 1 Episode 23
Aired 3/30/1959
Lucas puts his life in jeopardy when he agrees to testify in a murder case where the first witness was killed before he could testify, and the killer is still at large.
Director: Lewis Allen
Writer: George W. George
- 8.4/10165 votesLoading...8.4/10(165)Loading...
#16 - The Visitors
Season 2 Episode 18
Aired 1/26/1960
Lucas is drawn to a young widow passing through town on her way to claim an inheritance, but others who covet it are trying to kill her.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10145 votesLoading...8.4/10(145)Loading...
#17 - Woman From Hog Ridge
Season 3 Episode 2
Aired 10/4/1960
Lucas shoots a horse thief who turns out to be a member of the Boyle clan, and now Ma Boyle is after him.
Director: William Claxton
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10127 votesLoading...8.4/10(127)Loading...
#18 - Dead Cold Cash
Season 3 Episode 9
Aired 11/22/1960
The widow of a bandit killed by Lucas plots a grotesque revenge.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10136 votesLoading...8.4/10(136)Loading...
#19 - The Wyoming Story (2)
Season 3 Episode 21
Aired 2/14/1961
Mark heads for Wyoming to search for Lucas, who's on the trail of a gang illegally selling weapons to the Indians. (Part 2 of 2)
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10146 votesLoading...8.4/10(146)Loading...
#20 - Closer than a Brother
Season 3 Episode 22
Aired 2/21/1961
Lucas looks for answers when recovering alcoholic Micah Torrence returns to the bottle—and turns in his badge.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: Cyril Hume
- 8.4/10126 votesLoading...8.4/10(126)Loading...
#21 - Gunfire
Season 4 Episode 16
Aired 1/15/1962
When an expected lawman doesn't arrive from Denver, several gunfighters arrive in North Fork and cause trouble.
Director: Richard Donner
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10113 votesLoading...8.4/10(113)Loading...
#22 - Day of Reckoning
Season 4 Episode 28
Aired 4/9/1962
Lucas is torn by conflicting emotions when he meets the town's new preacher—a former outlaw whom the Rifleman vowed to kill.
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10172 votesLoading...8.4/10(172)Loading...
#23 - The Most Amazing Man
Season 5 Episode 9
Aired 11/26/1962
Fast-draw artist Wade Randall is less than anxious to display his prowess.
Director: Arthur H. Nadel
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10117 votesLoading...8.4/10(117)Loading...
#24 - Incident at Line Shack Six
Season 5 Episode 14
Aired 1/7/1963
A railroad gang boss frames an Apache.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10142 votesLoading...8.4/10(142)Loading...
#25 - Old Man Running (aka The Wanted Man)
Season 5 Episode 24
Aired 3/18/1963
Lucas, who blames his wife's death on his father-in-law, refuses to help the old man elude gunmen.
Director: Arthur H. Nadel
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of The Rifleman
Every episode of The Rifleman ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Rifleman!
The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was...
Genres:Action & AdventureWesternFamily
Network:ABC
Episodes
168
Avg. Rating
8.0
S1
S2
S3
S4
E1
E2
E3
8.5
8.1
8.1
8.3
8.1
8.0
8.4
8.3
8.3
8.3
7.8
8.3
Best Episodes Summary
"Two Ounces of Tin" is the best rated episode of "The Rifleman". It scored 8.8/10 based on 198 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 2/19/1962. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Sheridan Story".