8.3/10144 votes#1 - The Vaqueros
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/1961
A bandit imprisons Lucas and Mark.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/10115 votes
#2 - First Wages
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/1961
Lucas tries to find out why Mark has taken a job as a stableboy.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: Ed Adamson
- 8.3/10124 votes
#3 - Sheer Terror
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 9/16/1961
Mark and Milly are held prisoner in her general store when two gunmen attempt a daring robbery.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/10108 votes
#4 - The Stand-In
Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 10/23/1961
Lucas is taken hostage by two prison wagon drivers angered that he won't give them more whiskey.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/10111 votes
#5 - The Journey Back
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1961
Mark goes to work for Will Temple, a badly scarred and very mysterious rancher.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: Herman Groves
- 8.2/10137 votes
#6 - The Decision
Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 11/6/1961
Corey Hazlett insists he's innocent of murder, despite Lucas's eyewitness testimony.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: Ed Adamson
- 7.7/10124 votes
#7 - Knight Errant
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 11/13/1961
Lucas tries to dissuade a latter-day knight from rushing into battle.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: Ed Adamson
- 7.8/10137 votes
#8 - Honest Abe
Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 11/20/1961
Able Lincoln's claim that he's the Great Emancipator himself amuses everyone except Matt Yorty.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/10110 votes
#9 - The Long Goodbye
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 11/27/1961
Stubborn Grandpa Fogarty is Lucas's main roadblock as he tries to get young Woody Fogarty to attend school.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/10140 votes
#10 - The Shattered Idol
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1961
Mark Twain visits Southfork, and quickly alienates the townspeople.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/10127 votes
#11 - Long Gun From Tucson
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/1961
Lucas tries to stop embittered John Holliver from venting his wrath on the people who expelled him from town years before.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/10132 votes
#12 - The High Country
Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 12/18/1961
Lucas becomes the target of a vengeful mountaineer.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/10103 votes
#13 - A Friend in Need
Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 12/25/1961
Mark finds himself the unwilling companion of gunman Carl Avery.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/10119 votes
#14 - Skull
Season 4 Episode 14 - Aired 1/1/1962
Lucas seeks an escape when he's captured by outlaws while seeking help for an injured Mark.
Director: William Claxton
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/10127 votes
#15 - The Princess
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 1/8/1962
The Queen-to-be of France hides out in Northfork.
Director: Robert Butler
Writer: N/A
- 8.5/10121 votes
#16 - 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
- 8.4/10126 votes
#17 - The Quiet Fear
Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 1/22/1962
Lucas's old Army pal settles in North Fork with his deaf daughter.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
7.6/10108 votes#18 - Sporting Chance
Season 4 Episode 18 - Aired 1/29/1962
An Englishman arrives with a custom-made rifle—and a plan to kill Lucas.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
8.3/10145 votes#19 - A Young Man's Fancy
Season 4 Episode 19 - Aired 2/5/1962
The pangs of first love are painful for Mark: the object of his affections has eyes for another.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Writer: N/A
8.3/10118 votes#20 - The Man from Salinas
Season 4 Episode 20 - Aired 2/12/1962
Banker Hamilton is closing up for the day when Rudy Gray persuades him to stay open for one more transaction - a withdrawal at gunpoint.
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
Writer: N/A
8.8/10192 votes#21 - 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
7.7/10125 votes#22 - Deadly Image
Season 4 Episode 22 - Aired 2/26/1962
Lucas has double trouble: his lookalike is tearing up the town.
Director: Richard Donner
Writer: N/A
8.2/10113 votes#23 - The Debt
Season 4 Episode 23 - Aired 3/5/1962
Mark learns that the prisoner Micah is escorting to the gallows is the man that saved his life three years previously.
Director: Richard Donner
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/10127 votes
#24 - The Tinhorn
Season 4 Episode 24 - Aired 3/12/1962
Mark is shocked when he discovers that his father is a poker player.
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
Writer: Paul Mazursky
- 7.7/10123 votes
#25 - None So Blind
Season 4 Episode 25 - Aired 3/19/1962
Mark befriends singer-banjoist Lafayette Bly, a blind man with an acute sense of hearing—and a very strong grip.
Director: N/A
Writer: Cyril Hume
The Best Episodes of The Rifleman Season 4
Every episode of The Rifleman Season 4 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Rifleman Season 4!
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
Season 4 Ratings Summary
"The Vaqueros" is the best rated episode of "The Rifleman" season 4. It scored 8.3/10 based on 144 votes. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis and written by N/A, it aired on 10/2/1961. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "First Wages".