Mare's Leg

The Mare's Leg (also known as the "Winchester Randall" or "Randall Special") is the name given to a customized shortened Winchester Model 1892 lever-action rifle wielded by Steve McQueen's character Josh Randall in the 1958 American Western television series "Wanted: Dead or Alive". The show's original version of the Mare's Leg was designed by Kenny "Von Dutch" Howard; it was made by shortening the barrel and butt-stock of a .44-40 caliber Model 1892. McQueen also contributed to the final design by suggesting the additions of a duck-bill hammer and enlarged lever loop. Since its television debut, several derivatives of the gun have been featured in other TV shows, films and video games. Because of its popularity, "Mare's Leg" has since become a generic term for any Model 1892 or similar rifle with a shortened barrel and stock.

Although the standard Model 1892 was technically developed after America's "Wild West" period had ended, the weapon became a fixture of American frontier fiction after appearing in hundreds of Western-themed movies and television programs. Its ubiquity in film over more authentic frontier-era rifles like the Winchester Model 1873 and Model 1876 was due to the Model 1892's widespread availability during the early-to-mid twentieth century.

Perhaps due to its resemblance to "sawed-off" short-barreled shotguns, firearms modeled after the Mare's Leg are sometimes depicted as chambered for firing shot shells as opposed to rifle- or handgun-caliber ammunition.