Opinion: Mare's Leg...potentially useful deer hunting firearm or niche novelty gun? For pistol season...44 magnum Rossi Ranch Hand.?

"advantages of neither."

It takes advantage of pistol season, but with energies/range closer to a rifle.

Two advantages, and advantage over each of the other two (rifle and pistol).

I say go for it.

There are a lot of comments about aiming, but with a handgun scope, bracing a mare's leg up against a tree really is no big deal.

Ballistics would be the same as a TC Contender, with the same cartridge and barrel length.

Debate about usage always seems to boil down to how to hold a Mare's Leg for accurate shooting.

The three original Mare's Legs were never intended for accurate shooting... They were intended to make a new TV Western stand out in a large field of TV Westerns in the late 50's!

In that effort the Mare's Leg was a great success! Even today, every gun enthusiast recognizes the Mare's Leg configuration, and most know where it originated!

Is it practical? No!... never was!... Otherwise, there would be historical samples in gun collections.

With much training, coaching, practice, and custom modifications to the third Mare's Leg, Steve McQueen was able to make it perform respectably, both on and off the set... and both with blanks, and with live 44-40 ammo!

I was only 10 when "Wanted, Dead or Alive!" showed up on our Hoffman green tint TV.

Now, 57 years later, I used my meager tax return to order one of the new Chiappa 9" Mare's Leg Pistols in 45 Colt to match my many other "Old West" iron. I'm lazy, and enjoy using carbide dies with the 45, rather than the lube pad with 44-40!

Anyway, I have no illusions about stalking Mule Deer, or anything with fur, for that matter.

I will be content if I can learn to reliably hit a 25 yard clangers that the look suspiciously like the image on the wanted poster folded-up, in my vest pocket!

But that's just me... Rosland Scout, High Desert Pistoleros, Badge 59

The Mare's Leg was made popular in an early 1960's series called "Wanted Dead or Alive", with Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall, so it is much more a novelty than it will ever be a hunting, or personal protection firearms

As an open carry/sling or really small truck carbine they fill a pretty narrow niche. Certainly they are also a novelty, but that doesn't mean you can't kill a deer with one just fine. It's a good deal lighter than a 30-30 and at 50 yards if you are any good with it should work fine.

Thinkingblade

Don't confuse the Hollywood mockup gun used by Steve in the TV series. Not saying what a good custom gunsmith could have arranged "back then", but the first modifiable lever gun chambered in 45-70 as I recall, was the 1895 Marlin, still available today and often used in AFRICA on big 5 with the hot loads. I enjoy the TV series even now, as I enjoy seeing Steve getting away with mumbling lines!

Mares Leg Gun

I'm going to come down on the side of novelty.

No true pistol grip, so aiming it as a pistol is not going to be particularly easy. No true stock, so it won't shoulder.

I'd rather have a long-barreled revolver if I'm hunting deer.

I've shot deer with 44 Magnum in a Ruger Super Blackhawk and a Winchester 92 carbine. Both work fine. I see no reason for anything in between. Neither fish nor fowl, with the disadvantages of both and the advantages of neither.

I think mares legs are pretty damn cool. Never owned one, always just thought it was a neat looking deal. There are definitely more effective and useful options out there. It's definitely enough firearm to take a deer. So my answer is "a potentially useful niche novelty firearm for deer hunting." Some folks get bored with a rifle, so they try a handgun. Some folks get bored with a firearm and try a bow. A mares leg is just another one of those cures for boredom.

I cant thing of anything that a gun like that can do that couldn't be done better by either a handgun or a rifle. To me they are just a novelty, though they're a pretty cool novelty.