What was the advantage of the sawn off rifle, “Mare’s Leg” that Josh Randall carried? He bought, and carried in his belt .45/70 s, but I’ve been given to understand that the Mares leg was chambered for .30/.30.
He rarely aims the damn ting, just throws a lot of lead in the general direction of his target. Being TV, of course he nails them every time.
The justification was that he could holster the rifle, but there was absolutely no advantage. The rifle was just a gimmick. Randall wore .45/70s because they were bigger and looked better on camera.
There were more than 25 westerns on TV at one point (1959-1960) and the producers desperately tried everything to differentiate one from another, including guns.
The Rifleman used the large ring to turn a Winchester into a machine gun.
Yancy Derringer packed a guess-what in his tall hat, while Bat Masterson used both a derringer AND a cane to beat the bad guys. Paladin in Have Gun Will Travel carried a derringer in his belt buckle, in addition to his cool, carved handle revolver.
The Adventures of Jim Bowie replaced the gun with a knife, which the hero could throw about as far as a bullet could travel.
The Rebel used a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, which would have been even less accurate than Josh Randall.
In an episode of Tombstone Territory the good guys, the bad guys, and ANOTHER set of bad guys do battle over a Gatling gun.
They’re more concealable better for horseback. The enlarged lever works better with gloves.
Making one by cutting down a rifle is a super felony without tax stamps. But several manufacturers make them now which are legally pistols.
Regarding caliber, per Wikipedia it was a .44-40, mostly obsolete today:
One could argue that he gained some advantages in knock-down power from the sealed chamber action and longer barrel (when compared to, say, a S&W New Model 3 revolver). The capacity was only six rounds, so no big advantage there.