What the Frak Were They Thinking; Firearms Edition

First up, the "Mare's Leg" pistol. I cannot think of a reason they exist. First off, they are chambered in pistol cartridges. They hold six rounds (as do most "six-shooters" and they require two hands to use them. The Colt Peacemaker is widely regarded as one of the best-pointing guns ever made (and nobody's ever said that about a Mare's Leg).

The Mare's Leg is a Hollywood artifact. As far as I can tell, it never existed prior to the TV show "Wanted Dead Or Alive" in 1958.

The gun is a bastard. It looks like a rifle and has to be fired like a handgun. What's not to hate?

Second up: The revolving rifle/shotgun. They were popular, to some extent, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, before the development of larger-caliber cased ammunition. Once weapons such as the Spencer carbine and the Winchester/Henry rifles came along, the revolving rifle faded into history.

This was due to one glaring point: All revolvers (except the Nagant) have a gap between the cylinder and the barrel. When you fire a revolver, flame (and sometimes bits of lead) spit out from that gap. Old revolving rifles didn't have forearm stocks; a shooter would use his or her support hand to grasp the rifle in a hold very similar to a two-handed pistol hold. Otherwise, the shooter's offhand arm would be tattooed and burned by the crap spitting from the barrel-cylinder gap.

Spencer/Henry/Winchester rifles loaded their chambers from internal magazines; the barrel is solid from the rear of the chamber to the muzzle. They could be reloaded a lot faster, as well.

Why am I bringing this up? Because Rossi has brought both of those types of guns back to the market.* Which proves once again that H.L. Mencken was right.
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* Yes, I know that Uberti makes replicas of the old revolving carbines. What Rossi is making is a new rifle/shotgun that tries to glom onto marketing success of the Taurus Judge revolvers.