When the store clerk is teaching Kioga how to shoot the rifle, he tells Kioga to fire it from the shoulder due to the recoil. The actor is holding a Model 1892 Winchester, which was a replacement for the Model 1873 that would have been used at the time of Gunsmoke. However, both models fired pistol cartridges that had very little felt recoil when fired from a rifle, and these rifles can easily be fired from the hip or otherwise off the shoulder.