Good flick, of which I happen to have a copy and have watched it many times. When Bo Dorn [Brad Johnson's character] goes to murder the young cowboy Langston, Dorn rolls the bullet in the creases of both sides of his nose - to lubricate it a bit.
One gets a good view of the cartridge that's considerably shorter than a .45/70 altho it does look to be approximate .45 cal. I agree the rifle was an early bolt gun of some kind.
Also of late I've also been studying the .460 Smith & Wesson cartidge as a candidate to shoot in a single-shot Encore or Handi-Rifle ..... (along with the .45 Colt or .454C artridges, and possibly even the .410 shotshell).
Bo Dorn's sniper round appears to be roughly the same size as the .460S&W, but I don't know what it actually is either.
Been a long time since I read Louis L'Amour's book. Did he write about the rifle and cartridge? Something L'Amour was always good at was documenting equipment, or person, or events or places (even intricate land characterisitcs) as accurate!
Another of L'Amour's books was "The Fergussen Rifle," about a rifle owned by a British major during the Revolutionary War.
