That movie was Monte Walsh, I forget at the moment what the rifle was (.50-110 Action Express), but Shorty's was a lever shotgun, it was also owned by Selleck, as was his own personal atire and sidearms and saddlery. He and Ben Johnson do alot of their own restoring together, and Selleck usually has restored back ups to his authentic props - I think he had over $30K in the last movie for props. I read that article too, it was well done. Goes to show ya, if you are a responsible professional, you are treated professionally by like media people.
Taken from an interview "Shorty Austin, George Eads character, has a twenty-inch barrel, 1887 Winchester lever action shot gun, and it has Wells Fargo stamped on it. It's completely accurate and it's a valuable gun. There have to be doubles because they had to be backed up.�
�A lot of the cowboys got their guns from cavalry guys because the soldiers could sell their pistols to a cowboy for enough money then go back to the post, say that they lost it and they could replace it at a much cheaper price, so a guy could make a lot of money doing that."
�Monte's particular pistol, was a 1873 single action Army but it was a first generation and it's serial numbered to the 7th Cavalry, General Custer's unit."
�The carbine Monte carries, the audience won't see it unless they look really close, but that's a very rare 1886 saddle ring carbine Winchester. And the caliber it's in is a 50-110 Express. That's a very rare gun and I had two of those restored. But a 50-110 Express has an enormous impact. Monte primarily used that rifle in the winter for hunting when he was up in the lineshack, from killing wolves to getting meat to survive through winter in the line shack.�
Here is a link to the article
http://www.readthewest.com/tomselleck2003-01B.html