That was a "One of One-Thousand" Winchester model 1873 rifle. I owned one, once. Wish I still did.
For "Cowboy Action Shooting"?, the '94 probably ideal.
The better choice there is one of the modern copies of the Winchester 1892. The movies most often used the '92 because it would take the five-in-one blanks they used for everything they could. Cheap. The modern copies in modern pistol calibers that are much cheaper to shoot than rifle rounds.
>> ... (Jimmy Stewart notwithstanding).
> That was a ... model 1873 ...
Oops. Then make it "Chuck Connors notwithstanding" :-)
> The movies most often used the '92 because it would take
> the five-in-one blanks they used for everything they could.
I assume an M94 in .44 Mag would take a 5-in-1.
It would also be pleasant to shoot with .44 SPL,
and might not even suffer from the massive shift
in aimpoint that .44 handgun experiences when
switching between Mag and Spcl.