I recall seeing that movie many years ago ... but I'm sure not sitting through 1 hour and 46 minutes just to get a glimpse of a Peabody rifle in 56-50 rimfire   ....

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The Peabody rifle was the Grandfather of the Martini-Henry rifle that served Great Britain for ~20 years as the standard issue rifle and for ~40 years more as a Colonial police and Colonial military issue. 

The Peabody had successful trials during the US Civil War, but was too late, with only a few hundred fielded. Martini changed his action to be a hammerless design and Henry changed the rifling design.

Actually, Peabody invented/redesigned the hammerless Peabody rifle before Martini did.  The 56-50 (actually the Peabody 50-50 RF) was a in the carbine.  The Canadian Peabody used a 50 caliber rimfire but with 50-60 rimfire.  They also had a 50-70 rimfire.

Peabody rifles are great, have a wonderful balance.  As one of the "best" of the early breech loaders, like the Remington Rolling block, it was ignored by the US military but went on to arm half the world.

George
Salmon, Idaho

That film has been a favorite of my wife and me for 30-some years.  The Peabody rifle was just a bonus.  Good story and fine acting.

Lefty38-55 wrote on Jan 30^th, 2014 at 8:45am:

Lefty,
Were you supplying a generic photo of a Peabody, or was it to represent a .50 RF Peabody ???
Your photo looks like the .41 Swiss model to me.
The only Peabody rifles in .50RF I'm familiar with are the so called Canadian Models.
They would have 3 bands and a rear sight similar to a .58 Springfield.

FWIW, a copy of Ed Hull's book on Peabody's is required reading for anyone interested in the military models.

Frank,
Blame the British military of the 1860-70's.
They did not want to give any credit to Peabody(or any American ?) for the basic dropping block design.Perhaps because of paying royalties on his patent ??
I believe Martini even admitted to using Peabody's design as a basis for what became one of Britain's most illustrious firearms.
Ironically, the Martini design came home to roost when the Turkish government contracted with Providence Tool Co.( who made the original Peabody) to make virtually exact copies of the Martini-Henry; to the tune of about 600,000 rifles.
Providence also produced some stunning target rifles based on the same design; but they were never popular in the U.S.... Gotta have a hammer !!
At least Peabody was given credit then; as they were called Peabody-Martinis.

Frank,
Here is a link to a fascinating account of the effectiveness of the Peabody-Martini against the Russians in the 1870's:
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I think there is a reference to this being the first recorded account of indirect rifle fire to pin down the Russians at something like 2400 yards. Amazing !

I once had a Peabody-Martini military rifle in 50-70. I wonder who these were made for?