 FACT: Quartermain carries and uses a lever action rifle throughout  the movie but the ammo on his shoulder belt and the cartridge he  holds up then drops on the ground for Macabe to find (when he says,  "Come to papa") has a pointed bullet. Lever action rifles do not  fire pointed bullets due to the danger of one bullet point hitting  the primer in another in the magazine causing the gun to possibly  explode if dropped or bumped. This is the reason lever action rifles  are limited to a select number of calibers that have rounded or flat  tipped bullets. Quartermains cartridges look to be .30