>>63922035
People hunted differently back in the day than they do now. For one, a man might shoot multiple animals at one time so having a faster second shot was nice. People also did driven hunts more often, with both people and dogs doing the driving, and having the ability to shoot again immediately after missing is useful.
There's also the fact that a man could potentially run into bandits when the Model 8 and Winchester autoloaders came out so having a rifle you could fight with was more of a concern.