When Harry Pope is shot at that night he grabs his rifle and shells. He goes in his house, loads the rifle and heads to the door to return fire. You never see him cocking the rifle to fire. After watching this two times to be sure it was not missed.
Around the 3-4 minute mark, Harry Pope is struggling to load his rifle with shells after hearing what he thought to be Indians wooing in his general direction. Upon completing this hurried task he proceeds to walk out the front door and commences firing out into the dark someplace. The only problem is he never cocked any rounds into the chamber.