Still works 8-13-2026 in early chapter 2.  I have unlocked the camp ledger, gotten the rolling block rifle and hunting legends map from Hosea's hunting mission, and gotten the scout jacket and legends of the east satchel from Pearson, and robbed the Doctor's back room for the pistol and loot,  and pistol whipped the gun slinger in the Stranger mission in the saloon for his pistol early, but have completed no other missions.
For the Bolt Action Rifle, I start early in the morning at 9:00 AM with my bow equipped, and I climb onto the Saloon Roof, and run / jump across the roofs toward the chruch, stopping on the sheriff's roof, then run back across the roofs to the saloon roof, and see that the hanging event is taking place, and make a bow dead-eye head-shot on the sheriff. The animation replays and shows the bow head-shot to the sheriff, and him dropping the bolt action rifle.  The crime gives me a $20 bounty. I should have equipped my mask, so they wouldn't know who did it. Still, I jump down onto the steps and run to the gallows, pick up the bolt action rifle and sheriff's hat, located on top of the gallows near the sheriff's body, but I didn't loot him because bullets were flying, and lawmen were closing in on me and I was about to die. So I jump onto my horse that I hitched earlier by the gallows, and flee to safety, while being pursued, then return and pay my fine at the train station, then saved the game. Then I get a room in the hotel and sleep until morning 6:00 AM and save the game, and returned to the roof and wait until just after 9:00 AM, or I can go straight into the local store and look through the catalog and look or buy something then when I exit the store, the hanging event is already starting 6:00 AM - 9:00 AM. I repeat everything but this time I put on the mask before making the bow dead-eye head-shot, and they do not detect who shot until I run to the gallows with the mask on, and I encounter more lawmen, who don't like that I am wearing a mask, and a big fight breaks out, and I get a $30 bounty, but this time I run away before getting the second rifle or hat by the Sheriff's body on the gallows, or I get killed by all the lawmen before I make it to the his body. I just need to execute better.  Next, reload the hotel save, and repeat, but take off the mask after I make the head-shot, but still get a $20 fine, run to the gallows, get the rifle, hat, and loot the body for the letter.  Don't see benefit getting a second bolt action rifle, sheriffs hat, or letter for a 2nd time cause it only shows I have 1 each in inventory. But it can be done over & over for fun. I am able to trigger it by camping on the hill on the right side the stables and sleeping until "morning" which will have you awake at 6:00 AM, or you can sleep at the hotel until morning until 6:00 AM, both work, and then go to the general store and look in the catralog until after 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM and when you climb up on the roof of the saloon, you will see the gallows have people on it and a hanging is taking place, and if not run across the roof tops until after 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM and it will trigger, but most often it will trigger after you leave the general store, if you shopped the catalog or just looked through the catalog until after 7:30 AM.

I agree that Bolt Action Rifle is perhaps the best rifle.
I use it all the time.
Nice trick.

I've attempted this now 20+ times from the same location & a few others. The Saloon roof works fine, though I've had success from another roof as well. I'd recommend putting on a mask prior to going onto the roof and try to avoid witnesses view while doing it. I'll often immediately get a wanted (after killing the lawman), but the mask prevents identification & a bounty, as long as you avoid getting spotted by the lawmen while having the wanted. You can then simply lose the wanted but do so without going further away from the downed lawman/Bolt Action Rifle. The wanted area is small, centered on the downed lawman. It's not difficult to wait out the wanted while advancing slightly towards where the Bolt Action Rifle lays. You'll want to make sure you have no bounty prior to attempting this method.

beautiful killcam
congrats.

i got a 250 bounty but now i have my bolt action rifle.

Amazing!
That's exactly what I was wondering how it could be done and here I came across this video!
This weapon is one of my favorites.

Got my Bolt Action Rifle in chapter 2. Killed sheriff, with a bow shot from your position. Acquired a $60 bounty….Ouch !  Retrieved it on the ground not the gallows as I was killed. Upon respawn, I had the rifle, the sheriff also respawned.

Struggled a bit to trigger the event but the method worked perfectly, got the rifle and the hat thanks!

The best thing about these glitches is we still get to keep the chance encounters untouched.

Another great video!  Thank you!  Just got the bolt action doing it this way and it was so easy!  First time I tried it I got wanted and the rifle wasn’t there.  Reloaded my save, tried again and successfully got the rifle with no bounty.

Thanks for this mister, after couple of tries i finally got the bolt rifle PLUS sheriff's nevada hat 😂

Looks like an interesting glitch. But I've come across the knowledge that Mallory could be killed at the hanging, but it always involves commiting a capital crime and the negative effects that that entails. I just do the rescue Sean mission and drop the NPC with the bolt action using Deadeye before he knows he's dead, and pick it up legitimately. No losses of honor, fines and my conscience is clear.

Thank you so much! Great video : )

I got the Bolt Action Rifle from a dead NPC during a mission

TYVM.

My bad lucky I ran into a bug which I needed to disarm his first gun. I needed to disarm the second gun as well. It was hard being shot at while fighting

Good job 👍👍👍👍

Nadie sabe si se puede conseguir el litchfield antes del capítulo 6???

I just walk up during the hanging, deadeye one-shot everyone on the gallows, pick up the rifle, then ride away. No real reason to be concerned over a bounty or lost honor...at this stage you have a MOUTNAIN of time out in front of you to fix any of that nonsense. (Or I get lazy and buy the Springfield as soon as I arrive at horseshoe overlook, never once using the bolt action for the entire playthrough.)

This is great! You even got your arrow back lol  
Is this the very beginning of chapter 2? or do you need to do a bounty mission first to have the person being hung?

So what if I’ve seen the event before?