Wonderful Extremely Fine American Percussion Target Rifle by Albert Kugler, Kingston, New York (AL5119)

Wonderful extremely fine American percussion target rifle by Albert Kugler, Kingston, New York. Overall length is 46¼”. The 31¼” octagon barrel measures 1.1” across the flats in .40 caliber with a fine rifled bore. The barrel has approximately 98% of its mottled blue finish, used to reduce glare. The engraved breech plug and tang show most of their case colors. The lock and hammer are nicely engraved with the lock featured with a running buck. Barrel is marked in gold inlay from left to right “cast steel./ A. Kugler./ Kingston. N.Y.” with a gold band at the breech. The nose cap, trigger guard, butt plate, patch box, and side plate are all German silver. The patch box is beautifully engraved with a seated buck in the center. The top and bottom tangs of the butt plate are nicely engraved. The engraved trigger guard features a very nicely done hunting dog on the bow. The side plate has a fanciful “winged devil dog”. The cheekpiece has a German silver inlay of an eagle with spread wings (3¾”) seated on a blank 1” oval. The stock is excellent with sharp checkering at the wrist and forearm with no chips. There is an almost undetectable crack at the wrist. The peep sight, which folds forward, is very well made. It adjusts for elevation and windage. The false muzzle is present. The double set trigger functions correctly. Albert Kugler is known to have worked in Kingston, NY circa 1857-1864. He is known for air rifles and percussion half stock rifles, of which this one must be considered one of the pinnacles of his craft. There are not enough superlatives to describe this superb target rifle. You’ll go a long way to even find one equal to this!