Hey folks; first time poster here. Been interested in rifles for a long time, because I grew up lusting over one that my father owns. A relative of mine - and this thread's subject - Michael Tuccori is a master in early-American antiques and is a first-rate collector and dealer of authentic long rifles and similar pieces. I searched the forum and the only mention that I could find was a profile that Garden & Gun did on him and his collection some five or six years back.
And he's also a maker. The reason I'm here is that a few weeks ago I did a thorough clean-up job on my father's rifle, which he bought from Mike. The information I read on these forums helped me quite a bit in caring for it properly, so I'm here to both express my thanks and pay it back.
The pictures that I took before cleaning really don't do the rifle justice. I wasn't intending to show them off, so the lighting is bad and it doesn't show a lot of detail.
The story that my father tells is that he approached the gunsmith at Colonial Williamsburg about making a rifle, and when Mike's name came up the gunsmith laughed and asked why my father was even talking to him when he's relatives with Michael Tuccori, who could make every bit as good a gun as he could. So my father ended up buying the first rifle that Mike ever made! Mike's father was a machinist and crafted the flintlock assembly, so the rifle itself is a collaboration between two generations, and knowing Mike I would assume that it was made in the style of a particular early-Virginia shop and maker, down to the smallest details.
I'm at a complete loss as to how many other rifles he's made and how many might be circulating. Maybe I'll ask him at the next family reunion.
