Our Tucson home was burglarized in September and I lost 35 rifles and shotguns. Several of them were unique.

One was an unfired Ruger No. 1 in .270 Winchester. One side of the action commemorated the 100th anniversary of Wyoming's statehood; the other side told of the 50th anniversary of the Lander One Shot Antelope Hunt. I was president of the One Shot's past shooter's club that year, and we ordered only 50 of these rifles from Ruger.

Another was a Mannlicher-style .257 Roberts built on a Japanese Arisaka action by Frank Wells. It has his name stamped on the barrel. The stock was a light-colored walnut with a maple foretip.

Another was a Charles Daly (Miruku) 20 gauge that had a slightly bulged barrel and a chip missing at the toe of the rear stock. (Both thanks to my son-in-law).

Another was a very early .303 Savage Model 99 Savage. It had been drilled and tapped for a scope and its half-moon-shaped rear stock had been replaced with a later model with a flatter buttplate. I bought this rifle in 1947 with money I saved selling newspapers, and killed my first deer with it a year later.

Another was an unfired .357 H&H push feed Model 70 Winchester. The right side of the stock has my name and an inscription (professionally done by laser) commemorating my retirement after 17 years as director of Safari Cl;ub's publications.

Still another was a .45 caliber caplock Dixie Gun Works long rifle, one of the earliest rifles that Turner Kirkland sold. It was stained blood red. I've not seen another one of these in at least 30 years. This one was as new.

If you hear of these being advertised on the 'Net or see one of them at a local gun show, please PM me.

My others guns included Browning Belgian 0/Us, a vintage Marlin 20 gauge pump, and Remington, Winchester, Mauser and Rossi rifles in a variety of calibers from .22 to .458 -- all in great condition, but pretty much standard fare.

What really hurt was losing three Pennsylvania-style percussion and flintlock rifles I'd built more than 25 years ago for my daughter and grandkids. I had spent more than 300 hours building each of them from blanks.

Bill Quimby