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Has anyone ever had their euros arrive brittle or busted from over boiling?

Simple answer is yes. I think it's pretty common for euro's done in RSA.
Bruce

My simple answer is no. Same for Namibia.

ggarcia85 brings up something you should always remember to ask your PH about. "How do you do the initial skull prep - boil, maceration or sun bleach/drying or insects"?

Boiling - is the fastest (couple of hours) method for removing flesh/tissue from inside and outside of the skulls. However, if they are over cooked/left in too long when taken out and left to dry the bone will be brittle and chalky.

Maceration - the skulls are left to soak in vats/tubs of plain water up to the horn line and the flesh/tissue is allowed to rot off. This can take anywhere from 30-45 days depending on the air/water temp. As you can imagine, the area this is being done stinks to high heaven but, will give arguably the best results because the natural oils in the bone remains behind.

Sun Bleaching - As the name implies, they are just left in the sun to bake and dry. Again very time consuming a bit smelly but long exposure can make them a bit brittle too from the UV light.

Insects - there are a few guys who have large boxes with a species of beetles inside. The skulls are put in the boxes and the beetles do the rest. Finished in a couple weeks, less smell and very good results. Difficult to do because the bugs have to be regularly feed so, it's difficult to keep them alive during the off season.

USUALLY, this initial prep is done by and the responsibly of the PH or Outfitter where you are hunting. Some places are close enough to the taxidermist they just deliver the raw field prepped skulls once a week or so to them to take care of. As a practicality of having to process larger numbers of skulls, they most likely will use boiling. One upside of them doing the boiling might be they have a bit better trained staff doing it so maybe they won't be over done but, don't count on it.

Anyway....just a little info to add to your hunt planning and questions to ask.

I see Afton House is offering a trophy shipping service.They'll pickup at an Africa taxidermist and deliver to your US door.Anybody tried it,sounds like good concept.

My eland skull was destroyed. The other was the blue wildebeest which isn’t a big deal since it will be mounted. The next trip I will be asking the questions that Taco brought up. Thanks you for the advice Taco. I I’m a little bummed on the eland

It has been over a decade but I always flew business class and then flew home with my dried capes and skulls as checked luggage. Of course ever single time I was stopped in customs, only once did my trophies get wrongly confiscated and I demanded the agent call and apologize which she did. I had one supervisor get called out and he asked if I had time to use my shipment as training for his agents and of course I complied. I also had the USFW officer review my shipment coming in from Kyrgyzstan and she stated my shipment was in "perfect" order and there was no issue with importing dried capes, horns and skulls. Of course I always extended my trips to include five days after the hunt for my trophies to dry which is cheaper and far faster than using the services. Now some countries, RSA for example, insist on the trophies being dipped so I don't hunt there. I have posted this here before and caught a LOT of grief from RSA guides. You'll want to double check but last I asked the US does NOT require incoming trophies to be dipped.

I have returned three times from Namibia, once from Kyrgyzstan, and once from New Zealand with trophies as described. The wrongful confiscation occurred in Denver and my trophies were overnighted air to Seattle, cost me something like $500 but was still cheaper. I worked through the issue with the agent's supervisor and demanded I receive a phone call from the agent and she apologize for her error. The call was almost worth the money.

That and the shipping cost are the two facets that prevent my going.

Go anyway. Enjoy the hunt, come home with photos.

I used Afton House/African Hunting Gazette in 2019. Worked pretty slick and I imported them myself into Canada. Easy enough to do. I'd use them again.

Exactamundo. My last two hunts were cull hunts. Got the benefit of the experience without the expense.

The cost of shipping 5-6 skulls (not necessarily dipped and packed capes mind you) but just the skull mounts was roughly the trophy fee of an average plains game animal, for me anyhow. More $ than I would like, but it didn’t keep me from having them shipped back, the export and import paperwork, etc. I have brought skulls and such back in both checked baggage and carry on, but a guy has to be aware of both US import laws as well as various countries’ export laws. It has been a while since I went to RSA so I am not up to speed on their situation.

My euro mounts from RSA have been fine, FWIW. No cracking or over boiled, etc. I am unsure if there are any beetle guys over there but I would bet they’d make a killing.

I had no problems with my European mounts from Zimbabwe. Both the PH and the taxidermist in the US did a good job. For a half dozen mounts it wasn't cheap but wasn't exorbitant either.

This, the Minister of Finance & Sex and I are leaving next Saturday for our fourth trip, photos only this trip...unless I finally score an exceptional bushbuck

I’ve received over boiled skulls before. Unfortunately, one was a Botswana lion skull that arrived with broken and cracked teeth from over boiling. Leopard skull was fine, but the cats were shot in different camps hundreds of miles apart. One camp great, the other had a number of over boiled skulls in my shipment.

I agree with those who said go over any way and take pictures. I do mostly cull hunts and if I want a trophy mounted so bad I just pick them up at auction for a fraction of the cost of taxidermy, dip and pack, shipping, customs..... I decided on a trip to Zambia that I would not bring heads back and what I saved in not bringing back the trophies paid for another hunt in south Africa later that year.