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How much does it usually cost and what are the options? Shipping from South Africa. Is this a weight issue/or number of animals issue? Taxidermy work to be done in the states unless it is more economical to have it done there.

It's not really possible to answer that question with any accuracy because it firstly depends on how much weight/volume you ship and secondly of course on what happens to fuel prices between now and when you ship your trophies and thirdly whether you ship by sea or air.

As to taxidermy costs, the only subject that'll cause more 'heated debate' than this is what calibre for whatever species. From my experience, it's less expensive to have your taxidermy done here in Africa and then shipped as finished trophies, but of course there are good and bad, and cheap and expensive taxidermists all over the world and as you'll have to look at your trophies for many years to come, my advice would be to choose a taxidermist who does good work rather than the cheapest work.

The hardest animals to get right and easiest to get wrong are the cats - esp Leopards and you'll find examples of really good work on a wide range of African game and esp cats at www.lifeform.co.za. If you use their work as a guide to how the animals should look, you can judge the work of others.......so take a look at a few websites and make your decision.... I think you'll find Lifeform's work hard to beat though.

I previously posted my plans to hunt Leopard in South Africa and was told that was near impossible. However, I am still waiting on confirmation on Cites permits and should know something maybe in late November or early December. I have my fingers crossed. Thank you for the post and you are the third person that that has referred that particular taxidermist. I will defenitely check them out. Based on current fuel prices and if I had 3-4 shoulder mounts and 1 full leopard(if I get CITES and lucky enough to shoot one) what would the cost be? Air? Ship?

Saw lots of good Leopard spoor in Zim two weeks ago. If you want info on who I was hunting with, LMK.

3 shoulder mounts, 5 euro's and a zebra rug from Jburg to Edmonton Alberta by air cost me $1793 US in June.

The crate is about 5' tall, 3' wide and about 4' long, it weighed 243 lbs.

I have never used these people, but FWIW for my upcoming hunt both my PH and importer tell me Lifeform is first class. I plan on using them for my dip and pack.

405wcf

Have you contacted your outfitter to find out who he is using for the Dip Pack Process? That is your best route. Contact the outfitter, get the name and contact info for the Dip Pak and ask them what the crates have been running for the shipping to the USA. Add another 450 bucks for an American broker and you have a good ball park idea. Your absolute best resource for these questions is the person setting this up for you. He's most likely done this 100(s) of times and has all the answers you would need.

An option I am using for trophies taken in South Africa is to have taxidermy done in country. As stated, there is much debate on this. I didn't have any record book animals-1 Gold, the rest Silver & Bronze. I am having the taxidermist use removable horns to reduce crate size. I am also using ocean shipment to Port of Baltimore. At this point its difficult to know savings but, I expect a substantial difference. Time will tell.

All told we shipped back 11 shoulder mounts with the attendant back skins and a few flat skins by air and it set us back around $3500 IIRC. For an idea of the size of the crate, see the "Head Hanging Good Time" thread. I'd say it was 4x4x7 or thereabouts. 500 lbs rings a bell too.

The price guides you've been given sound reasonably fair to me, but you need to remember that the time lapse between when they were shipped and the time your trophies will be shipped will probably be more than 2 years and the rising price of oil might well mean you'll have to pay considerably more........but at the end of the day, you just have to accept that it's gonna cost what it'll cost....... and the trophies are gonna give you an immense amount of pleasure over the years and will be worth every cent!

In 2006 I had my trophies shipped sea from Namibia. The savings was about 40%. If I do another hunt over there that's the way I want it done. The price of oil is much higher now. The ocean shipping option is also available from the RSA.
John