Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Trophy shipping, taxidermy, etc?

We leave the end of May for Zambia. We are hunting Buffalo and plains game. I had made the decision to send everything to Life-Form in SA, then things changed. We are in the process of finishing are basement and the library/gun room shrank due to the fireplace we picked out. That will cause us to change the cabinet/gun display a little, and now I’m not exactly sure how much space I will have on several of the walls. With the exception of the Buffalo that will go above the fireplace, how hard is it to have just the hides shipped to my house so I can have them finished to fit the room when it’s completed?

I just had(yesterday) my shipment ok’d thru SeaTac. It came from the Caprivi Strip of Namibia. I shipped home a green zebra skin, the 4 teeth of my wart hog , the 12 teeth of my hippo, and the skull and horns of my 44 inch buffalo. None of it was taxidermy’d in Africa. Boxed, cleaned , dipped and packed and whatever else was necessary to get it into the states. I paid right at $3,000 for the African portion and about $1250 to Coppersmith for clearing the US customs. No taxidermy! My son in law is going to pick it up for me next week or else it would have even more shipping costs added to get it to my home in Idaho. The wooden box weighs about 68 lbs. If there ever is another trip to Africa I am going to figure something else out for getting my trophies home or else just be content with the photos.

I agree with Rolly, I just had 10 critters shipped thru Lifeform taxidermy, thru to Sea-Tac, using Coppersmiths as well. All mine were finished in SA. Lifeform and coppersmiths were great. The time, money and hassle involved, makes it so I am now only looking for “Cull hunts” take pics, and leave.
My crate was 521 pounds, 4’x5’x4’. I drove out in my pickup, in the morning from N Idaho as well. I picked up my crate, driving home before dinner. The easiest part was the drive. Dealing with Turkish air, even though it was handled by agents at coppersmiths, was a PITA, and ended up costing me in storage fees.

just keep i mind if you only take pictures then you will be charges a VAT tax in SA at 17% the value of the animal, I have not been told how they expect to collect but in 3 weeks will be in the East Cape and will talk to my Safari outfitter about this

Jetjocke

My suggestion is to consider having your products shipped back raw.

Talk to your taxidermist and ask them how you can proceed.

will you need a freezer to put your raw hides in? Will each hide be in it own zip lock bag? marked for easy to find when you want to have the animal mounted.

then comes horn and skull storage, will they need to be in a bug proof container? plus where would you store them for care and protection?

Ask if you do an euro mount with the skull, will you be able to do a shoulder mount at a later date?

As Hydehunter indicated there is a VAT tax on your trophies that you will be liable for, if you do not export your trophy. You will have to pay this before you depart the country. And remember, our state department does not allow you to use your credit card in some African countries. So you would need cash or have this pre paid before you leave.

I took my stepson on a plains game hunt last August in the East Cape. He shot 4 trophy animals and 5 culls. Nothing was exported and no VAT was charged. And you can use credit cards all over Southern Africa including RSA as long as you notify your credit card company in advance as to which countries you will be visiting. I’ve used mine in Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Tanzania as well as RSA with no problems.

[quote=Bwana338]Jetjockey

I’m considering using Todd Rapalee in VA. I spoke with them on Fri and they want the hides salted, and that’s it.

I have hunted outside the US on seven different occasions. All times I have returned home with trophies. Dried and salted hides and bleached skulls. I get stopped every time. Once my shipment was confiscated and I had to pay for an overnight shipment. I was able to prove my shipment was legal and the manager did state the seizure was improper, I insisted on an apology from the agent and actually received one. Some countries require trophies are dipped prior to shipping and of course this delays enough to force the trophies to be shipped afterwards.

I have carried trophies out of Namibia, New Zealand, and Kyrgyzstan. A Namibian shipment was halted and I asked the agent to request his supervisor. He explained my shipment was perfectly legal then asked if I had time for him to use my shipment for training. He then called over several agents and explained what to look for and why my shipment was acceptable.

Flying in from Kyrgyzstan with Ibex and a wolf had me speaking with the US Fish and Wildlife agent after the agents baulked at customs. She was very pleasant and stated my paper work was in perfect order and there were no issues.

I have posted this information here before, I know laws are constantly changing in both the US and other countries. Just letting you know what has worked for me. Last I carried home trophies was 2007.

Interesting Boise! I plan on one more trip over soon for some specific animals and I'm dreading the cost of shipping. After that, photos and video will be fine.

I "heard" Namibia was now requiring trophies be dipped prior leaving the country. Given the cost of shipping I found it cheaper to extend my trip by three days to allow my trophies to dry. I would bring along an extra duffle for the trophies and have nothing in the duffle other than trophies.

This wasn't my idea. My Namibian PH told me ahead of time to bring a large duffle.

I am going to Namibia this June.

Have the Africa taxidermist do the dip and pack to have your trophy skins and horns shipped home. Simpler, easy, less expensive. MTG

Going forward I won't have capes shipped only skulls

I am trying to get my musk ox skull back from Greenland via Denmark.

Just the skull, not the hide too, is costing me as much to get back as the whole hunt did. They nickle and dime the living hell out of you. Both the US and whatever country you hunted.

I don’t get much mounted anyhow but my overseas stuff is getting left behind more and more.

I have 3 foreign hunts planned in 2025 and if I can’t get cleaned skulls back on my carry on or some other cheap option, it is all staying behind. It’ll be pics only. Physical trophies just aren’t important to me.

Once you get through the legal paperwork to have them exported from Zambia and then imported into the US, it is just as easy to have them shipped to your house as it is to a taxidermist. The only difference is the address it is shipped to.