Question about postage

[summit]

Hi everybody,

I'll admit, I'd like to hunt in Africa.  I've found a lot of information about different companies, pricing, etc.

But I would like to know something.  Once an animal is dipped, packed, etc. how much does it cost to ship them back to the continental USA?  And how much would doing a head mount and then mailing it stateside cost?

[deltecs]

I've not hunted Africa, however my parents have on 4 separate occasions.  The best way they have found to get the hides and mounts to USA was to have the hides cured and shipped through customs.  The outfitter is prepared to strip the hides and deliver them to the appropriate transport companies.  You must also acquire the proper import permits.  For an example, my dad shot a Cheetah that was mistaken at dusk for leopard.  It is still in South Africa.  He did not have the proper export permit for Cheetah as it was on the USA endangered specie list in that country, regardless of the Country's listing for the animal.  No permit, no hide.  Once the skins were in the USA then he had the taxidermy work done, including a full head mount with original 80 pound tusks of a bull elephant.  A full size 15' crocodile, 2 full size lions, head mount of a hippo, 2 cape bufs, and lots of plains game head mounts.  The elephant alone for the taxidermy work cost more than shooting it with the fee.  Before you go, be sure to check all the requirements for importing the hides and what all it entails.

[JJHACK]

This is quite a variable question. Will you clear it through customs or hire a broker? That is one of the most expensive parts of the process?

Dip pack is about 50 bucks an animal with Capricorn taxidermy in RSA Then figure on 125-150 for the paper work to export all the trophies in the crate. After that 125 bucks per animal to ship them to the USA point of entry, then the freight from there to your home, and the broker fee if you can't do that yourself.

this is for dry salted hides, full mounts will be much more. There is a Link on my website for Capricorn Taxidermy so you can see his taxidermy prices, you can also Email him for cost estimates on the shipping and such. It's not any part of my business, so I don't handle the details of that. It's the dip pack guy who knows the fine details.

At the end of the day, if you were to shoot five animals and have all of them shoulder mounted by a good quality taxidermist, the cost to hunt them would be less then the cost to get them on your wall. Hence the reason that so many of my hunters now take nothing home put photos and memories. Many only do Skull mounts which are so much cheaper it's the only way for many people to afford the trip these days.