Not happy with my trophies

Originally Posted by Martin

Cannot see any pics.. try again.

Don't you see them if you click on them?
Not sure why they came out like that.
Maybe Jerome can fix it
Not very good photos, but I didn't manage better with my camera.

Will be unfair to name the taxidermist in question? He or she might explain himself or better yet, right the wrong.

Originally Posted by andriesdeklerk

Will be unfair to name the taxidermist in question? He or she might explain himself or better yet, right the wrong.

I have sent them an email today about it and will see what they answer.
Will not name them here on the open forum before I know what they have to say about it all.

Attached are the pictures.

Originally Posted by Norwegianwoods

I have sent them an email today about it and will see what they answer.
Will not name them here on the open forum before I know what they have to say about it all.

I understand not naming the taxi until they have had a chance to explain. Pics are not coming up for me. Maybe Jerome can fix, or you may have to repost?

Originally Posted by andriesdeklerk

Will be unfair to name the taxidermist in question? He or she might explain himself or better yet, right the wrong.

Agreed, but if they don't come good, they should be exposed. There's way too much of this nonsense going on.

That's pretty bad. You should be compensated.

It is somewhat surprising that F&W did not hold it up at inspection.

Let us know who it was soon...many will be delivering new work to taxidermists shortly!

That skin would have been impounded here. Dirt, blood or whatever. The skulls with what ever that is on them would also have been seized. Sad.

My unfortunate snafu by the taxidermist was resolved, after some time and effort, to my satisfaction by a responsible taxidermist.

I hope they resolve the situation for you in the same positive manner.

That yellow tint on the skull is fat coming out of the bone. The skulls weren't properly degreased and it looks like they boiled the #$%^ out of them in a caustic causing the bone to deteriorate. What's with the chunks of fat/meat still attached??? Really, that taxidermist should be ashamed and you deserve a full refund. I'm interested to see what he does for you.

Originally Posted by Norwegianwoods

I have sent them an email today about it and will see what they answer.
Will not name them here on the open forum before I know what they have to say about it all.

Attached are the pictures.

Norwegianwoods That taxidermist needs to give you a full refund that is the worst work I have ever seen. Here in the states you wouldn't have to worry about getting trophies like that because F&G would have seized them and you would have never got them they would have been returned to it's place of Origin or worst destroyed. Sure hope you get Compensated for them.

Wow....really can't wait to hear what they have to say. If the taxi was recommended by your outfiter. You may want to contact them as well depending on what taxi says.

Originally Posted by RickB

Wow....really can't wait to hear what they have to say. If the taxi was recommended by your outfiter. You may want to contact them as well depending on what taxi says.

Agreed, notify your outfitter, to let them know. Sorry for your loss, "so to speak". see what a local taxidermist can do, he may recomend just putting the skul (without the horns in the sun for a while, and let mother nature take care of it. Norwegian,, sorry to see this.

Baydog id right about the degreasing, or lack thereof, on the Kudu skull.
The broken nasal bones and broken impala skull look like shipping damage. This may be due to improper packing or improper re-packing by inspectors while in transit. My Warthog and impala skulls had been removed from the bubble wrap and simply placed back in unprotected, fortunately they were not damaged.

My suggestion for the Kudu is to remove it from the plaque and soak it overnight in laquer thinner (skull portion only) and then soak it in a sloution of Dawn dishsoap and water (Dawn for some reason is a far better degreaser than other brands).

The Impala can still be saved by getting a local taxi to trim it up to a european half skull mount and re-attaching it to the plaque.

I am not sure what the tail has in it but I found when re-hydrating my African skins that they were extremely dirty as well, they looked clean but the re-hydrating solution pulled alot of dirt out of them. It is possible that they tumble them in some type of clay to condition the hair and hide post-tanning instead of the sawdust used over here, I dont know that for certain but it does appear that way to me. I would try simply brushing it out and if that fails try washing it by hand and brushing it out. The stiffness is probably due to a lack of staking and oiling of that area. My flat Wildebeest tail was the same way. Take it to a local tannery and they should be able to soak it down, stake it and apply the proper water based tanning oil to soften it up nicely. despite their hard dried outward appearance my African tanned hides were actually nicely tanned, simply under oiled which is not really a big deal.

Your horn hole pics are too fuzzy to see anything but simply by the position I would say they are, as stated, drilled to keep the horns together and attach a tag. I would much rather have a hole in MY horns than someone elses undrilled horns. You have to remember they do not boil skulls 1 at a time and it would be impossible to match up horns and skulls without this. Having said that it is still a pain. I have a couple here to fix and will photograph the simple process I use and you will see they can be sone invisibly if done properly. For now here is a link to a Taxinet thread on fixing antlers and horns so you can get an idea of what is possible.

Taxidermy.Net Forum - Busted! Antler and Horn Repair,Updated

Look at all pages as there have been more repiars added as time went on.

I gotta agree with Brickburn above, never would have made it thru customs here, very sorry to hear about your truobles, good luck sorting it out.

Sorry to hear about your taxidermy troubles, Norwegianwoods .

Norwegianwoods,
Any response from the taxidermist on this yet?

Not got any response yet. I just sent them a new email about it and I expect them to give me an answer in 2 days.
Not sure what to do if they choose to ignore me, but at least I will inform the outfitter and also name the taxidermist on the forum.

Just got an answer that they got my mail and that they had some problems with their emails.
They are going to look at the photos I sent them and try to find out what has happened.
Then I will see what conclusion they come to.
They promised to come back to me in 2 days.

Originally Posted by Norwegianwoods

Not got any response yet. I just sent them a new email about it and I expect them to give me an answer in 2 days.
Not sure what to do if they choose to ignore me, but at least I will inform the outfitter and also name the taxidermist on the forum.

Just got an answer that they got my mail and that they had some problems with their emails.
They are going to look at the photos I sent them and try to find out what has happened.
Then I will see what conclusion they come to.
They promised to come back to me in 2 days.

Make sure that you let your PH know about this and have them contact the taxidermist on the issue also. The more people on your side the better.

I'd absolutely contact the PH and let this be his problem too. He'll have more sway with the taxidermy shop than you will.

The little bone chips look like minor packing damage - no big deal. The greasy skull is really horrible and demonstrates sloppy work. The holes in the horns are sometimes put there to hold tags and sometimes to help flush out the inner goo. Those can usually be repaired easily by a good taxidermist.

Keep on the taxidermist and let them know you're not happy. Hopefully they'll be able to make it right. I'd recommend you take lots of photos and make sure to e-mail them a copy so they can see how things look on your end. Sometimes the fat takes a while to show if they're sloppy with the de-greasing process.

Hi,

It's been a while, have you had any luck so far??

Cheers,

Jeff Gray

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