Photo Only Trophies

I am facing a dilemma. Growing up, I was taught to use any animals taken by sport hunting. IE, eat what you shoot, use the hides, etc. I have a safari planned next fall and am not sure how to handle the trophies. I want to hunt zebra, wildebeest, warthog and ?? I plan to have a flat skin done with the zebra and was considering skull only (euro mount) for the other two. However, I really have no place to display the euro mounts. The practical side of me can't make sense of taxidermy and shipping fees for trophies I cannot display. I definitely want the zebra hide, but what about the others?

What are your thoughts on photo only trophies? What do the PH think about this? Personally I struggle with the concept but have read about others doing it. Just want to see what the general consensus is.

The meat will be used regardless.

The horns are the trophy part of the hunt. Do with them whatever you want. Photos will save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars over bring heads back. It gives you money to hunt something else. The PH's won't care about you leaving the horns behind.

Most people that hunt many times in Africa don't bring everything back. How many impala do they need? Do the hunt however you want to and enjoy it.

Flip side of the coin, if you are bring back a zebra skin, you have a fixed cost coming back anyway. It wouldn't cost that much more to bring back some horns. It would cost you virtually nothing to bring back the warthog tusks.

I'm not a PH but I don't see any issues with you just taking pictures. The end of the day it is your hunt. The meat will be used and the end of the day that is what really matters. If you can save some money and get another hunt in, more power to you. I have cut back on some of my taxidermy just so I can afford to do other hunts.

Many threads with ideas for use of the horns. Don't have to do a traditional mount.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I hadn't considered alternate mountings.

Wheels said:

The meat will be used regardless.

Flip side of the coin, if you are bring back a zebra skin, you have a fixed cost coming back anyway. It wouldn't cost that much more to bring back some horns. It would cost you virtually nothing to bring back the warthog tusks.

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I'm not sure I follow this? How are costs fixed? Wouldn't shipping be a function of weight or volumetric weight?

Catahoula said:

Thanks for the feedback guys. I hadn't considered alternate mountings.




I'm not sure I follow this? How are costs fixed? Wouldn't shipping be a function of weight or volumetric weight?

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If you are bringing back the zebra skin, you have a cost for taxidermy, crating, shipping, customs. That is a cost you will incur. Throwing in 12 ounces of warthog tusks isn't going to change that much. Making napkin holders out of a kudu's horns isn't going to take up much space either. (A couple of pounds) Bringing back an impala's horns (no skull, slipped off the core) to put in some floral decoration doesn't take much space or weigh much. (A couple of pounds) A gemsbok's horn for a wall sconce wouldn't add much weight. The taxidermist might need to fold the zebra skin to match the length of the horn vs 28 inches.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do. Just give you options that aren't going to add much cost and you can utilize parts of your trophies.

Thanks @Wheels. Now I follow you. I was still thinking in terms of full sized trophies.

Catahoula said:

I am facing a dilemma. Growing up, I was taught to use any animals taken by sport hunting. IE, eat what you shoot, use the hides, etc. I have a safari planned next fall and am not sure how to handle the trophies. I want to hunt zebra, wildebeest, warthog and ?? I plan to have a flat skin done with the zebra and was considering skull only (euro mount) for the other two. However, I really have no place to display the euro mounts. The practical side of me can't make sense of taxidermy and shipping fees for trophies I cannot display. I definitely want the zebra hide, but what about the others?

What are your thoughts on photo only trophies? What do the PH think about this? Personally I struggle with the concept but have read about others doing it. Just want to see what the general consensus is.

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I've been on a few safaris, and some time ago, I raised the same question with my PH. I told hm I really had no use for another impala, blue wildebeest, kudu, etc., but still wanted to hunt them. His reply was swift. "It's only because of people like you that choose to come to Africa to hunt that we have many of these animals left. Don't worry about the trophy - shoot what you want, and nothing will go to waste. This is Africa - nothing is wasted."

Since then I've very comfortably shot my nth impala, my nth+1 kudu, etc., with a great deal of pleasure and no worry or guilt at all.

I suggest you do the same. Enjoy the hunt, and take another animal or two for the money you would have spent on taxidermy and shipping.

Euro mounts don´t take that much space to display. You may also bring back skulls and horns, and store them. Someday you might have the space.

I too just don't have room to display even euro style mounts and the last ones I paid for are still sitting in the shipping wrappings. Several thousand dollars not exactly wasted, just not enjoyed fully. I doubt that I will bring back much from my next safari, maybe some warthog tusks or at the most some horns without skulls. So I'm wondering, if shipping / brokerage fees from S. Africa to Canada are significant for one package that may contain 2-4 sets of horns, and not much else?

Another question, can buffalo horns be slipped off of the bone of the skull or are they too firmly attached to allow that?

The other thing you might think of is a cull hunt......you can shoot a certain amount of animals that are old, not prime (nor never will be) trophies, or there are too many of them for the property.......you are actually helping the land owner/game manager by taking these animals out of the herd.
Having said that, don't forget that if you don't bring back the trophies, you will have to pay the VAT. It's still a cheaper option that having heads mounted, dip/packed, or whatever.

I have been rethinking having trophies brought home as well......I would like a few more, but we are moving, and down-sizing in the process, so I don't have room for all the heads that I would like. I would like to put a couple more African species on the wall, either as heads, skins, or wall mounts, but the cost of the last taxidermy bill was a real eye-opener, and I was VERY disappointed in the work that was done, so to save my wallet and myself from anymore heart break, it'll be mostly photos next time.

(BTW: "Down sizing" means that you throw out most of your stuff, but your wife gets to keep all her crap, and then goes out and buys MORE crap to put in the space of the stuff you just got rid of!!!")

....and, FWIW, I get where you are coming from with re: to not wasting meat, using the hides, etc., but from what I've been seeing lately, this is no longer the norm.......I am finding more and more deer carcasses in the areas that I hunt that are dumped in the ditches and parking areas with just the back straps cut out, or worse, just the heads/antlers taken, and the rest of the carcass left to rot (didn't even bother to field dress it
I get that not everyone likes venison, but come on..........at least take and donate it to a food bank or something!

I may look at some alternate mountings for tusks and horns. I would like some reminder of each trophy to display. If I can't work that out, then maybe a couple of photo only trophies is the way to go. I'm booking with @Paw Print. I'll see if Pieter weighs in on the subject.

Catahoula said:

I may look at some alternate mountings for tusks and horns. I would like some reminder of each trophy to display. If I can't work that out, then maybe a couple of photo only trophies is the way to go. I'm booking with @Paw Print. I'll see if Pieter weighs in on the subject.

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Pieter can help you with ideas. Get on some taxidermists websites. They will have samples of unique items they can make for you out of horns, feet, etc.

Dennis @The Artistry of Wildlife will have ideas. If he doesn't chime in you should pm him.

Catahoula
Not sure but this could be a problem I took four Trophies on my last safari one of them was a Warthog. When sending my trophies back the Warthog had to be sent in its own crate. That might have been because I had a cape with it, that I didn't even use, you might think about that.
Some of these other people might be able to answer that question about a separate crate for just the tusks?
For me it has over a year and all I have are the photos of my trophies and I have looked at them thousands of times since getting back. Take pictures from every angle so you have some great ones!
Tom

Every time I've hunted I've only taken home one hide. The most memorable one. The rest I have my photos and I'm happy with that.
It's an economic thing for me really, the money I save on taxidermy and import fees, etc I can use on my next hunt.
Plus I have nowhere to put them.
I don't see any harm in it at all and if your PH thinks your strange for doing it that way, so what? Your the client. I'm sure they've all heard much weirder requests. my PH doesn't bat an eyelid.
I make sure the meat is going to be eaten and I'm happy with that.

With the disappointment and headaches so many suffer with their work arriving from taxidermists in Africa, either not their own, damaged on-route, lost or poor work then I think photo only trophies is a good idea. You then save a lot of money to return again.

Thanks guys. I'll probably have a flat skin done with the zebra and may look into a bottle opener and/or corkscrew with the warthog tusks. It's really not a huge financial decision for me, but a practical decision. No point in going through the expense or trouble to mount something that I'm not going to use or display. I'll discuss the photo only option for other animals with the PH prior to the hunt. I just booked this morning and have a little over a year to plan.

I would keep the warthog tusk intact and display them on a table or something. Perhaps a framed photo of you and the warthog with it's tusk on each side of the frame. If you need a bottle opener made out of warthog tusk the souvenir shops are full of them.