First trip to africa trouble with Taxidermy and shipping

[doitforthechase321]

Hello to all me and my brother are planning our first safari we are in our 20s and are on a very tight budget of 15k for a 2x1 7 day hunt we wanted to take the following species
1 wildebeest
2 impala
1 springbok
1 warthog
The best deal I've found was
3500 for day rate
2700 for trophy fees
Rifle rental and gratuities
1700
2-3k for airline tickets
Now the unsure part is
Taxidermy estimated around 2-3k
From what I've read dip pack and shipping costs could be up to 5 k which puts us over budget is there anything I can do to lower the taxidermy costs and the shipping cost im really not interested in not bring home a trophy

 

[Nyati]

Euro mounts will bring your costs down.

 

[wesheltonj]

Dip and pack will be the cheapest cost, unless you want all euros. I would suggest to save on taxidermy, you have the animals mounted over a period of time to spread out the cost.

Also avoid DFW as the first Customs/USFWS/USDA airport into the USA.

 

[gillettehunter]

I was thinking about your numbers. Seemed reasonable until I hit the tip/gun rental line. If each of you tipped $600 then that’s $1200. Instead of renting a rifle take your own. Even using a service in Joberg you’re about $200. Do your own paperwork and wait in the line and save that $200. So you could free up $500 that way.
To keep costs down you could have shoulder mounts done in Africa. Several members have had good experiences doing that. Any they recommend should be able to email you a price list for the animals you expect to hunt.
You don’t have a lot of animals on your list and they could almost certainly be taken in 5 days. As tight as your budget is I’d drop a day and hunt for 6 days. That will free up some cash for the shipping. Those animals in 1 box under 1 name and shipping should be under $4K I would think. Be sure and get several shipping quotes. Big differences between shipping companies.
I’ve hunted on a shoestring budget myself. One thing to remember is the taxidermy and shipping costs are usually not due until 9-18 months after the safari ends. Puts it back a while allows you to save up a few more $ to pay for that part of the costs.
Bruce

 

[TTundra]

Lot to unpack here:

Hello to all me and my brother are planning our first safari we are in our 20s and are on a very tight budget of 15k for a 2x1 7 day hunt we wanted to take the following species
1 wildebeest
2 impala
1 springbok
1 warthog
The best deal I've found was
3500 for day rate

There are better day rate/deals to be found. Have you checked with our sponsors here? A good start would be to post the hunt you want, where you want, and your desired trophies and I guarantee you will have sponsors message you.

2700 for trophy fees

As above, post your wanted hunt and allow our sponsors to work up a quote

Rifle rental and gratuities
1700

Bring your own rifles and do the paperwork. Its easy for RSA.

2-3k for airline tickets

Depending on your chosen outfitter and destination airport, message @TRAVEL EXPRESS . It will ensure you have the best price

Now the unsure part is
Taxidermy estimated around 2-3k
From what I've read dip pack and shipping costs could be up to 5 k which puts us over budget is there anything I can do to lower the taxidermy costs and the shipping cost im really not interested in not bring home a trophy

Taxidermy pricing is on the rise. With what I just spent on a buff shoulder mount from Zim I could have hunted another one. Are you wanting shoulder or Euro mounts? The latter would be better for a budget.

As above, start with posting here to get a reputable sponsor's package. Then add on the other parts. you may find the savings you're looking for. Its better to discuss with them fully as you wont always get the animals you want in the same area/concession.

 

[DieJager]

Hello to all me and my brother are planning our first safari we are in our 20s and are on a very tight budget of 15k for a 2x1 7 day hunt we wanted to take the following species
1 wildebeest
2 impala
1 springbok
1 warthog
The best deal I've found was
3500 for day rate
2700 for trophy fees
Rifle rental and gratuities
1700
2-3k for airline tickets
Now the unsure part is
Taxidermy estimated around 2-3k
From what I've read dip pack and shipping costs could be up to 5 k which puts us over budget is there anything I can do to lower the taxidermy costs and the shipping cost im really not interested in not bring home a trophy

Just use First Class Trophy. You'll get a definitive price before your hunt. They'll handle everything. I am using them currently and the finished taxidermy will arrive in the near future.
Have gotten updates throughout the whole process.

Craig Boddington just endorsed them in his latest newsletter. I would give them a call.

 

[WyoBull]

Just to give you an idea on the shipping costs, after 26 months post hunt, I finally got my Cape Buffalo, Crocodile skin and crocodile euro skull from Splitting Image Taxidermy in South Africa. My Buffalo was a pedestal mount and has a marble base so it is heavy. The crate weighed about 570 lbs.
Shipping from Joberg through Instanbul and then on to San Francisco was $4000. That was just for the shipping. The various customs fees and shipping from San Fran to my home in Casper, WY was about $2400 dollars. Shipping has gone way, way up. I spent my career in the transportation/trucking industry and even this surprised me.
What I will bring home on future trips with be photographs (wildlife photography is also a serious hobby for me). Now days, the taxidermy itself is the cheaper part depending on how many animals and what kind of mounts you will want to do.

 

[coreydb]

Taxidermy prices are up, but the time line for my own mounts are hitting the two year mark. You should have time either way to save up. Up front costs are 50% of the total invoice.

 

[Rare Breed]

Hello to all me and my brother are planning our first safari we are in our 20s and are on a very tight budget of 15k for a 2x1 7 day hunt we wanted to take the following species
1 wildebeest
2 impala
1 springbok
1 warthog
The best deal I've found was
3500 for day rate
2700 for trophy fees
Rifle rental and gratuities
1700
2-3k for airline tickets
Now the unsure part is
Taxidermy estimated around 2-3k
From what I've read dip pack and shipping costs could be up to 5 k which puts us over budget is there anything I can do to lower the taxidermy costs and the shipping cost im really not interested in not bring home a trophy

Just trying to help provide perspective. You can get a Kudu, Black Widebeest, Zebra, Impala and Springbok; 5 better animals you are showing for $5200 all in day rates and trophy fees combined with both Game4Africa and Fronteer Safaries both in the Eastern Cape which frees up $1,000 and a much better hunt and experience.

 

[JimP]

Personally I would put the hunt out until 2027, granted the fees may go up some but you will be in a better place financially to actually do what you want to do.

As for renting a rifle vs bringing your own, I found that the cost almost offset each other when hiring a permit service. The plus is that you are using a rifle that you know and then there are the bragging rights of using your own rifle.

You can save on taxidermy by each of you picking a animal to pay for, but once over there you can go overboard very easy. My last trip 3 years ago I had a package of 12 animals 10 days and figured a total of $13,000. Well, that didn't happen. It was closer to $20,000 and mostly all I did was two extra shoulder mounts that I didn't plan for. But I would just do a dip and pack, your problem there is that each of you need your own crate due to regulations unless you can convince them to just do a single crate in one name.

I don't know if you have figured it in yet but tips will be $1400 for the two of you figuring $100 a day for the PH, the rest of them will be around $500-$700 depending on the help.

I used Frontier Safaris out of Port Elizabeth, you can save money by going with someone who'll pick you up in Joberg instead that second flight.

South Africa – Frontier Safaris

Hunt with the Superior Choice

frontiersafaris.com

 

[DaddyFlip]

I just watched an older Ron Spomer video where Immenhof Hunting Safaris PH Werner Von Seydlitz said, "A trophy is not a dead animal but a living memory." Maybe there's one trophy worth a nice mount because it represents the greatest part of the hunt and overall experience. The others maybe something small like a tusk or a horn? Then many pictures and a way to display them. Or a painting like @Rare Breed had made of his charging lion! Lion Trophy Painting And in the short time I've been part of this forum, I think I've seen better pricing for better packages also. Research, research! "More books, fewer receptions, Boutros Boutros!"

 

[dchum]

First, glad you are guys are making it happen! Me and my college roommate had similar budgets one year and got it done.

where are yall hunting in SA?

Have you looked into Namibia? There are special endemic species that you would come to appreciate later in your Africa hunting timeline. The best value is free range oryx hunting in Namibia. Magnificent trophy and experience for $770. Insane. (Low fence untouched native game)

Philip @KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS has some great offers and I did my first safari for under 15k with trophy shipping and had a great bag of game to show for it…

I will say the pre set list of game maybe works in say Limpopo, but try hunting without a list and just hunt what you see and know your budget.

Feel free to PM. I did two awesome hunts out of college and made it work somehow…

 

[dchum]

Just trying to help provide perspective. You can get a Kudu, Black Widebeest, Zebra, Impala and Springbok; 5 better animals you are showing for $5200 all in day rates and trophy fees combined with both Game4Africa and Fronteer Safaries both in the Eastern Cape which frees up $1,000 and a much better hunt and experience.

This is great advice as well! Very true @Rare Breed

East cape, RSA and Namibia would get you some more I truly believe.

 

[doitforthechase321]

First, glad you are guys are making it happen! Me and my college roommate had similar budgets one year and got it done.

where are yall hunting in SA?

Have you looked into Namibia? There are special endemic species that you would come to appreciate later in your Africa hunting timeline. The best value is free range oryx hunting in Namibia. Magnificent trophy and experience for $770. Insane. (Low fence untouched native game)

Philip @KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS has some great offers and I did my first safari for under 15k with trophy shipping and had a great bag of game to show for it…

I will say the pre set list of game maybe works in say Limpopo, but try hunting without a list and just hunt what you see and know your budget.

Feel free to PM. I did two awesome hunts out of college and made it work somehow…
View attachment 730420

They were in the top 3 company's I was looking into

 

[doitforthechase321]

Just use First Class Trophy. You'll get a definitive price before your hunt. They'll handle everything. I am using them currently and the finished taxidermy will arrive in the near future.
Have gotten updates throughout the whole process.

Craig Boddington just endorsed them in his latest newsletter. I would give them a call.

I looked into them the prices don't seem bad but they still exclude some expenses even though it's called all-inclusive still might be the route I go down

 

[BryceM]

+1 on the recommendation to check out Namibia. It’s a great value for your $ and the police at the airport in Windhoek are actually happy to see hunters with rifles.

You can do ranch-style high fence hunting there or no fence properties. I’ve had fun doing both. Shipping costs have indeed gotten ridiculous, to the point that I’m ready to slow that train way, way down. I have WAY too much taxidermy already hanging on the walls from 7 trips . Going forward I’ll be doing more flatskins, euro mounts, and photographs. Shoulder mounts only for special animals.

For your first trip, take your own rifle. There’s something fun about that. Practice shooting from sticks. A lot!

If you want some PH/outfitter recommendations in Namibia, send me a PM.

 

[Sabre]

You may be able to save some money getting a package deal. Many packages have the animals you are looking for included. To get the two impala you may just have to add that one animal to the package, or talk to the outfitter and ask if you can swap an animal you don't care about for an extra impala.

The cheapest route for taxidermy would likely be to do dip and pack of just the skulls. They come back pretty clean and you could do a final degrease and whitening on your own to save money. Or find someone local to you that does them cheaply. Or just have the skulls whitened over there and get them back ready to go. That will be the cheapest options for taxidermy.

Shipping could be a hangup in your budget. Because technically you two would ship separately, and that adds a lot to the cost. But some places might agree to ship them as one hunter. Unfortunately there are multiple people in the import/export/shipping line of things that are all being extremely greedy at the moment. Airlines are trying to hold crates for extended times at extortion rates, and there has recently been reports on here that some people involved in inspection on the US government side are also getting in on that demanding the crates go to their own facilities and charge extortion rate fees as well. So, it is hard to say for sure what the cost of those things will be.

Both Frontier and Game4Africa are good suggestions.

 

[Sabre]

Shipping costs have indeed gotten ridiculous, to the point that I’m ready to slow that train way, way down. I have WAY too much taxidermy already hanging on the walls from 7 trips . Going forward I’ll be doing more flatskins, euro mounts, and photographs. Shoulder mounts only for special animals.

For your first trip, take your own rifle. There’s something fun about that. Practice shooting from sticks. A lot!

+1

 

[dchum]

They were in the top 3 company's I was looking into

Awesome! It’s amazing hard hunting.

You definitely won’t finish up early and will earn your hunts - a true experience

 

[375Fox]

I agree with the others there are better deals available if on a tight budget. The posted daily rates and trophy fees are often only a starting point. Tell outfitters what you want and many will make you a package price or custom quote. Just make sure you aren’t trading qualify for low pricing. You can find better pricing on airfare and maybe the hunting if you go during non-peak season so before May or after August. Renting rifles should give you a lot of flexibility in the flight routes you can choose to find better flight pricing.
You aren’t going to find clear shipping pricing. You can ask multiple taxidermies for dip and pack price lists. Dip and pack will be more predictable shipping costs. Then you can have animals mounted over time in US as you have the money. If you have them all mounted in Africa you’ll likely get more mounted than you’ll really want later then have to pay excessive shipping for a large volume. You’ll only get shipping quotes at the time they are ready to ship. For clearing. It’ll be at least $1000 per shipment. I’d recommend trading a warthog for something else if costs are a concern. Swine, primates, and birds add extra scrutiny and possibly extra costs and clearing time in US. They will also limit what US taxidermists they can be sent to for final destination if the cape is included. It’s possible with tusks only too. For your list I’d estimate $1000 dip, pack, crate, $1000 shipping, $1000 clearing, then final shipping $0-$500 based on where it’s going or if you can pick up directly.