Bringing trophies back as checked baggage

I'm heading to Eastern Cape in August. Three skulls from 2023 are still at the taxidermist in Port Elizabeth (not entirely their fault). I'm hoping to bring them back as checked baggage if doable. Anybody tried this? It's a gemsbuck, impala, and springbuck. The gemsbuck is a respectable bull, impala is borderline excellent, and springbuck is borderline acceptable. I already have two gemsbuck, four springbuck, and three impala. Probably should not have messed with this batch but the impala was a dandy. Anyway, the horns are all removed so the lot should pack up fairly compact. I'm thinking about taking over one large hard sided luggage case with my soft bag inside. Use the hard side case for trophies on return. It will be a handful hauling those two bags, my carryon daypack, and single gun Pelican with two rifles tucked inside. But if it saves me the ridiculous freight and brokerage fees it will be worth the hassle.

I have seen two posts that reference this. One person did successfully do it. I believe he was the one who commented on both threads. I also think maybe a couple people commented and also said they were successful in doing it and their experience mirrored his. I will try and find at least one of them and post here.

I do remember it looked like a lot more paperwork than you would immediately think. And he had said that your taxidermist needed to really be on the ball to make it happen.

I believe the other one was more recent where another guy was going to try it and said he would update, but I don't think he did. But others said they had done it and had a similar experience to this guy.

Thanks. I am in Canada so that makes a difference.

I was told by a taxidermist in Toronto that the stuff will move through customs quicker because it is classed as personal effects vs commercial goods if broker does it.

It’s worth a try. Especially if you don’t mind if it gets confiscated. None of it sounds like it’s irreplaceable.

Good luck, I’ve brought several skins home but never skulls. I had paperwork from the taxidermist. I declared them in Atlanta when the agent asked if I had any wildlife products, he asked if I had the paperwork and when I said yes he just said welcome home and have a nice day.

Ontario Hunter said:

Thanks. I am in Canada so that makes a difference.

I was told by a taxidermist in Toronto that the stuff will move through customs quicker because it is classed as personal effects vs commercial goods if broker does it.

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Don't believe this to be true at all. sounds like a recipe for disaster.

major hunter said:

Don't believe this to be true at all. sounds like a recipe for disaster.

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Brokers can't do anything a private individual couldn't do for himself. And obviously personal effects go through a different line at customs than commercial goods or I'd be standing around waiting my turn behind crates of bananas. The warehouse will play more games with a private individual than a broker. And if you're not East Indian ... expect to get f*cked around every way possible when in Toronto, especially at Pearson Airport. I'm not racist ... but they sure are. As a preemptive measure I'll be doing Youtube research this summer re how to wrap a turban ... not kidding either! A few sessions at the tanning boutique and I should be good to go. Mustn't forget to pack flip-flops. Always makes me chuckle seeing a Punjabi waiting at the bus stop wearing sandals ... in 2" of snow and -15°. WTF?! But I see it every day here. Wearing a turban and hiking boots would give me away instantly. Anyway, I'll just chock this up to more adventure added onto the safari. I'm not putting anything significant at risk. We will see how it goes. Hopefully I can learn something to pass along to my friends on AH. Wait ... do I have any friends on AH? Hmmm.

Ontario Hunter said:

Brokers can't do anything a private individual couldn't do for himself. And obviously personal effects go through a different line at customs than commercial goods or I'd be standing around waiting my turn behind crates of bananas. The warehouse will play more games with a private individual than a broker. And if you're not East Indian ... expect to get f*cked around every way possible when in Toronto, especially at Pearson Airport. I'm not racist ... but they sure are. As a preemptive measure I'll be doing Youtube research this summer re how to wrap a turban ... not kidding either! A few sessions at the tanning boutique and I should be good to go. Mustn't forget to pack flip-flops. Always makes me chuckle seeing a Punjabi waiting at the bus stop wearing sandals ... in 2" of snow and -15°. WTF?! But I see it every day here. Wearing a turban and hiking boots would give me away instantly. Anyway, I'll just chock this up to more adventure added onto the safari. I'm not putting anything significant at risk. We will see how it goes. Hopefully I can learn something to pass along to my friends on AH. Wait ... do I have any friends on AH? Hmmm.

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1. Not true again, but really don't care to argue.

2. Your comments are outright ignorant. You should take a good luck at the owners / operators of some of the best wild hunting areas. Could be eye opening.

major hunter said:

1. Not true again, but really don't care to argue.

2. Your comments are outright ignorant. You should take a good luck at the owners / operators of some of the best wild hunting areas. Could be eye opening.

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I fail to see what "the owners/operators of some of the best wild hunting areas" in Africa could tell me about getting my trophies on board a plane with me and through customs in Toronto. But I guess I'm just too ignorant.

Actually, I did drive to Toronto (20 hrs) to get the last shipment through customs. My information was correct. Personal effects do go through a different line. My problem was dealing with the bitches running Swiss Air warehouse where Turkish Air stuff was landed. Then the customs people were on the other side of the airport (40 minutes) and wouldn't fax over the approved inspection documents to warehouse so the stuff could be released. I sent the truck driver over to pick up the docs and customs wouldn't give them to him because he wasn't a broker. I finally had to get my Member of Parlaiment's office involved. Then the docs were faxed. And yes, everyone was of the East Indian persuasion. Finally, late at night after the three witches got on their brooms and went home, a young Chinese lad in the warehouse rounded up the crate so I could get it on a truck. Dealing with the freight company in Toronto was a whole separate nightmare.

The object of this thread was to see if anyone had experience returning with trophies as personal checked baggage. Since I can buy zebra skins and warthog tusks at the Joberg airport and bring them home I presume I could also bring back my trophies if they will fit in luggage and have proper paperwork. I suppose I could contact some safari operator in Zimbabwe. Perhaps he will have experience helping clients load up their elephant tusks.

We brought our ibex from Mongolia home w us and had no problems, just had the proper paperwork, we did bring back a warthog skull once that my wife had shot, they just gave us a “receipt” from a “taxidermist” and it worked, the lady at customs did look at it very carefully and looked up at us a couple times, but then she said all good

We did write a $$$ amount on the warthog w pen so that it appeared that we had bought it at a taxidermist

My brother did it with some roe buck skulls from Scotland. Interestingly he also found the USDA form that allowed him to bring some meat back. Just had it in a small cooler and declared it on arrival with the form already filled out. The outfitter was able to boil the skulls and give them to him the day after the hunt.

I did it from Canada to the US this year with a frozen skull & cape. It isn’t so difficult. You need two sets of documents. The most difficult would be the export paperwork. From Canada, your hunting permit is valid for this. From Namibia, you need a government issued export permit. How to get that in a timely manner is a mystery to me. There might be a way to do it, but it usually involves a veterinarian inspection. From RSA? I don’t know.

On the US side, you fill out the USFWS paperwork at the customs counter and the nice guy (or grumpy guy) verifies that it isn’t a prohibited species. If he’s having a really bad day, he looks in the box. From Africa, they’d probably look.

Traveling from Asia with taxidermy in-hand can be done. I think the difficulty isn’t actually on the US side.

All my scant trophy collection has been suitcased in no dramas but I am in Europe ...next challenge is a Zebra Skull