Trophaendienste Taxidermy Namibia

I was impressed with my Mountain Zebra flat skin for the price. I know they run a excellent pick up of a giraffe trophy but I stand by my comments the mounts were all very average to poor. I wish I could turn back the hands of time on that decision. And the true reason the outfitters push this outfit is so they get their 20% cut, which I knew about at the time. But my PH and his wife were being assholes about wanting their cut of the action.
 
We just got word our deposit was received and that the estimate for completion of our order of 10 trophies is expected in the end of September or beginning of October timeframe.

I am getting that strange excited feeling of anticipation similar to the one we had before we left for the hunt. OK maybe not quite as intense. :)
 
I was impressed with my Mountain Zebra flat skin for the price. I know they run a excellent pick up of a giraffe trophy but I stand by my comments the mounts were all very average to poor. I wish I could turn back the hands of time on that decision. And the true reason the outfitters push this outfit is so they get their 20% cut, which I knew about at the time. But my PH and his wife were being assholes about wanting their cut of the action.

Hi Enysse
Thanks for the feedback and insight, and like I said I don’t have a lot to contribute yet. Thus far all I have done is to kill some animals and select a taxidermist. When they are in our hands and we get to see them up close and personal then I’ll be able to give a full accounting the whole process.

I don’t know about 20% returns to the PH’s or Outfitters, I suppose it is plausible. I have done a fair bit of world travel and have seen my share of returns for those bringing customers through the door. I hope when it’s all said and done, our experience will be the other side of the coin. Where everything is perfect, the sun shines every day and rainbows great us every morning.

To be continued…
 
The taxidermist has asked for a copy of the photo part of my passport. The reason they gave was that the "receiver of revenue" requests it to establish that I was indeed in Namibia, that the trophies are for export and therefore not taxed.

I am not sure just who or what the "receiver of revenue" is but it sounds like Namibia's equivalent of the USA's Internal Revenue Service or IRS.

Does this sound right?
 
The taxidermist has asked for a copy of the photo part of my passport. The reason they gave was that the "receiver of revenue" requests it to establish that I was indeed in Namibia, that the trophies are for export and therefore not taxed.

I am not sure just who or what the "receiver of revenue" is but it sounds like Namibia's equivalent of the USA's Internal Revenue Service or IRS.

Does this sound right?


Your hunting permit and PH register will have been provided to the taxidermist by the Outfitter which should certainly be sufficient.
The trophies are being exported obviously. The address in the US should establish that when they leave the country with the Export Permit.
Contact your Outfitter and get these guys set straight on that side.
No taxidermist anywhere has asked for my passport.
Something strange is going on.
 
As I had stated in the previous comments, I would give the final opinion once the trophies were home. I am pleased to say; all but one occupies my living room or sitting room as we use it. After they arrived and we got them all unpacked and then you suffer the “Holy Crap” where am I going to put these things? I had figured on placing them throughout the house, tallest horns here, not so tall horns there, you get the idea…
As I start to measure up certain places, I had already mounted the Warthog on one wall next to the living room, I stood the Giraffe in the front landing - the only twelve foot ceiling in the house to accommodate a ten and a half foot shoulder mount Giraffe. As I started to eye other locations in the house my wife says, “You could put the Kudu here and the Eland there and the Gemsbok at the other end of the couch”. I replied with the most contrite, “I could Honey, but that would have the bulk of them right here in the living room and might be a bit overpowering”. Exactly she responded; I don’t want everybody stomping through our home to see your collection of dead animals, not trophies, (Dead Animals, can you believe that). So, I replied with what any smart husband would say, “Baby, thank you so much for my very own trophy room”.
There you have it; my son was also blessed with the same fortune at his home. So, here’s what we have eleven animals in total, two sets of leg lamps, one Giraffe skull, one Baboon, skull and two replica Elephant tusks on pedestals. All animals were shoulder mounted except for the Baboon and the Duiker, these were full body mounts. The Zebra was a shoulder mount on a pedestal, wrapped in the back skin. In total we had, 2 Kudu, 2 Gemsbok, 1 Duiker, 1 Giraffe, 1 Baboon, 1 Eland, 1 Mountain Zebra, 1 Impala and 1 Warthog.
I won’t go into the individual pricing of the of trophy costs. The purpose of the article is to answer the question is it worth considering havening the taxidermy done in Africa. We believed so based on our reviews of the Taxidermist we could find on the web. We were pretty much certain by the time we got to Namibia we were going with Trophaendienste Taxidermy. When we visited their shop, we were convinced we had made the right decision. When they arrived in the field to help process the Giraffe on day four to ensure the right care was taken with the hide, confidence was very high.
By the numbers; Cost to hunt the animals $17,000.00 for, species, lodging & PH. Taxidermy costs all items $15,988.00 as described above. Shipping costs $7,238.00, plus an added mystery fee at the Montreal docks of $600.00 and $515.00 Canada Customs storage fees because of missing original CITES permit. As some of you can imagine there were some tense days before the trophies arrived.
There is not much for local expertise in the province I live in, Manitoba, Canada. We would have to go east to Ontario or west to Alberta to find taxidermy shops that have any level of Africa species expertise. I mention this as there would be hefty shipping cost of completed taxidermy if we chose to have it done here, plus the higher taxidermy costs. Until we opened the crates, we would not know if we had made the right decision.
In our humble opinions we feel we did, we were extremely pleased with the trophies we received from Trophaendienste Taxidermy. Everything arrived in top notch order except for a missing set of Eland horns. We’re not sure where they went, we suspect they got misplaced in the customs inspection, who knows… A new set is on its way as I type, believe it or not the owner of the shop forfeited the horns of his own trophy Eland he shot last fall, greatly appreciated.
We feel their attention to detail was awesome, they even taxidermy’d the male part on the Baboon, who gives that much attention to detail? So, would I do it again, you bet. I’d be a bit smarter on the shipping side of it. For me, I found the whole shipping and receiving part the greatest black hole of it all. What happens when they leave the taxidermist, who handles them…
I won’t deny there is risk, were we lucky, perhaps. We did do our due diligence, as I am sure others have done. In the end I have read and heard of problems on both sides of the equation. I recently talked to a co-worker who had a fish done at one of the highest rated eastern taxidermists and there was a complete breakdown in communication to the point where the final product wasn’t anything near what he ordered. If you chose to have taxidermy done when you completed your hunt, Do your homework, do not assume anything!
I’ll attach some photos you-all can be the judge

1 Oryx Baboon.jpg
2 Giraffe.jpg
DSCN3862.JPG
IMG_1058.jpg
DSCN3868.JPG
DSCN3871.JPG
DSCN3864.JPG
DSCN3869.JPG
 
Great looking trophies sir. What were the weights of your elephant tusks?
 
Great looking trophies sir. What were the weights of your elephant tusks?
I am not sure on the original weights, as I stated above they are replicas. The shop had a set on display and I thought they would look good on either side of my throne, every man should have a throne. At the time it was my belief I would never hunt Elephant so I purchased them. I thought they said they were castings of seventy pounders.
That being said, I have since decided to hunt the Big Five. I find that a bold and grand statement, I consider myself an average working man, earning working man’s wages. I have technical trades background that pays a good wage. The more I look into my plan to hunt these five animals the more I realize I’m a real small fish in a pond of big sharks. I don’t think I’ll get to hunt a set that big, I’m a humble man I’ll be happy with thirty to forty pounders.
 
Looks good. Did you have them shipped by sea
 
I am not sure on the original weights, as I stated above they are replicas. The shop had a set on display and I thought they would look good on either side of my throne, every man should have a throne. At the time it was my belief I would never hunt Elephant so I purchased them. I thought they said they were castings of seventy pounders.
That being said, I have since decided to hunt the Big Five. I find that a bold and grand statement, I consider myself an average working man, earning working man’s wages. I have technical trades background that pays a good wage. The more I look into my plan to hunt these five animals the more I realize I’m a real small fish in a pond of big sharks. I don’t think I’ll get to hunt a set that big, I’m a humble man I’ll be happy with thirty to forty pounders.

I did have them shipped by sea and that was a surprising process in itself. Once they were ready to ship and the bill was paid which think was July or August 2014, we open the crates on the April 2nd 2015. Mind you, there was the twenty one day added storage period for missing documents. In the end what I’m saying is, they move, just not too fast..:)
 
Due to new regulations in RSA my April 2014 trophies just left Capetown Yesterday afternoon. Expected arrival Newark NJ 8 July 2015. Then on to Chicago and Kansas City. Capricorn Taxidermist finished their work back in Janurary. But it is fun to travel the ship as it crosses the Atlantic Ocean!
 
I'm happy you got the results you desired. I'm equally happy your wife let you have more room in the house.
 
I'm happy you got the results you desired. I'm equally happy your wife let you have more room in the house.
We were very happy when we saw the great work they did. When my son and took all the plastic wrap off and we could the quality, the grins on our faces pushed our ears to the back of our heads, it is so fantastic when "people come stomping through" to see the, they are always in such awe. All kidding aside my wife really likes them except the Baboon and the Warthog. Thanks for your kind words
 
Due to new regulations in RSA my April 2014 trophies just left Capetown Yesterday afternoon. Expected arrival Newark NJ 8 July 2015. Then on to Chicago and Kansas City. Capricorn Taxidermist finished their work back in Janurary. But it is fun to travel the ship as it crosses the Atlantic Ocean!
Due to new regulations in RSA my April 2014 trophies just left Capetown Yesterday afternoon. Expected arrival Newark NJ 8 July 2015. Then on to Chicago and Kansas City. Capricorn Taxidermist finished their work back in Janurary. But it is fun to travel the ship as it crosses the Atlantic Ocean!
i can appreciate your anticipation, we were excited when the crates arrived it was neat when people were driving by to see us unload, we're a town of only fifteen hundred people I hope your trophies arrive safe and sound all the best
 
Plain and simple: get your trophies done back here. Little recourse if you have done in SA - don't like to go with the hit and miss reports listed here. For the money invested I am going to make sure I don't cut corners on my memories. Just my opinion.

dt
 
Plain and simple: get your trophies done back here. Little recourse if you have done in SA - don't like to go with the hit and miss reports listed here. For the money invested I am going to make sure I don't cut corners on my memories. Just my opinion.

dt
I appreciate your opinion and don't think I didn't wrestle with this for some time before making the decision to use a Namibian taxidermist. What I'm trying to get across is this particular company's name was asked about at the beginning of the thread. At the time I spotted the thread we had just placed our order with them and felt sharing the experience would be of value. I am heading back to Africa for a five country tour with my wife and daughter, mostly photo shoot this time. They have said I could try foe the Blue Wildebeest I was not able to get the last time. I will use Trophaendienste Taxidermy if I am successful with the hunt, I have complete faith in their work. Thanks for getting involved in the conversation...
 
I stopped into Trophaendienste's shop at the conclusion of my May hunt in Namibia. I was satisfied with what I saw. The shoulders mount and lifesize mounts were satisfactory to my rather high standards and some were truly exceptional (comparable to most highend American work).

I would recommend before making a decision that you stop into the shop if possible. In the case of Trophaendienste, they are only a few miles from the airport, right between Hosea and Windhoek. They were more than happy to give us a tour of their facility and store my firearm while we did a self-drive.
 
They did exceptionally fine work on my mountain zebra finished rug. I'd use them again for tanned rugs, skins for sure. Can't comment on finished heads.
 

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