My First Safari is Officially Over

Completed my safari in Namibia in Aug. 2016. Write up is here: https://www.africahunting.com/threads/namibia-westfalen-hunting-safaris.30727/

Decided to use Kings Taxidermy in Namibia and after receiving my trophies would recommend them. I worked out an arrangement where the trophies would be done within 6 months of them receiving them or the price would be reduced 20%. They had them ready in 4 1/2 months. The trophies came out good, not great.

The bad part was I have one Hartebeest with a laze eye. It is off by mm's but I can still notice. I can also see the stitching on the back of the Impala. It is not awful or even prominent but I can see it which in my book drops it done to good not great. Trying to give an honest report.

The good, I had 12 animals done and these are the two bad parts. The communication was excellent, the time frame, the rest of the work, the price, the packing and they made changes to the horns after I saw completed pictures. African Taxidermy likes to paint the horns, I had asked them not to from the beginning. They went and took the paint off the first few animals that they showed me. They could have just as easily not done it and shipped it as is.

African Shipping Services took care of the Namibia export and shipping. Again communication was exactly although the export permit from Namibia took awhile.

Coppersmith took care of importing and delivery. Again great communication.

I would use and recommend all three. For those that want to know it took us about three weeks to get the export permit, three weeks to get on a plane and arrive at JFK. Landed on 3/22 and on 3/28 was notified that USF&W wanted to physically inspect. Cleared on 4/10, same day notification from Coppersmith and delivered to my house yesterday at 12PM, by 4:30 they were all up.

Kings Taxidermy drills a 1 1/4 hole in the back and screws in a heavy 1/4 steel bar above to hang the trophies. I replaced all of them with THE NOOSE hangers. I put pictures of the animal and us in the field next to each mount with a brass plaque (also one on the back) that states who took the animal with Namibia, 2016.
As I look on the wall, I now realize I have some room left!

Sorry for the picture quality but it is a cell phone camera.

Nice herd of Gemsbok.

great write up and glad it all worked out for you. Mounts look nice from the pictures. I am sure you were happy when that crate was dropped off at your place.

I am glad Kings taxidermy worked out for you and you are happy with there work. I used them for my 2015 safari and was dissatisfied from start to finish. The mounts were poor quality and took over a year to get back. They were however, extreamly prompt on sending invoices.

I would never use Kings Taxidermy again.

Wow what a difference in opinions. Sorry you had a bad experience with them. I was once of the opinion to leave trophies in Africa but I no longer would do that. My reasoning is two fold, I was dissatisfied with one mount done by a taxidermy studio there, whereas this would have never happened with my normal taxidermist. Secondly I won't have many more safaris under my belt so I might as well get the very best taxidermy work I can now. So saving money to use on future safaris is not an option.

Congrats on getting your trophies home, its like Christmas when the crate arrives!

Very impressed with the Zebra sir! Congrats on getting everything home!

I think i would agree about not doing the taxidermy in Africa for the reasons outlined. I had the very same thought but I also only planned on take 5-7 animals, not 12 that my son, daughter and I took. At that point the price difference by my calculations was over $5,000. I also don't think when I go back, 1) I will take that many animals, 2) I will have them all shoulder mount. I believe one, maybe two will be shoulder mount but the rest European mounted.

I like the zebra!

I like how you hung the gemsbuck on the wall all descending looking in the same direction!

Oh yeah and that's a great looking kudu. love the flare!

like the zebra

+1 on the gemsbok.

Love the Zebra!

great looking mounts
on another note whats the length of the G2 and 3 of that buck bottom left

I like the three oryx lined up on the wall!

+2 on the gemsbuck trio, nice

dobber said:

great looking mounts
on another note whats the length of the G2 and 3 of that buck bottom left

Click to expand...

Dobber, thanks for noticing. The g2 is 11 3/4, the g3 is 12 1/2. total score was 154. My baby is the one that is top middle. Main frame eight with a split brow tine that ended up at 167. you can see it fully in the second to last picture.

Impala, Blesbuck and Kudu are all trophies. I finally noticed the warthog after looking about 3 times at the pictures. What happened to the springbuck cape?

Therack, not sure if you mean why is it so white? That was the springbok color. It was white-faced. At least the USF&W could not mistake it for a blacked-faced impala.