Lost Trophy Common Reedbuck horns

[AZ~Rich]

Hi all, I was hoping some of the S. African or other taxidermists checking this site could provide some suggestions or solutions for my situation. I have a small taxidermy business (Busheveld Taxidermy, LLC) in Tucson, Arizona and prefer to mount African plains game. It basically pays for my African hunting addiction. On our last hunt a year ago I shot a fine Common Reedbuck with my bow which in in SCI book as # 15 so it was a pretty nice specimen. Well, the tannery in the US which received and checked in all of our trophies in three crates somehow lost my reedbuck horn sheaths when they consolidated all the skulls and horns into one crate which I just received. I am worried after three weeks of looking that they will never come up with them. As a TOPS animal in RSA, even if I were to locate a pair of horn sheaths that were similar in size, getting those replacement horns exported would be very difficult due to the TOPS permits required from what I understand. I have not given up hoping they will turn up but in the event they do not, is there no other way to get a good replacement set from Africa? I realize something may be available online from vendors that I researched but what I have seen is either not correct (too small) or incorporated in some old mount. Just looking for ideas. One that I may have to fall back on is to completely create a set from my pictures, sculpted onto the existing horn cores of the reedbuck's skull. I would use a 1/4" threaded steel rod anchored into the cores as the backbone and build out with various expoxie clays and magic smooth. The measurements of this pair were roughly 13" Long with 6.5" circumferences at the bases. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Dewald]

AZ Rich, I shoot the odd reedbuck ram or two on occasion every year and would gladly donate the horns if I go again. I presume a common problem with older horns would be that the base pads are either missing or in poor shape. The set seems fairly straight and narrow, but but the shape is not uncommon.

I hope yours pitches up though

 

[Wheels]

Here are three for sale at Lollibros now. The sale I went to, reedbuck didn't sell for much, under $200, maybe under $100. Sales happen every quarter or so. Hope this might help.

http://www.lollibros.com/taxidermy/blue-tag-taxidermy

 

[AZ~Rich]

Thanks to both of you , I really do appreciate the options you mentioned. Right now I think I will give my tannery a bit more time to locate those missing horn sheaths before I decide on any options . I did not know about Lolli Bros auctions and I will certainly check them out. Those few pictured on their site look pretty similar to mine in size but I could not tell from the sparse info provided. If I were to use replacement horns, I would attempt to fit them to my existing skull's horn cores which would preserve the angles and give me a sense that something there was from my trophy. I'm sure the horn sheaths already on mounts are likely bonded quite strongly to their cores with either bondo, epoxy plus possibly nailed making their removal difficult without causing some damage. Those repairs can be readily sculpted back onto the horns as well as building out the softer pads below horn bases. In the states sometimes a set of skull/horns or skull plate/horns become available through the Taxidermy forums. I just have not put requests out there yet in the wanted section. In Africa if someone were to have a TOPS permit and want to donate those horn sheaths, It seems that getting something like that back from Africa still might be hard based on the TOPS regulations and questionable RSA bureaucracies. Is that a correct assumption or just misinformation I was given? This is one I did for a client last year.

 

[AZ~Rich]

I ended up creating new horns onto the skull.

 

[Sarg]

I have had many heads stolen or swapped out from Africa (pre internet mostly) really pisses my off !

You did a fine job well done !

 

[sestoppelman]

How long did you make this set? Looks a bit longer than the one you took.