Taxidermy from Argentina

[Dawg2019]

I have a dove and Red Stag hunt coming up in June and was wondering if anyone had tried to ship back anything recently? I plan to just have a euro mount of the stag. I was wondering the average time from hunt to delivery of trophies?
Thanks for any input.

 

[Mekaniks]

I am following this closely. I will be hunting blackbuck and axis in Argentina in June as well, and have the same questions…..

 

[Doubleplay]

I was there last month and was told about a year.
Which outfit you guys are using?

 

[Mekaniks]

I was there last month and was told about a year.
Which outfit you guys are using?

I will be hunting with @MG Hunting

 

[RR 314]

I have several friends that go to Argentina every year. The last couple years they have expressed disdain for how expensive shipping has gotten recently compared to previous pre-Covid years.

 

[ArmyAV8tor]

I will be hunting Blackbuck and boar this month with Catena. I'll post when I learn anything.

 

[MontanaPat]

I hunted red stag and Russian boar in March 2023, had my shipment arrive in Montana by first week of October. Hunted with Algar Safaris. Shipment came from BA to Seattle via American Airlines. I have a hunt report on AH with all of the shipping details

 

[Tbitty]

I was in Argentina a couple years ago. I took a red stag and blackbuck. The standard "dip and pack" service to get skull/horns and hide home had the heads effectively euro mount finished when they arrived to me.

Our outfitter waited until end of season to make a single trip from Santa Rosa to Buenos Aires with all trophies from all hunts, and having gone in March at the start of the Roar, we had to wait longer than those who went at the end of the year. When they were finally ready to go from a processing standpoint, Argentina regulations changed and caused a delay in processing of paperwork to get them cleared to ship (or at least that's what I was told - partially confirmed by talking to a separate outfitter that is an AH Sponsor). It ended up taking something like 12-15 months for them to finally leave Argentina. But again, when they arrived they were Euro hang ready. Unfortunately my troubles weren't over and the hides were somehow misplaced at the tannery before making it to my taxidermist so I'm still waiting to see the final work over 2 years later on my pedestal stag and wall pedestal blackbuck.

To try and help answer better to the OP question- I would think somewhere between 8-10months (depending on when you hunt during the season and where) from hunt to arrival in the US. But that is a bit of speculation on my part.

 

[Dawg2019]

I will be hunting with Pointer Outfitters. Dove hunt will be in Cordova and travel to La Pampa for red stag.

 

[Nevada Wapati]

I finally got mine last month. It took nearly 23 months. The Argentina government and the shipper ere the cause of the delay. MG Hunting delivered the animals the same day we left camp as we were the last group.

Three of the four heads were missing teeth with the buffalo missing six. The red stag is missing a 2" piece of bone from the upper jaw.

But I have to say the skulls were the cleanest I've ever received.

 

[Dawg2019]

what is the best way to get a good euro mount from this hunt?
Just have to local guys do all the work
Or
“Dip and pack”, ship back to the states for finishing?
Any foreseeable difference in cost or time? It will only be the one mount.

 

[ArmyAV8tor]

Just returned from Argentina. Catena will hold all trophies till August end of season and then deliver to shipper.

 

[Stetsonham]

Just returned from Argentina. Catena will hold all trophies till August end of season and then deliver to shipper.

Did they have any good estimates on time once the shipper acquired it in August?

 

[ArmyAV8tor]

Nothing specific yet. I am focusing on making sure my importer has good contact info.

 

[Captain W.]

I have a dove and Red Stag hunt coming up in June and was wondering if anyone had tried to ship back anything recently? I plan to just have a euro mount of the stag. I was wondering the average time from hunt to delivery of trophies?
Thanks for any input.

Still waiting for mine (red stag, blackbuck and feral goat) from March 2023 but even more frustrating is no one can tell me what the situation is....never had this happen in four safaris in Namibia. In fact, trophies from my last Namibia hunt in October arrived at my taxidermist a week ago. Still waiting for any word at all on my trophies from Argentina after 16 months... Both outfitter and booking agency are well known. No one seems to be able to tell me or the other group of hunters that were there and who are also waiting for their trophies anything about anything. Very frustrating.

 

[Boone66]

I hope they get this all worked out, one day I plan to go down their for a hunt.

 

[jpomazi]

Argentina is probably one of the worst and most expensive places to get your trophies back from. My understanding is they only have two brokers that handle these over there and so they basically have the market cornered. All the added b.s charges are ridiculous. More is better over there as this example points out. I had an uncle/ nephew hunt the same place I was at in March of 2023. They hunted the following week that I was there. They took a stag each and just had euro mounts and their shipping charge was about $2,500. The four of us took 4 red stag and 4 blackbuck. Two of the stag and one of the blackbuck were done as shoulder mounts over there. The price of our crate around $3,000. The point being is the shipping charges by themselves are not horrible it's all the other made up costs.
My other complaint would be Dip and pack charges. The dip and pack was about $350 per animal. The taxidermy on a shoulder mount was reasonable. So in my mind. Why not have a blackbuck shoulder mount done for $600. Only $250 more than the dip and pack so a no brainer. NO. They still charge the dip and pack even if you have the taxidermy done. All in all Argentina is a great experience but it can be soured by the trophy import if you are not prepared for what it entails. I have reached out to the outfitters we represent encouraging them to form their own company that does imports as it would be a huge plus for their clientele. By the way I paid for my shipping about a month ago and still haven't been alerted the crate has shipped. So I am at 16 months. Hopefully this helps.

 

[Lane03]

I have a dove and Red Stag hunt coming up in June and was wondering if anyone had tried to ship back anything recently? I plan to just have a euro mount of the stag. I was wondering the average time from hunt to delivery of trophies?
Thanks for any input.

I was looking into working with Pointer Outfitters. How did your hunts go? Would you recommend them or suggest working with a different outfitter?

 

[Doubleplay]

I was looking into working with Pointer Outfitters. How did your hunts go? Would you recommend them or suggest working with a different outfitter?

I know the owner of Pointer personally. They are a good outfit.
However the problem is not the outfitters, it's the shipping agents and government.
We hunted with @MG Hunting last March and still did not hear anything about trophies.
Very frustrating.
I personally will not hunt big game in Argentina again regardless who's the outfitter.

 

[Dawg2019]

Pointer was a top notch organization, I would highly recommend them to anyone. We hunted dove and red stag, stayed to 2 separate lodges and everything was amazing. Accommodations, food, guides and hunting exceeded my expectations.