BOTSWANA: NKWE SAFARIS Hunt Report

[Hunt anything]

Great deep curls on that kudu, congratulations!

 

[CamoManJ]

Thank you

Great deep curls on that kudu, congratulation

 

[CamoManJ]

@NKWE SAFARIS
@TRAVEL EXPRESS

 

[Jon Glajchen]

Great report, well told. I especially liked the part about the Eland and the emotion you felt!

 

[lfdgodfather]

Great Report

 

[TRAVEL EXPRESS]

Well done! What an amazing adventure, and hopefully the first of many. Thanks for trusting is us to be a part of it all.

 

[CamoManJ]

I have received my trophy shipment this morning in San Antonio. 6 months was much faster than I expected. I used Mochaba taxidermy in Botswana & Coppersmith to get these home. Included were Eland, Kudu, Red Hartebeest & Blue Wildebeest skull/horns only for euro style mounts, no hides. I included the breakdown of my entire bill from taxidermy’s dip, pack & ship and Coppersmith’s import services to my home, shown at the bottom. Note: on line 1, Freight charges included the forwarded Taxidermist charges of $300 USD for their services. $1261.00 for freight alone. They used Ethiopian Airlines from Maun, Botswana to Gabarone, Ethiopia to Atlanta. I am happy with this quick service and I believe the pricing is on par with today’s market price.

There is one thing I was NOT expecting…not sure if this is normal standard procedure, but all of the horn tips have been sawed off about an inch, why? I am not sure if they included the tips with the package, as I am working away from home until Sunday where I will take a closer look, conduct a thorough inspection & take to my local taxidermist. My wife says the cardboard box of trophies stink, the items are bagged in plastic & our cats won’t have anything to do with it…all life have abandoned the garage. Oh well…I’ll deal with it. I hope the tips don’t become an issue. Just curious, why saw em off?

 

[Stetsonham]

I have received my trophy shipment this morning in San Antonio. 6 months was much faster than I expected. I used Mochaba taxidermy in Botswana & Coppersmith to get these home. Included were Eland, Kudu, Red Hartebeest & Blue Wildebeest skull/horns only for euro style mounts, no hides. I included the breakdown of my entire bill from taxidermy’s dip, pack & ship and Coppersmith’s import services to my home, shown at the bottom. Note: on line 1, Freight charges included the forwarded Taxidermist charges of $300 USD for their services. $1261.00 for freight alone. They used Ethiopian Airlines from Maun, Botswana to Gabarone, Ethiopia to Atlanta. I am happy with this quick service and I believe the pricing is on par with today’s market price.

There is one thing I was NOT expecting…not sure if this is normal standard procedure, but all of the horn tips have been sawed off about an inch, why? I am not sure if they included the tips with the package, as I am working away from home until Sunday where I will take a closer look, conduct a thorough inspection & take to my local taxidermist. My wife says the cardboard box of trophies stink, the items are bagged in plastic & our cats won’t have anything to do with it…all life have abandoned the garage. Oh well…I’ll deal with it. I hope the tips don’t become an issue. Just curious, why saw em off?



View attachment 669569

That is very much not normal. Please post photos as soon as you can.

 

[Hunt anything]

Never heard of sawing off the tips of the horns. Show some pictures when you you get back.

 

[CamoManJ]

I talked to my wife again and asked her to look at them closely to verify the tips are cut or not. She put a dab a toothpaste under each nostril, wore a mask & obliged. Upon opening the plastic bag of one the trophies, she realized that the tips were covered up by a protective piece that we both didn’t during our brief FaceTime session. What a relief! She will send me pics any minute. I apologize for this mistake.

 

[Hunt anything]

If they smell that bad I’m surprised they weren’t flagged and incinerated. Good luck.

 

[MontanaPat]

I have received my trophy shipment this morning in San Antonio. 6 months was much faster than I expected. I used Mochaba taxidermy in Botswana & Coppersmith to get these home. Included were Eland, Kudu, Red Hartebeest & Blue Wildebeest skull/horns only for euro style mounts, no hides. I included the breakdown of my entire bill from taxidermy’s dip, pack & ship and Coppersmith’s import services to my home, shown at the bottom. Note: on line 1, Freight charges included the forwarded Taxidermist charges of $300 USD for their services. $1261.00 for freight alone. They used Ethiopian Airlines from Maun, Botswana to Gabarone, Ethiopia to Atlanta. I am happy with this quick service and I believe the pricing is on par with today’s market price.

There is one thing I was NOT expecting…not sure if this is normal standard procedure, but all of the horn tips have been sawed off about an inch, why? I am not sure if they included the tips with the package, as I am working away from home until Sunday where I will take a closer look, conduct a thorough inspection & take to my local taxidermist. My wife says the cardboard box of trophies stink, the items are bagged in plastic & our cats won’t have anything to do with it…all life have abandoned the garage. Oh well…I’ll deal with it. I hope the tips don’t become an issue. Just curious, why saw em off?



View attachment 669569

Jay, great to hear that your trophies have made it home to the states. I've never heard of them sawing off the horn tips, the previous trophies that Kevin Billings had come from NKWE and Mochaba did not have that done.

I had Mochaba send my trophies from last June to AHG shipping in Joburg so they could be combined into one crate with 2 trophies I took in RSA the week after I hunted with NKWE. I was contacted by Mochaba in Nov for payment and told that they were on their way to AHG scheduled to arrive on Nov 14th. In January I emailed AHG asking for an update on when my crate would be ready to ship to the US. The 2 animals I took in RSA I decided to have a dip and tan done in RSA (basically the same cost as dip and pack) since I suspected that the Botswana stuff would take a little while to reach Joburg. AHG told me in mid Jan that they had taken delivery of my 5 Botswana trophies and that my tanned capes would be done at the end of Feb and it should all be ready to ship right about now in early March. This morning I got an email from AHG Trophy shipping telling me that my 2 RSA trophies were ready to crate and ship, however my Botswana trophies were being held up at the Botswana border by RSA border management. Apparently my trophies from the November shipment were included along with several other trophy crates from Mochaba in a single truck and in one of the crates were some CITES animals and whomever that crates RSA shipper was they did not submit the correct CITES paperwork for clearance so the entire truck of crates was being held until that problem is resolved and now 3 months later we are still waiting. AHG said they were supposed to hear more tomorrow on 3/7.

Something smells fishy to me on this since AHG said in January that they already had my trophies?? Now I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever see my trophies from NKWE at all which is a bummer. My eland looked like a twin to your bull and that 58" kudu may be history. Also had a nice warthog, steenbok and blue wildebeest in there. Keeping my fingers crossed to see them one day soon. Glad yours made it home.

Pat

 

[Hunt anything]

Good luck to all, it’s always nerve racking until you have your trophies in your possession and up on the wall!

 

[CamoManJ]

Wow, Pat…that is stressful BS! I sure hope it works out for you, not fun at all. Please keep us posted.

 

[CamoManJ]

Ok, my lovely wife has been a patient trooper today on her day off. She took all the trophies out of the box, cut open the bags, left the skull wrapping on and laid it out on the front lawn to air out. (And for me too piss of any anti hunting neighbors, if I have any or to impress the good ones) Posted below are the pictures she took, everything looks good & as expected the kudu horns were removed at the base.

The protector on the wildebeest below have been removed to show tips are good:

Protectors on the tips below:

Trophies displayed on my lawn, kudu @ top right skull & horns secured properly.

Again, I apologize for the confusion earlier. In fact, I want to mention that @NKWE SAFARIS , Mochaba Taxidermy, Ethiopian Airlines, Coppersmith & SouthEastern Freight all did a great job that exceeded my expectations and way ahead of schedule. Lastly & most importantly…Jaco, his Family and the staff @ NKWE worked hand in hand every step of the way watching the email train during this process of getting my had earned Trophies safely to my home. I knew my gut was right with choosing NKWE Safaris, they take care of their clients like family from the beginning to the end.

Next, I will show the final product when I get them back from my local taxidermist and on the wall…let’s see how long that takes, how much they charge and how good they turn out.

 

[MontanaPat]

Looks like a false alarm about the tips being cut off, looks like they put rubber tubing protectors on them and made it like like they were cut off! Looks like Mochaba did a nice job prepping them for shipment

 

[CamoManJ]

Included are better pictures to show why we were mistaken earlier when still in plastic bags. Also added another picture of the eland & hartebeest. I agree, nice job of trophy preparation by Mochaba.

 

[Hunt anything]

They definitely look squared off! Great trophies by the way!

 

[Hyde Hunter]

I know you were sweating bullets over this, so glad it is coming together. it is a shame the extra charges exceed the actual shipping charges. cannot wait till you get to post the pictures when they are on the wall.