Help-African European Skull Mount

[Ontario Hunter]

That price difference where it is "cheaper to get them done in Africa" is quickly slipping away. A lot of full body mounts are still cheaper in Africa, but the shoulder mounts are getting to US prices. And then the shipping is much higher if you want a lot of things mounted. This is a bit off the topic of the thread, but African taxidermists are starting to lose the ability to claim how much cheaper they are. They are still much much faster than shoulder mounts in the states though.

Again, therein is another advantage to ordering both skulls and dip and pack capes if the client decides to have his trophy mounted at home. Besides the HUGE cost savings on shipment vs completed fur mounts in Africa, the client can display the skull in his home while waiting for his number to come up at local taxidermist (which can be up to two years!). Taxidermist simply calls client and tells him when the work is about to start. At that point taxidermist will know if cape is usable. If it is, client brings in the skull.

 

[buck wild]

If you don't specify this the taxidermist will send the cape off with horns chopped off the skull. Then your only option if the cape is no good is to nail the horns to a board.

Interesting that has been your experience. I haven't handled 1,000s of safaris but I bet I've handled 75 or so from at least 4 different countries. Can't say I have ever seen horns that were saved for a mount chopped at the skull cap when arriving from Africa. They have always come intact (to the point of whatever that means, such as loose bones etc) I thought about skull capping my last safari to save a little space in the crate, but in the end I left the skulls whole figuring it wasn't going to save me much.

Adding that all skulls be "euroed" even though you plan to mount seems to be an excessive add-on costs. Lots of skulls sent for mounting are still good enough to do a euro if client changes their mind. Not all by any means, as we have all seen the greasy, nasty ones, cratered in etc, but well over the majority of them could be euro saved if needed.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Interesting that has been your experience. I haven't handled 1,000s of safaris but I bet I've handled 75 or so from at least 4 different countries. Can't say I have ever seen horns that were saved for a mount chopped at the skull cap when arriving from Africa. They have always come intact (to the point of whatever that means, such as loose bones etc) I thought about skull capping my last safari to save a little space in the crate, but in the end I left the skulls whole figuring it wasn't going to save me much.

Adding that all skulls be "euroed" even though you plan to mount seems to be an excessive add-on costs. Lots of skulls sent for mounting are still good enough to do a euro if client changes their mind. Not all by any means, as we have all seen the greasy, nasty ones, cratered in etc, but well over the majority of them could be euro saved if needed.

Just received an email from my taxidermist in Port Elizabeth re this issue. They suggested that I have my skulls shipped as "european mounts" on scrap lumber "plaques". That way some of the red tape re "vet inspections" can be circumvented. Presumably as naked freestanding skulls they are classified as "dip and pack" but attached to plaques they may be considered "finished taxidermy." Still investigating to see if it actually makes a difference on either end. This might explain why all the plains game skulls in my first shipment were attached to rough plywood plaques. I responded today that I'm okay with it as long as no appreciable increase in cost of mounting the skulls to scrap lumber plaques. But don't saw the skulls flat and I want all the teeth intact. I prefer a naked skull mounted on the wall.