I had a pretty decent experience with Splitting Image. My hunt was June of 2021, the timeline given to me was 10 to 12 months, it took 18 months. The other people in my group (8 of them) are still waiting on their trophies and it's been 24 months.
I experienced pretty good communication from Splitting Image, the other folks in my group have not.
I had issues with Badger Cargo and there were several things not explained when they came out to the outfitter to talk with our group and give us pricing. So what started as a 9.5k taxidermy bill quickly rose to 14k and then another 8k in shipping costs which were unexpected. We were told that all of our trophies could ship in the same container in separate crates to help us save on freight costs... this is obviously not the case and everyone's trophies seem to be shipping at different times with maximum hit on the pocket book and maximum profit for Badger Caro which I'm sure a portion ends up in the taxidermist's pocket.
The animals look great. No doubt about the quality of their work. The communication could be much better (at least for the 9 other hunters in my group). The full explanation of costs, fees, etc could be better explained and I've told my contacts there all of the things I'm typing now.
I just got back from my second safari and I'm spending days on this forum reading everyone's experiences to try and decide who to send my animals to. I like Splitting Image's work, but the price and the experience may not be worth it again.
My 2 cents.