Taxidermy Pricing

[Manfred Egerer]

Hi There

Check out my website Nyatiwildlifeart.com , and if you have any questions, let me know.We are looking forward to having you in Namibia.Manfred

 

[browningbbr]

Lots of advice already thrown your way, so I won't try to advise you. Here's my recent experience and learnings with on animals hunted in the RSA last year:

Hunt: May 2009
Animals / Mount:
Zebra - rug
Kudu - pedestal
Gemsbok - pedestal
Eland - pedestal
Blesbok - shoulder
Springbok - shoulder
Impala - shoulder
Wildebeest - shoulder
Warthog - shoulder

Had all backskins except warthog shipped back and tanned.

Total dip and pack cost = $1000
Shipping / clearance / brokerage = $1300
Tanning / Taxidermy in US = $10,700

Lesson learned:
1. My taxidermist has a lot of experience mounting African game and importing heads and hides, so I'm glad I listened to him. He knew what he was talking about when he recommended a dip/pack service and import broker.

2. My taxidermist has an "expedited" program (pay half before the trophies even ship from Africa to get put into the queue), so I took him up on it. It saved me several months of waiting.

3. Total taxidermy costs about the same as the hunt (not including air fare).

I am extremely pleased with the quality of the taxidermy work done.

Good Luck!

- browningbbr

 

[steve.pitts]

You know Dinsdale you bring up a good point I had not considered. I don't have to have all my mounts done immediately if I use my local German taxidermist. If I have the trophies mounted in the Eastern Cape then that is a different story.

I returned last month from my plains game hunt in the Eastern Cape. I had not considered not mounting all my trophies all at once. The taxidermy is cheaper at the Eastern Cape outfitter I hunted with (~ $2,800), but the shipping is basically $2K to Germany (where I am currently working). Once you add the taxidermy, shipping charges plus the import taxes and insurance it is around the $6K range. To be honest I looked at their work for 30 minutes and it was OK, but it did not stand out as really great work.

One thing they pushed which I was not familar with, is removable horns from the mounts to reduce the size of the crate. Without knowing they were removable, I would not have been able to tell. But to be honest, that does not settle good with me. It doen't seem right for some reason.

Has anyone taken advantage of this mounting technique to save on shipping?

The Germany taxidermist after the euro to dollar exchange rate is little better than $5K for my six mounts, plus the shipping of a much smaller crate and less insurance. I have not received this shipping quote back yet, but should have it soon.

Once I get all the shipping, taxes, and insurance rates, i am going to talk to my local taxidermist about spreading the work out.

Thanks for a good idea that totally escaped me.

 

[Rob404]

Ok,,what if all you want to do is hunt and are not really interested Mounting anything,,,Can you Just take the Horns ,,as a Chef I,d be more interested in Meat,,any way of shipping that back to the states fast enough an Packed so it doesn,t spoil

 

[Code4]

Taxidermy will always be cheaper in Africa due to the low labour rates. Depending on what you want to bring back, estimate 20-50% of your initial safari costs again, for trophy prep and shipping.

If you collect animal mounts it is going to cost you no matter which way you go. The best thing we ever did was bring back a Zebra floor rug for the house and a few euro mounts for my shed. Cheap and simple.

 

[enysse]

Ok,,what if all you want to do is hunt and are not really interested Mounting anything,,,Can you Just take the Horns ,,as a Chef I,d be more interested in Meat,,any way of shipping that back to the states fast enough an Packed so it doesn,t spoil

You can't bring back the meat and you are under no obligation to mount anything. Take a good camera! Bring back the horns via Euro mounts.

 

[Rob404]

You can't bring back the meat and you are under no obligation to mount anything. Take a good camera! Bring back the horns via Euro mounts.

Thanks for the reply and forgive the Newbie question what is a Euro Mount

 

[Wolverine67]

Euromount is basically the scull bleached and mounted on a shield. Or just bleached, with no shield.

 

[Cliffy]

Rob44 Don't worry about questions here at AH, Everyone is here to help in they can and there are no stupid questions. I'd be very surprised if one of the long time members didn't have the same question at one time or another. Welcome.