Taxidermy Question

[Neophyte]

When I go over I’m thinking of having a local taxidermist do my mounts and ship the finished product to the states.

Is this a common thing? Does it usually end up being cheaper? My thinking is that local taxidermist will be more familiar with the animals and thus have more experience to bring out the visual appeal of the animals.

 

[DieJager]

Probably cost will even out because of finished taxidermy work will require more space thus more costly. Also I assume that you mean Africa.

Also if the country you live in is America it is safe to assume your taxidermist if familiar with African game.

Also the quality I see on taxidermists from the states is levels above those of most African taxidermists. But not all.

 

[JimP]

If you use a quality shop in Africa you will get quality work.

On my last trip I had mine done in South Africa. It was quicker and cheaper but most of the savings was taken up by extra shipping.

The big plus was that my taxidermist here in the US was 15 months out after he received the dip and pack so my trophies were hanging on my wall a year faster by having them done in South Africa.

 

[Hunt anything]

Pros on done in RSA
1) much quicker turn around time
2) much cheaper
3) familiar with African animals
4) easier to replace a skin if something is damaged during tanning
5)finished taxidermy seems to clear all of the administrative BS quicker as opposed to just dip&pack.
Cons on RSA
1) if you don’t do your homework and vet a taxidermist the quality may be sub par
2) shipping of finished taxidermy is more expensive ( but with the way prices are rising in the states this may be a wash)
3) communication may be hard with the time difference
If you have a long lasting relationship with a taxidermist in the states maybe you can work out a quicker turn around .
I’ve done both on my 4 trips and have started leaning towards getting stuff mounted in RSA, so far the quality has been good but I look at a lot of taxidermist before making a decision.

 

[Doug3006]

I had the taxidermy work done in SA on my last trip. Quality was good, but shipping costs are so high now that I paid more than doing it here. Not much more, but the price advantage seems to have evaporated.

 

[Ryan]

The short answer is, or perhaps was whe I did it between 2013 and 2021 when I did four trips, it's cheaper and faster to have it done over there (in Africa) for both the work and the shipping. yes, the shipping was more for completed heads, but the cost of the work was cheaper and overall ended up a big savings. But now, I've heard of the cost of shipping rising substantially, so perhaps not.
Now the longer version
Quality in Africa can be good, but it can also be poor. Do your homework and talk to the taxidermist. Realize, in the States most taxidermy businesses are often one person businesses focus

 

[buck wild]

You can search and read for hours on this subject here, and there are lots of opinions both ways .

BUT you made several big ASSUMPTIONS in your strategy, most already addressed by others above. I won't hit those again, but generally I find that being from a local area doesn't make you "more familiar" with local animals, at least not from a taxidermy prospective. It takes a dedication to studying autotomy and reference to be a taxidermy subject matter expert. The internet has provided a vast array of 2D reference these days and a person can learn more about the finer details of each individual animal having never seen one in person. Couple that with prior master level skills as a taxidermist and they can pull it off having never seen one in person.

Over time I have learned that one of the keys I look for to discern if a taxidermist is very knowledgeable about the individual animals has become ear shape. There is a subset of African animals with very particular ear shapes that are not easily reproduced in taxidermy. If the taxidermist can get that correct, then that tends to tell me that are probably a student of learning and MIGHT be able to produce an accurate replica of the animals in a mount.

Live animals from 3 different species

Now here are 3 random pictures I pulled from the internet of mounts (hopefully no one is offended if I pulled your mount by random chance . I saw a few AH pictures on my search and skipped those intentionally !!)

There is one big mistake in all three taxidermy examples. Do you see it ?

 

[DieJager]

@buck wild now it cannot be unseen by me, thanks LOL. Now I am gonna study my options yet again for choosing a taxidermist . But better now than afterwards.

 

[Hunt anything]

@buck wild , great point about the ears, roan in particular have funky shaped ears, also if they don’t get the eyes correct it can really take away from a quality mount.

 

[BryceM]

As has been said, shipping costs have climbed even more than taxidermy costs. If in doubt, go with the one that will give you the best quality. For me, I’ve been using a shop in Windhoek. The have a massive showroom, and it’s pretty easy to see what you’ll be getting. It’s also somewhat nicer to open a crate full of finished beauties than a box full of powdery folded up capes, skulls, and random horns.

 

[yhc]

When I go over I’m thinking of having a local taxidermist do my mounts and ship the finished product to the states.

Is this a common thing? Does it usually end up being cheaper? My thinking is that local taxidermist will be more familiar with the animals and thus have more experience to bring out the visual appeal of the animals.

Concur with what’s already mentioned above.

If you’re going to hunt in South Africa, I recommend one of the sponsors, @LIFE-FORM TAXIDERMY in South Africa. They did an excellent job with my hunting party’s trophies in 2021. Their customer representatives were very responsive and very accommodating.

Regards,

 

[Ryan]

Dern it, I was typing and half my post loaded.

So let me continue.
Local US shops are usually run by one person, maybe two or three, but mostly one. But all dealing with one or two animals per client. That allows for close attention to detail, if they are good. My local guy is great, but I can think of one or two others that are no better than good African ones. But a slower and more expensive process. Per head I paid half if not a third of the cost in Africa compared to the US. African taxidermy shops are usually larger, composed of a team of workers with one or more taxidermist as supervision and completion. They are often dealing with multiple trophies from each client. It's a difference in scale. The taxidermist probably has hunting experience but the team may or may not have a lot of hunting experience. But if they have good experience in the shop they can still do decent work. And they can do it cheaper per head and faster. So, I won't lie, my work from Africa is not as good as my local guy, but it is decent and I am happy. Honestly a taxidermist anywhere in the world can do a good job with a game head from Africa if they have decent forms, understanding of animal anatomy and experience in their work.
So when choosing a shop, loval or overseas take your time. Go into the local one and look at their work. Check out the website of the ones overseas. They're going to show you their best work up front. Personally if most (or all of) what I see at first is straight shoulder mounts looking dead into space I walk away. That's just fast production line work there. I've seen it here and there. Even slight turns improve things immensely. Talk to the taxidermist. WhatsApp, text and email a few times. If things sound good, continue, if something sounds too good to be true, it is, walk.

As for shipping, even though the box was bigger the half costs on heads made up for it and Africa taxidermist are experts at loading a box. You open the top and it looks like a Tetris game. That said, talk to shippers and find out how that's playing out now.
Good luck

 

[JimP]

One big thing that if you start asking for recommendations is where you are going to be hunting and can you visit the taxidermy shop.

It won't help much if you are hunting in the Limpop area and everyone recommends a taxidermist down in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.