Trophy pick up day!! NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[enysse]

Yes, I see a bad outcome here......altering paperwork, nope USFWL ain't going to like that one. The only thing they can do is take pity on your situation. Which is not likely going to happen

 

[sestoppelman]

Robert, again thank you for your consideration. I am pretty much resigned to this, just thought I would give my outfitter a shot at providing perhaps enough paperwork to get me through this but I am not optimistic at all. I had hoped to hear something from him by today, but nothing yet. He I know is busy hunting. Oh and lwaters, I don't think being in Texas is going to necessarily make things any easier. FWS is a federal operation, not state. The agents can be from anywhere.

 

[lcq]

Robert, again thank you for your consideration. I am pretty much resigned to this, just thought I would give my outfitter a shot at providing perhaps enough paperwork to get me through this but I am not optimistic at all. I had hoped to hear something from him by today, but nothing yet. He I know is busy hunting. Oh and lwaters, I don't think being in Texas is going to necessarily make things any easier. FWS is a federal operation, not state. The agents can be from anywhere.

You are correct about FWS being federal but Texas unlike some of the Democrat states will have Republican representatives who will go to bat for their constituents, unlike their Democrat counterparts

 

[sestoppelman]

Well fellow members there is news and its all good!! I got more forms and paperwork from my outfitter in SA today, then forwarded them to FWS at SeaTac and within an hour got a reply saying that's all we need and we will clear the shipment shortly. And sure enough the very helpful overly friendly, good, kind and wonderful folks at the local FWS was good to their word, the shipment was cleared and good to go to Customs for final clearance (3 minutes, tops!) and then on to Delta (20 minutes) for retrieval. So off my boy and I went for another 4 hour round trip, this time with a stop off at Dicks Drive In for mass quantities of burgers, fries and shakes of course to while away the drive home! Now I tell you vat. I had all manner of snarky, rude, semi nasty things I was going to send to various depts. of the Govt, about all of this but frankly I am in too good a mood and too relieved and don't feel like being as petty as they were about all of this. In reality this would never have happened were it not for my forgetting about the procedure and telling my boy to keep his pie hole closed. My fault entirely. So to heck with it, done and over. I was so shocked, shocked, this morning when they emailed and said, all good, come and get it, I nearly choked on my coffee! I had my wife read it twice as I was at first totally disbelieving, thinking it was some sort of trick to get me down there again to give me the rubber hose treatment. Obviously that is a bit paranoid but after nearly 10 days of having this hanging around my neck I admit to getting not just a little concerned.

So let this be a lesson to youse guys. The days of being able to fudge on shipping crates and paperwork are OVER! And I think SSI will confirm that and once again I would like to thank them for their advice and cautions in this matter, I really appreciate their guidance. I can tell you this. FWS will NEVER see my smiling face in their offices again unless by subpoena. I wont do it this way again. Either set it up with a broker like SSI or your taxi at home, but self clearing unless you stay on your nimble toes is getting too dicey for me at least and I can no longer recommend it as an option. Thanks for all the kind words and support from my fellow members! I really appreciate it! I will sleep better tonight.

 

[stug]

That is awesome!! Well done on seeing it through to the end.

 

[lcq]

glad everything turned out well

 

[ChasingHemingway]

Congrats - can't wait to see the finished product!

dt

 

[Albertaguy]

Wow ! Good for you! Chalk one up for the good guys!

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Outstanding!!!!!! I'm so happy for you Scott and your son!

 

[Hank2211]

Great news Ses! Well done.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

Happy for you!

 

[Diamondhitch]

I really had a hard time clicking on this today but Im glad I did. Good Work SES (and team lol) I love a happy ending (no pun intended)

 

[JimP]

I'm glad that you got everything taken care of and will soon be hanging those trophies on the walls

I can't wait for the pictures of them.

 

[sestoppelman]

Thanks to all of you. Don't get too exited about nice trophies on the wall. I just did minimal skull and horns, not even Euro panels. Only thing at all neat really is the flat skin I had made from the nyala, its nice. Hells bells, if this had been a load of shoulder mounts, I would have needed to get mental help to get thru all this! They will all likely occupy a nail on the wall in the garage/shop with a couple dozen others.

 

[gillettehunter]

Great news and truely unexpected. Congrats on getting them in the end. Bruce

 

[sestoppelman]

I had pretty much given up but my SA PH had more confidence than I did and said "hold on, let me send some documents". Most surprising is the speed with which things changed, this morning. In an hour it was all over, good to go. I want to then thank my PH Phil de Kock at Bosbok Safaris for being patient with my panicked calls for documents and sending them along especially when I know he was and is busy with clients that don't have paperwork issues! Thanks Phil!!

 

[enysse]

Congrats!

 

[Dinsdale]

Good news!

Brought back my Tahr cape/skull/horns as checked bag through LAX recently and frankly US Customs and USF&W couldn't have been nicer and easy to deal with.

 

[Royal27]

Awesome!

 

[billc]

So glad this worked out for you in the end. Great to see your PH worked just as hard to help with the paperwork as you needed.