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

[CAustin]

What wonderful news. Congrats to you!

 

[johnnyblues]

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.

Great news sir, I am happy for you. I totally agree with you I would NEVER clear my own trophies it's just not worth that kind of aggravation. I would much rather pay SSI to do what they do best. As they told me when I hired them for my up coming safari....You hunt let us worry about the rest!

 

[sestoppelman]

For sure johnny, never again! 4th time I have done it, and the last. Thanks all!

 

[gizmo]

SES I'm super happy for you and I'm glad it all worked out in the end. It sux you had to go through all hell to get it done though.

 

[robertq]

Scott,
Post a photo of you and your son with the biggest smile on your face with 3177 FWL....
We at SSI are very happy for you and especially for your son on this trip of a lifetime....

 

[Scott Slough]

GREAT news ... I had about 2 1/2 days of no communication on the arrival of my trophies and four hours of absolute stupidity on Air Forward in Houston's part where I was able to see but not retrieve my trophies .... I had it EASY. Thanks for keeping us up to date. And I agree with SSI ... please post a picture with the two of you and the crate.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats, Ses, really happy for you

 

[sestoppelman]

Thanks again guys. Here is the boy with the form, pen pointing at the clearance stamp.

 

[Diamondhitch]

A thing of beauty.

 

[Desingillam]

I gotta tell you, I thought I had to jump through some hoops. I had an extra $600.oo off loading charge at the ship docks in Canada and because of a missing "original CITES document" I paid another $580.00 for storage while that was sent to me from Hamburg. I am so glad you received your stuff in the end, form these stupid experiences we do come away with very profound lessons.

All the best

Des

 

[Diamondhitch]

BTW nice yard SES

 

[enysse]

The mounts look clean and ready for the wall!

 

[Hogpatrol]

Just catching up on this thread. What a PITA! Glad to see all turned out well. I've done two self-clears in Atlanta and the FWS guys couldn't have been more helpful. My fellow hunters told me to stay away from New York and Baltimore where they've had problems.

 

[sestoppelman]

BTW nice yard SES

Good thing I just mowed I guess. I like the whole jungle look thing, reminds of the swamp in Botswana!

 

[sestoppelman]

I gotta tell you, I thought I had to jump through some hoops. I had an extra $600.oo off loading charge at the ship docks in Canada and because of a missing "original CITES document" I paid another $580.00 for storage while that was sent to me from Hamburg. I am so glad you received your stuff in the end, form these stupid experiences we do come away with very profound lessons.

All the best

Des

Yeah, lesson number one! NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[K-man]

Congrats on persevering. you should frame the clearance docs as well and post them with the trophies

 

[sestoppelman]

The mounts look clean and ready for the wall!

I brushed all the horns with linseed oil as they were all pretty dried out. I have done that with a lot of my other horns and it helps keep them looking half decent over time. Takes a few days to soak in though. This June has been the nicest, warmest and driest in recent memory so stuff just sit outside. Normally June sucks in the NW, but this one is exceptional.

 

[enysse]

The weather in Wisconsin has been nice too. I'm enjoying the weather this year. The linseed oil looks real good on the horns.

 

[Bhfs300]

I have been watching this since the beginning and I am thrilled that it is all ok now. My dip and ship was sitting in Atlanta in customs on hold for 13 days but they were finally sent to Chicago and I just got an email from Michael Lewis of Coppersmith telling me that my trophies passed Fish and Wildlife and he got the clearance from customs so they will get shipped to Dennis tomorrow for tanning. When he gets back from his safari he can start on my pedestal shoulder mount.

Tom

 

[sestoppelman]

That's good news Tom!
The shipping part of this was a breeze. It was cheap, quick, ahead of schedule and they only charged me $50 for storage and the usual $50 handling whatever fee. This was Delta. All in all I have to count myself lucky especially the way this started. I thought my goose was cooked!