After reading the different posts of shipping and taxidermy adventures, what would be the benefits of just shipping the skull and horns of a cape buffalo back? Is it any faster or significantly cheaper than head/shoulder mounts? Logic would say that it would be but of course when logic goes up against capitalism logic takes it on the chin every time. Also, any danger to the horns or boss when preparing a skull?

Thanks,

Mark

Mark:

For what it's worth to you I shipped a buff head (intact) with 42" horns for a shoulder mount from Zimbabwe to NY port of entry for about $1300. This was in 1993. I have no idea whether I was gypped or not - and couldn't care less. I happily paid what it cost to preserve those delicate horn tips. The crate was some 6' x6' (I saw it when it arrived)and had all kinds of labels on it about being "fragile" and "this end up" and had padding inside. there also was wooden framework inside to keep the head from moving around. All this costs money to get the people who will do it. Why spend thousands of dollars on safari and then try to save money on shipping the trophy home? That's my thought.

Mark,
It cost me $967 to ship (and clear) a buffalo skull and Lichtenstein hartebeest skull back from Tanzania. Just the two skulls with horns. $967. U.S. dollars.

If it hadn't been a big buffalo, I wouldn't have bothered.

George

First off, I have never shipped a single trophy anywhere and I am probably dumber than a stump, but how in the world do these things cost so much to ship? Don't they have a UPS store in RSA, or Fed Ex? Pray tell, what is the big d**n deal? My mother can take cardboard and foam pellets and ship antique vases and other assorted glassware via PRIORITY USPS MAIL all over the country and someone charges thousands of $$$ for bones and leather . Maybe if I got into the shipping business I could afford to go on safari sooner rather than later. Like I said, maybe I'm just stupid.

I think what I should do is plan another safari the year after my first (by then the taxidermy should be done - yeah right LOL to me), then pack my my Dewalt drill and a handsaw in a TuffPak, buy some cheap lumber, foam pellets/wrapping, that fuzzy hay-looking stuff, and some good strapping tape in RSA and then build the dang shipping box myself. I could probably save enough to pay for my flight over there. Do the same every two years or so .

P.S. What is the deal with taxidermists? I think the Cistine Chapel's ceiling got painted in less time than it take the average taxidermist to mount one white-tailed deer. The Empire State building was built from design to finish in 18 months.

Yes, they have UPS. If you go on the UPS website you can even calculate the cost of shipping an item. Just submit the measurements and weight of the container. Trust me when I tell you that you would never even ship a small box of Christmas gifts via UPS to RSA. The cost is exceptionally prohibitive. Knowing what I know about that I can bet few could afford to ship a crate of skulls through them either.

Once the cargo gets on an airplane it is only a matter of days before it arrives in the USA. The process before hand is what takes so long.