My MAY 2008 trophies from Namibia will be ready in about a month per my Taxidermist in Namibia!

These are all PROCESSED trophies and I have a Port of Entry where I live in Honolulu, Hawaii...

I desperately need to save on cash here...

So has anyone used OCEAN FREIGHT instead of AIR FREIGHT to ship their "PROCESSED" trophies back home?

Did you clear them yourself?

And if so, what was the process like?

I've heard it said before here that one could save up to 1/3 in cost doing it this way...

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

I think that I researched going surface for my last shipment from Namibia and, IIRC, I don't think that the savings, if any, was worth the trouble in regards to time.

I processed the shipment myself and saved something like $300 to $500. I thought it was fairly easy and painless - took a total of 45 minutes to clear it through Customs and Fish and Wildlife. Talk to the people at both those places and they should be willing to help you with what you need as far as paperwork required.

Lastly, if you want to do it yourself, make sure that you tell your shipping agent in Namibia that you want to clear it yourself and that you do not want it sent to an agent in Honolulu, otherwise they might send it to some company they are used to working with. But if you don't have the time or the inclination to do it yourself then an agent in your location will take the worry out of getting your trophies cleared - for a price.

Namibiahunter

I researched shipping my Namibia trophies (mounted) by ship and by air and there was no difference. I think it had to do with the lack of ship freight in Namibia and if I remember correctly it had to go via Jo burg (just more hassles.
Denver is not a designated port so I had to get a Port Exemption from USFW (real easy) with this I was able to clear them myself, again very easy and saved several hundred $.
As far as a freight broker in Namibia I can highly recommend Pam Foerster pam-iacs@mweb.com.na
She was great and the communication was excellent. She even took care of the packing at a fraction of what the taxidermist was going to charge.

Hope this helps.

quote:

Originally posted by elkfitter:
As far as a freight broker in Namibia I can highly recommend Pam Foerster pam-iacs@mweb.com.na
She was great and the communication was excellent. She even took care of the packing at a fraction of what the taxidermist was going to charge.

Hope this helps.

That's good to hear, I'm using Pam on the Namibia end of my shipping.

Thanks for the replies guys!...

i've used ocean freight before & was very happy with it. we had a rather large shipment at the time and air freight was almost 10,000, ocean was 3500. took 30 days to get here, and everything came through perfect. You can't ship ocean with raw hides though. 30 days for 6500 I can well afford to wait the 30 days

Sea freighted finished mounts from SA (Bowhunts at Melorani) to Minnesota in 2004 and 2006. Both times everything arrived in perfect shape and cost was roughly half that of airshipment. I figured I was going to be looking at the trophies for several years so plus or minus a couple of months getting them here wasn't a big deal in the long run.

quote:

You can't ship ocean with raw hides though.

It is my understanding that this changed a couple of years ago that you can now ship raw trophies by ocean now. But the only port of entry is New York and you have to ground ship from there. I think Flora and Fauna brokers have been doing this from what I have heard, but then again I could be wrong.

Flora and Fauna handled both of my shipments and I give them my highest recommendation for rapid and professional service

+1

Ok here is the my experience on this topic. Ocean freight is available for raw hides. I am having this done as we speak. I saved roughly 40% of the cost of airfreight. I am sending them through New York and Flora and Fauna, then on to the tannery. I shipped the following trophies and back skins and skull and horn for the following- eland, kudu, gemsbok, blesbok, warthog. I also shipped a Zebra skin. The cost of my dip/pack and freight was $800. I expect shipments to hit NY in about 20 days.

In 2006/7 Nyati told me there was no real savings by going sea vs air.
Robert