quote:

Originally posted by DLS:

quote:

Originally posted by rnovi:
I’m still waiting for the day one of us says…

“Nahh, too much. Keep ‘em” and hangs up the phone.

RNovi, I was ‘right there’. If not for my LDE I’d have told them to keep them and stick them where the sun never shines.

Here was the bill that I objected to:
Here is how it was itemized -
Air Freight. $3,415.25
Cites & Forestry control. $561.60
Vet inspect & Cert. $327.33
Transport. $130.70
Police Control Airport. $124.37
Customs Control. $206.47
Storage @ airport. $109.31
Export Charges. $134.00
Cantina & Packing. $167.55
DHL documents. $98.75
Arrangement. $185.28
Total Invoice. $5,460.61

Maybe I’m naive, but I’ve never seen a bill to ship my stuff that ever looked anything like this from any other company in any other country. I’ve never seen a total that was much more than 1/2 this amount, even for heavier shipments. But then, I am used to dealing with very reputable people like Johnny DuPlooy and Alan Vincent.

it is a nice detailled bill. where is it taken from: turkey cameroon or usa it will be interesting to see that and request a receipt for each line ...

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:
Wow -

Getting trophies shipped home from Africa is one of the biggest scams in the sport hunting world.

I hunted LDE and Bongo with CAWA back in 2012. My crate was large, as it had in it, full-mount capes for LDE, Bongo and all the Duikers I killed. I think it was 12 animals in all.

This was all before the hubbub about trophy shipping so getting it shipped wasn't the problem.

My crate was 6,600.00 to just get it from Bangui to CDG airport in France. That's about what an entire RSA safari could be.

However, the end results in having all these iconic species from Central Africa preserved for eternity was well worth the price and hassles.

IIRC I had everything shipped from France to Dallas and Coppersmiths. My taxidermist (Jim Hartsock, SW Wildlife Art) is very good at handling all the little trapdoors and hoops to jump through to get stuff home.

Happy for you to have your LDE home. I believe it is the pinnacle of African trophy hunting. Proper pure tracking hunt.

the problem of CAR is now it is not anymore UTA but air france and that was air france or maybe air afrique (do not know when they shut down) at your time, we used a lot UTA cargo and solely them to ship everything up to CDG and like other pointed we never charged extra to the customers we charged the fee we were charged, we were not shipping company, our business: was safari to each is own of course.

I don't remember the actual carrier that transported to CDG. It was 2012.

But as I said, the cost was worth it The pain of the 6600.00 wore off long ago. But the enjoyment of seeing the full-mount Bongo/LDE will lat forever.

big time and your trophies worth the hassle. not as bas a cameroon anyway and it was an issue already in the day. but i do not recall anyone trying to fleece a customer/hunter with that kind of tactic at least in my time.

I'm not trying to make anyone think that CAWA was padding the freight. I don't. Erik, in my opinion, ran a first class operation, in a very tough environment.

Of all the the international sporting trips I've done, its certainly in the top 2 or 3.

I hunted with Mike Fell. He was great but I was suppose to hunt with Christophe. I'd still love to do a classic tracking LDE hunt with Christophe.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:
Wow -

Getting trophies shipped home from Africa is one of the biggest scams in the sport hunting world.

I hunted LDE and Bongo with CAWA back in 2012. My crate was large, as it had in it, full-mount capes for LDE, Bongo and all the Duikers I killed. I think it was 12 animals in all.

This was all before the hubbub about trophy shipping so getting it shipped wasn't the problem.

My crate was 6,600.00 to just get it from Bangui to CDG airport in France. That's about what an entire RSA safari could be.

However, the end results in having all these iconic species from Central Africa preserved for eternity was well worth the price and hassles.

IIRC I had everything shipped from France to Dallas and Coppersmiths. My taxidermist (Jim Hartsock, SW Wildlife Art) is very good at handling all the little trapdoors and hoops to jump through to get stuff home.

Happy for you to have your LDE home. I believe it is the pinnacle of African trophy hunting. Proper pure tracking hunt.

the problem of CAR is now it is not anymore UTA but air france and that was air france or maybe air afrique (do not know when they shut down) at your time, we used a lot UTA cargo and solely them to ship everything up to CDG and like other pointed we never charged extra to the customers we charged the fee we were charged, we were not shipping company, our business: was safari to each is own of course.

I don't remember the actual carrier that transported to CDG. It was 2012.

But as I said, the cost was worth it The pain of the 6600.00 wore off long ago. But the enjoyment of seeing the full-mount Bongo/LDE will lat forever.

big time and your trophies worth the hassle. not as bas a cameroon anyway and it was an issue already in the day. but i do not recall anyone trying to fleece a customer/hunter with that kind of tactic at least in my time.

I'm not trying to make anyone think that CAWA was padding the freight. I don't. Erik, in my opinion, ran a first class operation, in a very tough environment.

Of all the the international sporting trips I've done, its certainly in the top 2 or 3.

I hunted with Mike Fell. He was great but I was suppose to hunt with Christophe. I'd still love to do a classic tracking LDE hunt with Christophe.

+1.

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:
Wow -

Getting trophies shipped home from Africa is one of the biggest scams in the sport hunting world.

I hunted LDE and Bongo with CAWA back in 2012. My crate was large, as it had in it, full-mount capes for LDE, Bongo and all the Duikers I killed. I think it was 12 animals in all.

This was all before the hubbub about trophy shipping so getting it shipped wasn't the problem.

My crate was 6,600.00 to just get it from Bangui to CDG airport in France. That's about what an entire RSA safari could be.

However, the end results in having all these iconic species from Central Africa preserved for eternity was well worth the price and hassles.

IIRC I had everything shipped from France to Dallas and Coppersmiths. My taxidermist (Jim Hartsock, SW Wildlife Art) is very good at handling all the little trapdoors and hoops to jump through to get stuff home.

Happy for you to have your LDE home. I believe it is the pinnacle of African trophy hunting. Proper pure tracking hunt.

the problem of CAR is now it is not anymore UTA but air france and that was air france or maybe air afrique (do not know when they shut down) at your time, we used a lot UTA cargo and solely them to ship everything up to CDG and like other pointed we never charged extra to the customers we charged the fee we were charged, we were not shipping company, our business: was safari to each is own of course.

I don't remember the actual carrier that transported to CDG. It was 2012.

But as I said, the cost was worth it The pain of the 6600.00 wore off long ago. But the enjoyment of seeing the full-mount Bongo/LDE will lat forever.

big time and your trophies worth the hassle. not as bas a cameroon anyway and it was an issue already in the day. but i do not recall anyone trying to fleece a customer/hunter with that kind of tactic at least in my time.

The price is definitely worth the squeeze.

Stunning!

The fact that the DuPlooys can do this and so reasonably (I too have had that experience) indicates it can happen.

My first hunt with Adam Clements in Tanzania was also handled in house and very minimal expense.

I get that shipping costs are what they are, but 2-3 middlemen with a laundry list of charges is not value added.


I’ve been told that there are a lot of kickbacks in that part of the industry, especially in South Africa. I don’t have any proof of that, perhaps others do?

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
The fact that the DuPlooys can do this and so reasonably (I too have had that experience) indicates it can happen.

My first hunt with Adam Clements in Tanzania was also handled in house and very minimal expense.

I get that shipping costs are what they are, but 2-3 middlemen with a laundry list of charges is not value added.


I’ve been told that there are a lot of kickbacks in that part of the industry, especially in South Africa. I don’t have any proof of that, perhaps others do?

They have taken a “soup to nuts” approach to their business. They built guest chalets on their property to eliminate hotel stays for clients, before and after.

Extraordinarily organized outfitters

I hunted LDE with Mayo Oldiri and have felt the cost pain of bringing trophies home to NZ from Cameroon. I was expecting a spendy shipping quote but was still floored a bit with the first quote. This would have seen my crate going through Europe which as a route didn't make much sense anyway. Anyway, by involving my NZ based customs agent and both Raquel and Silvia ( Mayo Oldiri ), both of whom were very willing and helpful we manged to reroute my shipment via South Africa ( and Doha ! ) while getting the shipping quote down to about half the original amount. Still excessive IMO but I regarded that a success. Probably can't do similar now with Qatar now not shipping hunting trophies.

By the way we hunters, for reasons unknown to me, just attract excessive charges to airfreight hunting trophies, IMO at least. It seems to be a long established rort. One of my sons works in a business that regularly imports seed consignments moving via usual commercial routes, the same as any trophy shipment. Many of these are subject to the same quarantine handling procedures. I have seen a few of the freight bills for consignments originating in some countries from where hunting trophies are also sent. For similar cargo weights and dimensions I couldn't believe how cheap some freight costs were by comparison.

great trophies and beautiful taxidermist woeks. thank you Steve.

1. Always amazing that the cost to ship ONE DAMN BOX can equate to THREE round-trip coach tickets!

2. Everybody has their hand out when there's a box to be shipped, and it is the most disgusting part of the safari experience.

3. There is no "inspector Colon."

This is just an old Customs joke, simply stating that "Your Colon has been violated (metaphorically) with all these fees."



This tale is really souring me on my eventual goal of hunting LDE!

quote:

Originally posted by rnovi:
I’m still waiting for the day one of us says…

“Nahh, too much. Keep ‘em” and hangs up the phone.

I have done exactly that when Mozambique dip n pack operator was screwing around with my Hippo, 2 Crocs and Gold Medal Bushbuck!!
Phone started ringing very fast and things got worked out real quick!!

Richard Lendrum of AHG Trophy Shipping handled my last shipment from South Africa, all was going well until US Ag at Atlanta pulled all shipments for inspection due to some other jerks, non-hunting, slipped one thru on them and they locked everything down for inspection!! Had to get Coppersmith involved to get it back into shipment stream!! All totaled, shipping and intervention cost MORE THAN MY DAILY RATES FOR 2 TROPHIES!!

UUUURRRRGGGHHH!!

Just another reason why I quit bringing stuff home years ago. Shipping costs as much as most plains game hunts and I refuse to be extorted…