From the point where your payment has cleared and the shipping agent says, "They have been shipped" to when they arrive in the US Customs clearing station (for me, Atlanta), how long should it take for Air? Do they have to clear at each stop along the way (Frankfurt/London)? Would the Christmas holiday cause a large delay?

John,
I went right after you in June 08. I picked mine up last Saturday. Both times I have been it has taken 6 months give or take a few days to actually have them in hand. I did not have the taxiderny work done there. Just capes and skulls in my box.

Keep in mind that they are freight. So they aren't necessarily the highest priority.

I've had trophies from Namibia come over promptly, and I've had a crate set in London for several days waiting for a plane with available space.

Once they get here (US of A) they can get to wait on USDA and or Customs. I've had that take over a week also.

Depends on how you ship them.

Most freight forwarders will ship it "space available" which means after they load the jet, they fill any empty cargo weight with what is sitting there waiting to go out. It is much cheaper to ship this way.

You can tell your freight forwarder to ship it guaranteed space so that it gets calculated individually into the jet's cargo capacity and loaded in the first group but you wil pay 2-3 times more money.

There gets to be a backlog usually from early November through Jan/Feb. One reason is due to the perishable season in Africa and all perishable cargo gets priority over all other cargo. Also, since most taxidermists, etc shut down from early Dec. to Jan., the shipping agents get bombarded with shipments they deliver before holiday and it takes them time to secure all documentation as well as book space with the carriers. Backlogs also seem to be more noticable when freight transits via Frankfurt and London Heathrow during these time periods.

John: My two trips to Namibia had 14 days the first time, and 8 days the last time. That was from the shipping notification they left WDH to arrival in San Francisco.

Depending on your brokers schedule here, it only takes a day or two to clear them and go on to your taxidermist.

LOL - literally 5 minutes after I posted this I got an email from Coppersmith saying my trophies have cleared Atlanta customs and will soon be on the way to me - woo hoo!

So I guess that answers my question

I hunted with Vaughan Fulton and used Pam Foerster for shipping. My capes were at the tannery in Texas right at 2 months fron the end of the hunt. I think there was about 9 or 10 days from the time the cargo left Windhoek, until it was delivered to the tannery, but I'm not sure what was happening during that time.

Windhoek, J'berg, London, USA....all w/several days of sitting around...quite a while in London waiting on a vet.