This is just my opinion. Any work done in africa, no matter how good it looks is going to be a bad investment for the long run. Their tanning and materials are not quality products. These places that are fronted by a master taxidermist and the work is done by dozens of blacks in an assembly line type structure. Most of the animals do not have the attention to detail either. Spend the money and have a good american taxidermist do your work! It will be worth it.....just my .02$.....wapiti7

( dont forget the aussie taxo's too )

I tend to agree with you there wapiti7.
Thier tanning leaves alot to be desired.
Arnt most of the bigger US studios run the same way though? ie - production line?
(not intending to offend you)

This is what i most hear from hunters -
"oh, they have the animals in thier country so they must be the best at mounting them" - couldnt be further from the truth in my opinion.

When someone has the passion, devotion and skill to work in this profession there is no limit to what they can do - wether they have worked on a particular animal or not.

Can't really agree on this one. Too much of a blanket statement. You have to consider the individual taxidermist. I had some work done by Ronald Peacock's Taxidermy Africa several years ago and it's as good as any I've had done or seen done in the USA. Taxidermy Africa has been in business for over 40 years and does professional work for the museums in RSA.

There may be some taxidermists that do shoddy work in Africa, but there are some that do work of the highest quality too. You just have to shop around. I think I'd be safe to state that a good taxidermist in Africa probably does more volume than a similiar taxidermist in the USA. Tanning has come a long way the last few years and since tanning is done with chemicals, it's only a matter of obtaining them. Last time I was in RSA, they had some pretty big cities and I don't think they have much trouble getting materials from other countries. Chemicals ship pretty well and a taxidermist over there has the ability to obtain the same ones that are in use here.

Mac

I've been to perhaps a dozen taxidermy studios in Southern Africa over the past several years, and I can honestly say that 2 of them were definitely "World Class", most were just OK, and a couple were really bad. The best I've seen were done by Life Form Taxidermy in White River RSA. It is a large operation, but they have really got their act together. They do all of my work now.

wapiti7.
Same goes for the USA.

DON'T use Kwiktan in Johannesburgh, SA, for tanning!!!

I saw their tanning at a DSC show and liked what I saw. When I went to Africa I let them tan my hides. NEVER AGAIN! What I received was NOT what I saw at the show.

The tanning was horrible! It's like working with cardboard. Not to mention that when I received my caracal, which I personally skinned and salted for a lifesize mount, it arrived with all four legs cut off above the knee and discarded. It was either mount it as a quadruple amputee cat (certainly no offense meant to anyone!!) or a shoulder mount. I opted for the shoulder.

JDS

Just remember,

"When you get your trophies mounted in Africa and their shipped home, and you don't like what you see, guess what?"

"That's what you get!"

At least in the states you can go back to the taxidermist, and if he's any good, he will stand behind to his work 100%

Is it not substantially less expensive to ship dipped and packed than completed mounts?

I have had work done twice by Field & Stream http://www.asite.co.za/taxidermy/team.htm in R.S.A. Always been very happy with it. Back in 2000 they messed up the invoice and I only paid the half up front.

I've done it both ways. NEVER have anyone do your work without a persoal visit to their place of business- studio, not "showroom". Usually these threads digress into a mutual admiration society meeting for NA based taxidermists. It is good to see that many have had good experiences with African firms. If there was a choice, I would personally have it done in Africa all the time. It has, in my experience, been faster and better.

Like Mikeh416Rigby, I have my work done by Life Form in White River and I am more than satisfied with the quality. You may wait quite awhile as I have. They were also very attentive to some special details I asked for. My kudu (which is my avatar) was thick bodied and thick necked, more so than average. They took this into account and I got "my" Kudu back, not the skin stuck onto the "regular" mould. Hats off to Life Form.

Like others have said, you find good and bad in Africa or the states.
Windowmaker hit the nail on the head!!!
JDS..... yiecks!! What a disaster your cat was! Did you contact Kwiktan? What did they say or do about it? I have used them and had great luck. The last shipment was 20 critters, including kudu, widebeest, red hardebeest, impala, bles, half body bushbuck, full body baboon. The only problem I had was two of the six impala had slipped, but one email to Kwiktan and I had two new capes on the way at no charge. One of the wildebbest was a replacement cape because one shot by the hunters was not found for a few days and it was bad. The replacement, being the most colorfull one I have seen, was a bit stiff. My tanner releaxed it some and shaved it for me, taking care of the problem. All other were nice and thin and pliable.
Having skins tanned and shipped will save cost on the final taxidermy bill and shipping. I just hope you have my luck and not JDS!!

I had all my hides sent from Windhoek, Namibia, to be tanned by Kwiktan because I had seen their tanning at the DSC show in Dallas and liked it. What I got back from them was NOT what I saw at the show! I personally did the skinning of my caracal for a full body mount and salted it. When I got it back all four legs were cut off above the knees. When I contacted them, the owner said that they did not cut the legs off (I'm sure he saw the hide come in and personally followed it through the process in their plant!) and that it was probably mishandled by the skinner.

That didn't set will with me but even after I told him I was the skinner, he still said that Kwiktan didn't do it, but, in good faith, he would send me a replacement hide. I refused it, because the trophy of a caracal IS the hide since there are no horns to go with it, and a replacement hide was not the one I shot.

The remainder of the hides were cr*p! They are almost as stiff as cardboard and have a very strong odor of acid to them. I did mount a spotted genet, the caracal in a pedestal shoulder mount, and my impala in a wall pedestal. The hides had absolutely NO stretch even after soaked up and sweated in a fridge for 2 days. In fact, the impala neck that was 16 1/2" in the field had shrunk to a 15" neck on the form. I could not get it to stretch 1/4" more! The mount looks horrible and is hanging in my garage! I will not put it in my house!

I don't even think I'm going to try to mount the kudu, zebra, gemsbok, wildebeest, springbok, and giraffe - and the giraffe tanning was $1100.00 for the cape!

I have nothing good to say about Kwiktan . . . after I wrote a lengthy description of what occurred and stated my opinion of Kwiktan, the owner even threatened to file a lawsuit on me if I didn't stop. I'm scared . . . (yawn) . . .

You said that your tanner helped you with a hide. Who was it? I would pay them to try to re-tan what I have . . . if it didn't work I would not hold him responsible - I have nothing to lose!

Thanks!

JDS

jds,

I sent you a PM..................

.

ALF . . .

Believe it or not, that's fixable!! If done correctly, you'll have a hard time telling that it was broken - don't throw anything away!

JDS

.

Alf,

I am sorry that your outfitter for the bison hunt was such a big POS. Maybe you should go back with that .404 and each time the outfitter says, "You missed!" aim at a different animal. After 20 shots, say "I give up" and leave. At least you would get your money's worth. Hee! Hee! Hee!

There is lots of taxidermy here in the USA that sucks, and a lot of suck outfitters, unfortunately. In fact I am extremely wary of American outfitters.

I just got home from Namibia, and I checked out two of the studios there.

At first look, they look nice. They were huge facilities with 30-50 people working on thousands of trophies.

At a closer look, all the forms are exactly the same and lack detail of our American forms. Every kudu looks as though he's missing something, and that something is detail.

A Taxidermist in Africa is operating under the concept that he is paying his workers about $200-400 a month to do 100% of the work. He does thousands of trophies, and most have a sideline business on curios, gun rugs, and skull bleaching.

I wasn't impressed at all with any of the work, I saw. It all looked unfinished.

We are surrounded by inferior products,not just african taxidermy.Lots of companies make big bucks selling inferior crap.Why?The answer is simple its economics.Look back at some of the crap that you have thrown away in the last year.When it becomes cheaper to replace stuff then fix it we set up the cycle.

Being an amateur taxidermist, I tend to agree that work done in Africa is going to be of lower quality (not skill of the taxidermist) than in the US/Canada/Europe. The reasons are as follows -

1. The tanning process - the US/Canada/Europe use a new process whereby the skins are tanned to higher level of quality than in Africa. This is due to the chemicals and process used. African taxidermists do not have access to the process or the chemicals. The old style of tanning allows the skins to slowly deteriorate over years - hence in 10 to 15 years, your mounts will look like mounts done in the US 30 or 40 years ago.

2. Forms - there are several very high quality form makers in the North America that produce competition grade forms are too expensive to ship to Africa. The African taxidermist uses older style and easy to make forms. They are not as anatomically accurate as the current forms in the US/Canade/Europe.

3. Competition - there is a huge level of competition in the US for taxidermy services. The expectations of the customers is much higher here as there has been a strong improvement in the quality of the work done. The professional organizations hold competitions and the winners are setting standard for future commercial and competitive work.

This is not a knock on the skill of the Africa based taxidermist. He is skilled and good at the craft. However, he does not have access to the best methods or equipment.

quote:

"oh, they have the animals in thier country so they must be the best at mounting them"

The USA actually does have African animals. They just reside in zoos and/or Texas. So since the USA has African animals, according to that statement, we are the best at mounting animals.

you know I got mine back a few months ago .
They were done in SA, I was looking at my bush buck and than looking at a picture I had of it
and the cape was a diffrent cape . The cape in the picture and the cape used to mount it were
not the same one , diffrent markings.

So now what do you do!



If you had it mounted in the USA you could go and talk it over with your taxidermist!

Have the work done in the States!!

WHAT I was trying to say was LESSON LEARNED

I enjoy doing the African critters, sometimes there can be problems but that's what makes it that much more interesting!

I agree with you on getting a better mount, it's like that any where. The idea of using a taxidermist where the animals live is hog wash! I hunted down south, for wild boar. the taxidermy shop where we hunted sure didn't know what a hog looked like! And he likes right in the heart of them!