Skulls unlimited has reproduction Marco Polo and High Altai Argali skulls for sale.


Ovis ammon ammon
Right Horn length 56 3/4", Base 19 1/4"
Left Horn length 57 3/8", Base 19 1/2"
SCI Score 240 1/2"
$3250.00

Ovis ammon polii
Right Horn length 69 3/4", Base 15 1/4"
Left Horn length 69 2/8", Base 15 1/4"
SCI Score 244 5/8"
$3250.00

Considering the savings if you just have to have one, this is a hell of a deal.

I think they are getting $50,000 for an Ammon and $35,000 for a Poli.

You could have both of these on your mantle for $7000.

Yea, but they wouldn't be real. It's like having a print of the Mona Lisa.

the chef

Fake boobs, fake skulls, whatever.

I like them. I can't say that I would spend $7000 today to own them, but I think it is neat that Skulls Unlimited did this. And I would probably purchase them if I had $7000 that wasn't headed toward steel and walnut or a hunt.

about for the same price you can foud a nice shoulder mount from a mongolian argali... ok, maybe not a 60incher but you can found a rappresentative one, and real. And I have see a good repro of a Ovis ammon ammon skull on ebay, about a year ago, priced truly lower, the skullsunlimited replicas are very nice but also overpriced for me.
Very nice skull anyway!

The point is a hunter can legally hunt one of these argalis without getting the CITES import permit to the US. The reproduction becomes the trophy for his trophy room. US citizens hunting sheep and goats in Iran have been having replicas made of their trophies

Silkibex,

Tell me more? The trophy is secondary to the hunt anyway!

There's obviously a difference between the Lacey Act and taking a trophy legally in a foreign country. The Lacey Act would only apply if you were hunting illegally and importing the trophy illegally into the US.
Many countries allow hunting of species not importable into the US (or importable in limited numbers).
I am not an expert in law, but it seems you are breaking no US or other law by taking, say, a Marco Polo legally in Tajikistan, although you may not have a CITES permit to import it into the US.
What people do is import the trophy into another country with less stringent requirements and have a copy made of the skull there. The copy is not subject to any regulation and can be imported into the US to act as a surrogate trophy.
In the past couple years, many US hunters have been going to Iran, which has a wealth of sheep species and 3 ibex. Under US law, it is legal to hunt them there, but not to import the trophies to the US (not because of CITES, but because of trade sanctions).