I’ve always cleared my own trophy shipment on four previous safaris, and intended to do so on my animals coming back from Zambia this time. This time, however; I ran into some problems.

Muchinga Adventures did a great job of preparing my trophies and getting them shipped out of Lusaka. Emirates was reasonable on airfreight charges, around $650 as I recall. The problem came up when I submitted my e-Dec to US Fish & Wildlife. I’m leaving (tomorrow) for a business trip and needed to get my shipment home before leaving. If I didn’t get them before leaving, I was faced with a storage bill that would be a couple thousand dollars by the time I get back. USFWS rejected my e-Dec as even though I had all the information listed accurately, I put the scientific name in the wrong box. It is supposed to be listed across 3 different boxes and I put it all in the first box. The USFWS agent I spoke with was very helpful, but she Made a comment that stopped me dead in my tracks...

She told me that Zambian shipments have a unique requirement, as they provide an export document that USFWS needs BEFORE they can clear my eDec. WTF?!??! What ‘export’ document? The agent explained to me that the export document is with my shipment and she needs it before she can consider my eDec. I live 2+ hours drive from the San Francisco airport and it took me about 2 seconds to realize that if I was going to clear my own trophies, it was going to require 2 seperate trips on different days and I didn’t have that kind of time. Keep in mind, my shipment was now sitting in a warehouse at SFO, already accruing storage charges.

I quickly called Coppersmith and explained my dilemma. They transferred me to their branch manager, Jeremy Dela Cruz. He promised me that he’d send someone to the warehouse immediately for the export document and have them deliver it directly to the USFWS agent. After that, they submitted a revised eDec and got my shipment quickly cleared with USFWS and Customs. Yesterday, they called to tell me my shipment was cleared and ready to pick up. I headed to the airport last evening, picked it up and it’s now safely at my home.

Coppersmith’s great service has earned them a new customer going forward.

Good to know, I usually clear through SFO even though it's a 4 hour drive for me.

I used coppersmith to clear trophies in Chicago multiple times.
They were easy to work with and did a great job.

I have used Coppersmith on all three of my trips to RSA. About 30 trophies in all. No problems, seamless service. When I go back, I will definitely use them again.