An African Christmas :) (LOTS OF PHOTOS) UPDATE 11/30/2010 PAGE 6
- Thread starter gps
- Start date
I will echo the sentiments of those above, with the additional thanks for the "living game" shots. So many times all we see are the obligatory trophy pictures. Your photos of living game really give a sense of the conditions you were hunting in and what kind of shots may have been presented. Excellent work!! Congratulations, and thank you.
angrysoldier
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- under your bed
its now on my too do list before i die. thank you very much
- Location
- Pile of Bones, SK
What a great way to spend Xmas!
Hmmm,
Yes the Vaalwater - Thabazimbi area is lovely, looks like they have had good rains - the bush is nice and green. I have very good friends on the Bela Bela / Rooiberg side.
Congrats on a lovely hunt and holiday, you said you shot the Black Widebeest on the high veld - can you recall where about that was?
Yes the Vaalwater - Thabazimbi area is lovely, looks like they have had good rains - the bush is nice and green. I have very good friends on the Bela Bela / Rooiberg side.
Congrats on a lovely hunt and holiday, you said you shot the Black Widebeest on the high veld - can you recall where about that was?
Near Secundo, about 3 hrs southeast of Thabazimbi...due east of Johannesburg.
Universal Trophy Services in SA. Will post pix when everything is done.
Taxidermy update:
Just received my skulls, horns & tanned hides and the process was smooth. A couple of customs brokers recommended that I save my money (anywhere from $200 to $500) and clear the shipment myself because it was so simple. Skeptical, I decided to do it and it all went well. For those of you who may do this, here's what I experienced:
- Taxidermist requested payment which I delayed sending until I received copies of all documents including export permits from each province we hunted, a veterinary certificate, invoice and packing list.
- There were numerous errors on the paperwork including spelling mistakes, and even animals left off the export permits. Having not paid them yet, I had the leverage to require them to correct everything and they did so quickly. Once I had all the corrected documents, I wired payment. Air freight cost about $380 to Toronto.
- I also had them send me photos of the finished work in the crate so that I could see everything that they had done (skulls processed, hides tanned, etc.).
- They booked a flight for the crate on SwissAir Cargo which left RSA on the 23rd and landed here at Pearson on the 26th, which was a Saturday. If I had it to do over, I would have required them to have the crate arrive during a weekday. It took less than an hour for the crate to be offloaded and inventoried at the warehouse.
- Because the crate arrived on a weekend, I would have to wait until Monday to have the CFIA inspect everything which meant a second trip into the city. They were good about returning calls and scheduling an inspection the same day. Some of the things the inspector said would cause problems are a dirty shipment, improperly cleaned skulls, nasal tissue still attached, bugs, and so on. In those cases, they'd redirect the crate to a local taxidermist.
- Once they signed off on the shipment, I took their paperwork upstairs to Customs and they released the crate to me which I hauled away on a 4'x4' utility trailer. It would have fit in the bed of a pickup or in the back of a fullsize SUV. Total cost was $28.50 for the CFIA inspection. They arrived at 2PM and I drove away from the loading dock at 3PM with the crate cleared. Really much faster than I had expected.
- I didn't have all 12 animals taxidermied. I only picked five skulls and six hides to have sent home to keep the bill as low as possible and free up room for more hunting! I could have spent as much on taxidermy as I did on trophy fees.
- Overall, the brokerage process was smooth and painless. The CFIA, CBSA and SwissAir Cargo folks were all competant and timely which was a breath of fresh air.
Here are a couple of photos of the trophies. I was pleased to see my own game tags still attached to them! The bullet holes were patched nicely and they tell me that the fold creases will come out as long as i keep the skins laid out flat. Unwrapping the trophies left me feeling like a kid at Christmas! It was exhilarating! I even picked which ones I wanted to open first and which ones to save till last
Left to right: impala, warthog, kudu, black wildebeest, springbuck.
Left to right, top to bottom: impala, blesbuck, blue wildebeest, springbuck (middle), kudu, zebra.
Just received my skulls, horns & tanned hides and the process was smooth. A couple of customs brokers recommended that I save my money (anywhere from $200 to $500) and clear the shipment myself because it was so simple. Skeptical, I decided to do it and it all went well. For those of you who may do this, here's what I experienced:
- Taxidermist requested payment which I delayed sending until I received copies of all documents including export permits from each province we hunted, a veterinary certificate, invoice and packing list.
- There were numerous errors on the paperwork including spelling mistakes, and even animals left off the export permits. Having not paid them yet, I had the leverage to require them to correct everything and they did so quickly. Once I had all the corrected documents, I wired payment. Air freight cost about $380 to Toronto.
- I also had them send me photos of the finished work in the crate so that I could see everything that they had done (skulls processed, hides tanned, etc.).
- They booked a flight for the crate on SwissAir Cargo which left RSA on the 23rd and landed here at Pearson on the 26th, which was a Saturday. If I had it to do over, I would have required them to have the crate arrive during a weekday. It took less than an hour for the crate to be offloaded and inventoried at the warehouse.
- Because the crate arrived on a weekend, I would have to wait until Monday to have the CFIA inspect everything which meant a second trip into the city. They were good about returning calls and scheduling an inspection the same day. Some of the things the inspector said would cause problems are a dirty shipment, improperly cleaned skulls, nasal tissue still attached, bugs, and so on. In those cases, they'd redirect the crate to a local taxidermist.
- Once they signed off on the shipment, I took their paperwork upstairs to Customs and they released the crate to me which I hauled away on a 4'x4' utility trailer. It would have fit in the bed of a pickup or in the back of a fullsize SUV. Total cost was $28.50 for the CFIA inspection. They arrived at 2PM and I drove away from the loading dock at 3PM with the crate cleared. Really much faster than I had expected.
- I didn't have all 12 animals taxidermied. I only picked five skulls and six hides to have sent home to keep the bill as low as possible and free up room for more hunting! I could have spent as much on taxidermy as I did on trophy fees.
- Overall, the brokerage process was smooth and painless. The CFIA, CBSA and SwissAir Cargo folks were all competant and timely which was a breath of fresh air.
Here are a couple of photos of the trophies. I was pleased to see my own game tags still attached to them! The bullet holes were patched nicely and they tell me that the fold creases will come out as long as i keep the skins laid out flat. Unwrapping the trophies left me feeling like a kid at Christmas! It was exhilarating! I even picked which ones I wanted to open first and which ones to save till last
Left to right: impala, warthog, kudu, black wildebeest, springbuck.
Left to right, top to bottom: impala, blesbuck, blue wildebeest, springbuck (middle), kudu, zebra.
