Good points guys
Rising fuel costs have already effected airline tickets. We purchased ours before April 1st, as ticket prices were scheduled to increase at that time. This will also effect shipping capes/skulls home as well as mounted trophy's. I called one of my friends who had his mounts done two years ago in SA. Mount quality was good; but he paid more than estimated to receive them (shipping to TN). bsterns; yes, you can save money if you crate your capes/skulls with another hunter. And no matter what your told in Africa, the US Customs does not currently require each hunters trophy's to be shipped separately. You will have an itemized paper for each hunters trophy's. Each cape and skull will be tagged. Unless you take a CITES animal or primate (Baboon), you will not need any special paperwork. You should however contact a US import company. I use John Mehan of Fauna & Flora in Jamaica, NY 11434. Phone (718) 977-7700. John is very experienced with African game imports and he once saved a friend of mine $4,000 on his shipment (he was being WAY overcharged). John will send you all the paper work you will need to give your PH and if your using a US Taxidermist, all the papers/shipping tags you will need to give him/her. My Taxidermist has a US Import license and our trophy's will leave SA and go direct to Fauna & Flora in NY. Once they leave NY, they will go directly to my Taxidermist here locally. Once in Fosters shop, he will call the local US F&W. An agent will then come to his shop; open the crate and inspect the contents. Due to current US import regulations, our trophy's will then be re-disinfected (capes/skins) and all skulls re-boiled. Our country is adamant about stopping any importation of hoof and mouth disease, anthrax, etc., and rightly so! These are dangerous. If I may suggest; if you decide to have your trophy's mounted in the US, most Taxidermists will work with you on scheduling your mounts. Instead of having all of them mounted at one time, consider having them (capes) tanned, then mounted one at a time. This will help you better budget your mounts, and having them tanned will prevent any problems associated with keeping them lying around in flint (dried/salted) condition. You'll be able to divide your payments into initial deposit, tanning and finished mounts as agreed upon. Hope you have a great trip. Good hunting, grayghost
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