My South Africa trip ended last July and this week I picked up my final delivery of processed trophies from Golden State Tannery, Inc. located in Turlock. The last two boxes included the back hides from my kudu bull, back hide from my impala ram and complete hide from my black wildebeest.
Along with the hides I picked up three warthog skulls. The warthog skulls were the last item to be available. Ironically, there was nothing to be done to the skulls except to have them inspected by the USDA inspector and it took over six months for that to be done.
In the meantime my kudu and impala mounts have been completed by Aaron Armstrong of Western Wildlife Taxidermy. He did a very nice job and the two mounts are proudly on display in my family room. Even my wife, Linda, has accepted them.
On the trip I shot six animals, three warthogs, a kudu bull, an impala ram and a black wildebeest bull. The trophy fees totaled $2,700.
For some animals, like the kudu, the trophy fees are only the beginning. If you are interested in figuring out the elusive cost of processing, shipping, receiving, customs, tanning and taxidermy, here’s my account – for better or worse, exactly as I paid. You’ll probably not find this much detail in othe information provided in advance of trip. I’m sure some advance knowledge would help to reduce some of these costs.
Taxidermy kudu $1,700.
Western Wildlife Impala 895.
Tanning kudu 126.
GST, Inc. impala cape 47.
kudu backhide 84.50
impala backhide 25.
black wildebeest full hide 162.50
Brokerage/Customs
Hunter International Duty 2.
Filing Customs 365.
Delivery 175.
Airline Storage 70.
Processing in SA (Salting, drying, etc.)
Sitatung Safaris Kudu 90.
Wildebeest 90.
Impala 90.
3 warthogs 120.
Doc fee 250
Crating fee 160
Shipping
Safari Cargo Systems
Johannesburg to SF 760.99
Grand total of game processing, taxidermy and shipping: $5,398.99
We did include a few purchased souvenirs in the crates and got the benefit of nearly free shipping for those items that would not fit into our suitcases.
On another front, Aaron Armstrong donated a $500 certificate to our Mule Deer Foundation fundraiser. Thanks Aaron.
If your budget is tight, you can save a bunch of money by just mounting skulls European style as I did with the wildebeest. I like it.
