Taxidermy Companies

[Bandera]

Has anybody used AHG Shipping? If so what was your experience?
Maybe I am out of line with my expectations.
I had skull mounts done of Warthog, Impala and Wildebeest. The Zebra was done as a map of Africa with a neck mount.
My experience has been less than good.
Poor communication.
Date for crating delayed time and time again.
Said would send pictures but has not.
At one point I was told the trophies where done and then they said no not done waiting on the Zebra.

My buddies who ordered shoulder mount for everything had their trophies crated and then nothing, No communication from AHG Shipping.

Is this typical of African Taxidermy companies?

 

[buck wild]

It sounds like you are mixing together two different things- Taxidermy And Shipping. Although a few places will deal with both, they are usually mutually exclusive. The customer is always free to shop for a different shipper.

Based on what you have relayed, it sounds like you are having mainly a taxidermy issue. And to answer your question, unfortunately, no it's not uncommon to have all the issues you described with SA (and others) taxidermy shops. Was the shop "recommended" by your outfitter?

 

[Bandera]

Thanks for the reply. The AHG company is a shipping / brokerage company. I am now guessing Richard L, the owner, has the relationship with the Taxidermy company. Update my buddies who have the shoulder mounts where informed yesterday that their mounts are now in Atlanta. AHG skipped the step of informing them they where inbound. So we will see how good a job they did in a few days when the trophies are released.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Your buddies can get out their wallets if their stuff is sitting in airport storage!

 

[Hunt anything]

I used AHG shipping but my crate was caught up in the Covid shutdown. They held my crate in a climate controlled facility and sent me pictures when I raised concerns about the delay, that being said I paid for shipping in early February 2020 and the shutdown didn’t happen until March. It then cost me an extra couple of thousand dollars to have my crate shipped in 2021 and cover the huge increases in shipping cost, they never explained the delay. At the time they were not associated with any taxidermist at the time but I believe they are now. I’m not sure if I will use them again next year or not, going to think long and hard about that one.
Their communication was in the middle of the road as compared with the other 2 companies I’ve used in my 3 shipments of trophies from 4 safaris.

 

[Bandera]

The BS now gets deeper.
I received the pictures of the mounts. The Zebra they mounted for me is not the Zebra I shot!
I gave reached out to the involved parties and we shall see what the out come is.
I am guessing they will be unable to make this right.
There will be finger pointing and blaming it on anybody and everybody else.
In which case they owe me a refund for the trophy fee.
My Zebra

The imposter.

 

[Hunt anything]

Definitely not the same zebra. Did you check that your animals were properly tagged in camp? Or it could be as simple as they took a picture of the wrong mount. Whatever the outcome is there will be a lot of finger pointing from the outfitter to the transport company that picked up the skins to the tannery and taxidermist.
Hate it for you , this kind of crap is what give’s African taxidermist a bad reputation, but I’ve seen the same thing from American taxidermists as well.

 

[flying sailor]

Yep, not same animal. Can tell by the eye markings. Hope it's a case of wrong photo and your animal shows up. It's tough, but try to be calm until you uncrate. Hope it gets corrected.

 

[Hunt anything]

What taxidermist shop did the work? I went back and looked at your original post and saw that the zebra was the reason for the delay and now a picture of a different zebra. Starting to raise the BS meter on the taxidermist side. Maybe your hide was damaged during the tanning process or something. They should be upfront with you and make it as right as possible.
It is definitely a plus you have a close up photo of the zebras head stripe patterns. I always take close ups of any skin or horn irregularities on my animals in case something like this happens.
Good luck

 

[Mekaniks]

That sucks… and one of the real concerns about having taxidermy done overseas….. there is just not much recourse once the mounts are received in the US.
If a US taxidermist is used at least it increases our chances to have it made right or possibly stop the process before spending a bunch of money on mounting and shipping….

 

[JimP]

The problem that you would have with a US taxidermist is that you would still be out the dip n pack and shipping.

You quite likely wouldn't see the err until after it was mounted.

 

[Hunt anything]

The problem that you would have with a US taxidermist is that you would still be out the dip n pack and shipping.

You quite likely wouldn't see the err until after it was mounted.

I had a steenbok hide fall to pieces during the tanning process and my RSA taxidermist told me up front and offered a euro mount for free or he could get my outfitter to get another skin and do my full body mount at the cost of a shoulder mount. I took the latter, if something goes wrong with a skin in the States it would be hard to replace, but a zebra skin is unique to the animal so not sure how I would handle a different animals skin.

 

[Bandera]

The taxidermy company was TTS.
I am on the road traveling to a shoot right now. TTS is either Total Trophy or or Total Taxidermy Solutions.
Yes I did check that the skins and skulls were tagged correctly.

The initial response I received was that they would check with the outfitter and the taxidermy company on Monday. So it begins.

I have a party of 10 people, myself included, going back next year, 7 hunters 3 observers.
The outcome of this debacle will affect where we stay arriving in country and leaving.

 

[ajamils]

The taxidermy company was TTS.
I am on the road traveling to a shoot right now. TTS is either Total Trophy or or Total Taxidermy Solutions.
Yes I did check that the skins and skulls were tagged correctly.

The initial response I received was that they would check with the outfitter and the taxidermy company on Monday. So it begins.

I have a party of 10 people, myself included, going back next year, 7 hunters 3 observers.
The outcome of this debacle will affect where we stay arriving in country and leaving.

Any new update on this? I'm going to SA next month for my fist safari and was looking at using AHG as one stop solution.

 

[Bandera]

Yes I have an update.
My Zebra was caped for a shoulder mount. I told them I would do a shoulder mount instead of the map.
Well they went ahead and tried to do the map mount. It was pieced together and looked terrible.
I was offered a full zebra rug or they would pay for a zebra on my next trip.
Either way I am out that zebra.
I will most probably take the zebra rug. On my next trip bag another Zebra.

The guys I hunted with recieved their mounts. The trophies looked good for the most part. The warthog mount looked fake. Looked like it was made of plastic.
A couple of the skins where not in their shipment.
All in all it is a bit of a mess. AHG has tried to rectify it, but the disappointment is still there.
I am thinking on my next trip I will stay else where on arrival. I do not feel like having to rehash this.

 

[Hunt anything]

I’ve seen that fake look on warthog before, I had the Wildlife Gallery repaint my warthog a couple of times before I was satisfied.

 

[ajamils]

Thanks for the update. I wil

Yes I have an update.
My Zebra was caped for a shoulder mount. I told them I would do a shoulder mount instead of the map.
Well they went ahead and tried to do the map mount. It was pieced together and looked terrible.
I was offered a full zebra rug or they would pay for a zebra on my next trip.
Either way I am out that zebra.
I will most probably take the zebra rug. On my next trip bag another Zebra.

The guys I hunted with recieved their mounts. The trophies looked good for the most part. The warthog mount looked fake. Looked like it was made of plastic.
A couple of the skins where not in their shipment.
All in all it is a bit of a mess. AHG has tried to rectify it, but the disappointment is still there.
I am thinking on my next trip I will stay else where on arrival. I do not feel like having to rehash this.

Thanks for the update. I will most likely end up going with Highveld. AHG seems like a great one stop solution but since they are just a middleman, I don't know how much pull they have to make things right, when things go south.

 

[Bandera]

Well the trophies arrived yesterday.
They where packed very well.

The Zebra skin they exchanged was ok. Quite a bit of yellow on the skin. I will have it turned into a couple of gun sleeves.

The Wildebeest skin was absolutely great, very well done.

The Impala, not sure that it is my skin. It has 3 patched holes on rib cage area.
I shot mine with a frontal chest shot no exit as bullet lodged in the tailbone area.

Warthog skin is pretty much worthless. Not a soft finished skin.

The skull mounts are exactly what I wanted.
Once Richard from AHG got involved things started moving and happening.
He assured me that they would make it as right as they could.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Were the skulls painted? Seems to be a common practice over there.

 

[Bandera]

On the bone no. The horns maybe, they have a tacky feel to them.