I killed a 76.5” moose several years ago in Alaska. I paid the shipping taxi in Alaska big big money to make a custom crate and ship that rack & skull back all intact instead of cutting it and splitting the skull cap in half as I wanted to get it scored. Granted this is nothing I have ever done before but given the once in a life time trophy I wanted to have it done.
My receiving taxi tells me he has received it and I tell him what I want done. DO NOT SPLIT the skull cap in the process as I want to get it scored. 2.5 years later, after many many phone calls and texts asking and just short of threatening legal action it is finally done. He pulls up with his truck and trailer in tow. He drops the back end of the trailer and I see a moose head without any antlers on it and steel posts sticking out the side of his head. I am dumbfounded. Hoping maybe it’s someone else’s moose and mine is further inside I began searching hoping to find another moose. No other moose in the trailer. I quickly ask, where are the antlers. He said, oh they are in the bed of the truck. I am fuming at this point. I said I had this sent to you with the skull cap intact, He jokingly said, “yea when that got dropped off at the shop in that huge box we had no idea what it was. I‘ve never had a moose that big in my shop.“ I quickly interrupted and said why did you cut it. I didn’t pay a ton of money to keep it intact so you could cut it when it arrived. If that were the case I would have just had the skull cap split before it shipped and saved a lot in freight charges. He said, “ well it’s too hard and heavy to move something like this, especially to try and mount it on the wall”. While all of that is true, at least call and communicate with me. Get an official scorer in there to measure it and then give me a call and maybe at that point I wouldn’t have cared what you did. Oh well, it’s not the end of the world. Just couldn’t believe the lack of communication and the 2.5 year delay in getting it done. I’ll never use or recommend him again.