Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Australia Kangaroos

G'day mates

Just curious, do you guys shoot Kangaroos and if so how do they taste?

What do you guys hunt, is your Big Game there Water Buffalo? How do they taste?

Where I hunt in Canada I hunt Whitetail and Mule Deer, Moose and Elk, they are all very tasty.

Cheers ~ KB

Most of what is hunted in Oz is introduced species. Probably the most common (depending on where you are) are feral pigs, feral goats, rabbits, hares, foxes and feral cats. There are also six species of deer, some widely distributed, some not so much. In some areas there are feral camels, water buffalo, donkeys and feral horses. There are also limited opportunities to hunt banteng. There are also a range of bird species, some being feral (eg rock doves), some shot as pests in certain areas, and some (eg various species of duck, quail) being treated as game. I have hunted almost all of the above, save for banteng and a couple of the less common deer species. I mostly hunt fallow deer, pigs, goats and the smaller stuff.

There's not much sport hunting of macropods (kangaroo, wallaby, wallaroo etc), other than in Tasmania (where it involves a couple of the smaller species). In most other places it is treated as pest control. In NSW for example roos are either shot by pro shooters or shot under a landowner's licence allowing a certain number to be killed to protect crops. If you are or know a landholder who has one of these licences you can shoot them, and use the carcases if you wish. I have done this. Generally though it isn't "hunting" but driving around at night and headshooting them under a spotlight. It is just about knocking as many as possible.

I've eaten a good amount of roo and wallaby. It is dark red, a bit like venison, and has no fat. It is quite good tucker if you do it right - a piece from a young animal, well handled, cooked rare on a hot grill and rested, with a fruit-based sauce like Cumberland sauce, is really nice.

FWIW roo meat is widely available in supermarkets too, for those who don't shoot. The pro shooters supply this trade, shooting the roos in the paddock under a spotlight and then dressing them and getting them to a chiller for processing.

I've also eaten water buffalo. From a younger animal in good nick it is like good beef.

Thank you for the education dan_oz.

Have a great day!

My wife has only golfed with them when we lived there.

How hard is it for a foreigner to shoot a kangaroo?

I'm in Queensland but it's similar here as to how Dan described for NSW. You need to be shooting under permission of a landowner who has the licence for culling roos (the licence will identify the total number allowed to be culled).

Not that I've tried it but they say kangaroo tail soup is tasty - the tail does contain good old tasty fat.

There's plenty of roos around - a little while back a property owner offered me the use of his rifle and a bucket of ammo to shoot roos while I was out there hunting pigs.


Heck, take a drive through the outback highways at night and you'll run them over free of charge.

Very intersting and informative thread 👍

It's doubtful I'll ever make it to Australia, but I've always been curious about the hunting there with so much wide open, uninhabited land.

I will be in SouthEast Queensland near Toowoomba in 2025 for a free range stag hunt. I may have to see if kangaroos are a possibility on this property or somewhere nearby.

Even if it isn’t a ‘hunt’ and it is just spotlighting for pest control it sounds like a good time!

Not for the Roos Mate! lol

Ted, I still have family connections in Queensland, that farm, the east side of the range.

So, not that far from Toowoomba !

I'll see if I can rustle you up an opportunity at feral pigs & goats & maybe a 'roo or 60 !

No promises, though.

Wow…thanks Paul!

Roo Stew sounds like it would be mighty tasty. I doubt, however, I'll ever get to Australia to try it, more's the pity.

L.W.

Hey mate we do shoot them here , I shoot for a chiller , I’ll call it a shire but you apply for tags in the desired shire each one has a quota allocated for the year you apply get tags shoot at least half then re apply for more before the allocation is used up first in best dressed sort of setup , if your not active enough the number you can apply for drops significantly
, I shoot with thermal gear all shots under 200m with a 223 which is overkill for head shooting them
[img] https://i.imgur.com/l8t2ofi.jpg [/img]

I have limited experience with how a foreigner could legally shoot one , but a farmer could put you down as an agent for him if he has ACW permit and then I spose you could once shot you could get it skinned tanned and stamped by the department so it’s a legal skin and away you go , the other option would be to go out with someone like me I just let you shoot one then I get the skin stamped ect and you take it back with you , don’t know if they would frown on that I’m not sure , but either way the skin would be legal……

A Roo cull hunt is on my bucket list. Thanks for the pics 35sambar.

Here's a few pics I took last July after a night spent with a pro Roo shooter in Western Qld. We started hunting at 6.00pm and had 27 shot, cleaned and tagged by 10.00pm, after that they were immediately transported to the chiller 100klms away. It was a big night & hard work too. Everything has to be head shot and minimum dressed weight was 17kgs from memory. All these were shot with a Rem 700 .223 using 55gn pills.

Hello dingo,

That is a lot of Roos! What is the population of roos in Australia, do you know?

That rust colored one is pretty big, how big do they get and why do you remove the heads?

Cheers mate ~ KB

Now that's what I call organized...

Is it true they leap straight upward when shot in the head? Friend of mine says he was allowed to shoot a bunch of them on a trip to Australia. He said he would belly laugh every time he shot one, as they would leap straight up when hit and hit the ground dead. I always assumed there was some embellishment to his tale.

If a person is named Sport, is it legal for him to tie them down?

What a convicted pedophile says in the lyrics of a song, should not in any way be persuasive.

No.

Heart shots may make them jump, but then again, a lot of other animals can react to heart shots.

There are millions of Kangaroos around now but as more and more exclusion fences are put around properties there will be less and less. It's strange that the greenies have not woken up this yet .

The thing I noticed is that 'Kangaroo' covers a lot of very different sized/population holding animals.

There are fewer species of deer in America than there are species of 'Kangaroo' in Australia. From tiny little ones (1.4ft long/3lb) to 9-10ft long Reds (200lb).

Wikipedia does a better job than I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo

You have to have a brain to think dingo lol

KB

https://imgur.com/a/8FuquyA
Here’s abit of thermal video so you see what there like

Paddocks were like this last night came home heavy!!
https://imgur.com/a/MEP8KFL

That's a lot of skips.

I was on a property a few years back near St George and one afternoon I came across a few groups like that up against a fence line stretching out along a few hundred meters.

This Big bugger knew when to turn head , I got him in the end but he was lucky quite afew times
https://imgur.com/a/IRocnIP

Unloading the big ones

YUM!!!!

I could've sworn that the ones in the thermal images had heads

Lol! , these are the farmers favourite versions

Shooting wallabies is fun.
Wallabies being smaller, lamer versions of kangaroos.

'cept for those big black rock wallabies !!!

Emptied a semi automatic, bruno .22 into ones chest, from 40-50 metres.

The bastard just stood there, scratching, where I was hitting !

Deb's dad's best friend (sheep farmer) said when you skin 1, it's unusual to not find .22's just under the hide.

Next round of tags released I should be busy again for the next 3 months I’ll try to put some interesting stuff up
If I can get the th50 wifi working properly I’ll get some action vids

\


Hahaha!

Thats cool.

Only 11 last night but averaged 46kg so that’s a good average I think the biggest was 68kg

68kg is one big skippy! What does that equate to in useable meat?

Is that what they call “Australian beef”?
Years ago there was an urban legend that McDonald’s was using Australian beef that was actually kangaroo, made me a little jumpy.

Not sure exactly that’s 68kg dressed so no hoppers head or guts , biggest I’ve seen personally is 84kg dressed

Didn't realize they got that big.

Yeah they get big they will mess you up to if your not careful, used to hunt them with dogs and they will ignore dogs and go straight for you once they see you , they know what’s going on and what’s at stake , it’s a stupid young man’s game that

Took a few many decades ago when stationed in Townsville. Landowner furnished a couple of 22 LRs, and at the required ranges, for educated roos we were grossly under gunned.

Someone mentioned there was a rumor that McDonalds had a big problem using it in their hamburgers. Wasn't a rumor. Been a lot of years ago, I drove for Monfort Trans out of Greeley, Colorado. Big meat packer. Out on the road someone would ask what you were hauling on the CB and all our hamburger we refered to as kangeroo meat! Reason for that. Monfort had a plant in Asturalia years ago and the plant manager uped his out put using kangroo meat in the hamburger. Got shipped the McDonalds in the SE US and when it was found out, darn near broke McDonalds! True story!

I heard some of the missing people in the outback was because of 'roos. Them and the crocs.

I heard Elvis was still alive.

Not too many Crocs to be found in the outback.

I think the roos chase them away

Another reason why I do not eat McDonald's hamburgers, but basically I have always thought their burgers are NASTY. Wendy's burgers are 100 x's better.

The only thing I would eat at McDonald's are their egg McMuffins and fries, have not even had one of those in years. The next thing I will hear is that they are using Platypus Eggs in the McMuffins lol

KB

Being an old meat hauler there are a few things I'm privy to. Used to pick up hamburger back east that was imported. Was told it was old dairy bulls! Eats pretty much just the same. about McDonalds Kangroo meat, if no one was told about it, it wouldn't have hurt anyone! Worked for a company that also hauled wild killed elk to places back east to sell!

And there was once a rumor of ground night crawlers in Big Macs. That would be seriously expensive.

I'm unfamiliar with them, but can you educate me on the "nuisance" factor of roo's. Do they damage crops or out compete livestock for forage? Spread diseases? Attack livestock or people? Based on your thermal video's, you have a lot of them.

I'm in TX and the feral hogs are our big issue. Damaging crops, digging up pastures and they have the potential to carry a number of diseases. I've even heard instances of them eating newborn livestock.

When it floods they swim in. When the water recedes, they stay in the dams and water holes. That's what happened to the jolly swagman after he got caught stealing a sheep. Jumped in the water and got eaten by a croc...never seen again. Same with the dogs. The 'roos hold 'em under water and drown 'em. May have even been a roo drowned the jolly swagman and the croc finished him off.

He's on this forum.

Depends on how far inland we are talking about when we say the 'outback.'

Crop damage and pasture competition, fence damage
Also other wildlife competition, no other real predators for them , what little remnant Bush that remains they unbalance the ecology by turning into one big bed, agriculture has supplied them with water and pasture year round and the continue to breed, Normally Roos can pause there breeding cycle until water turns up thus controlling numbers naturally, dams and troughs in every paddock has turned them into massive reproduces not normally seen , They are harmless unless you come into close contact with the big Boomers then mostly you are ok unless you are attacking them then it can be game on they will kill dogs and people , there signature move is grab you pull you close and then kick your guts open with there powerful legs , they rock back on there tail , if you can get there tail you are then in control, any dog pressure they will take the fight to water and drown the predator

no spellcheck eh mugilah?

Used to have it. Don't know where it went now!

Thanks Don, I was at the other end of the spectrum as I shot in to the chiller of the fauna dealer that supplied the meat.

He insisted that you lot got better meat than you paid for, we referred to it as "the roo in the stew".

with your assumed intellect perhaps......,

Like fish in a barrel tonight, now the moon is gone they seem to be standing better

I am curious as to rabbits... i understand there is a lot of them and watched a documentary on the efforts to eliminate them and in the show they indicated due to all the poisons, etc done to the rabbits over the years, almost no one ever eats them.... Is this true or just TV misinformation? I have not seen anything about any large scale hunting - processing for consumption.

It is bullshit, calicivirus knocked them about but whenever they build up they are shot and sold.

Hard to spot a rabbit these days.

There are thousands of them down here atm , the farmer where I shot these Roos went out with a mate they shot 180 for fun , I saw that many in his driveway ,they come and go
I used to eat them as a kid I ran a small ferreting business for pocket money , basically as soon as I could eat duck and venison I just couldn’t go back to rabbits I turned into a rabbit snob

Whereabouts is that, roughly speaking, state, region, so as not to give away your hunting ground?

Southern Victoria

That's good, I thought they were largely gone.

Dunkeld?

If I wanted to share where I hunt I wouldn’t be on an American site ….., have some respect mate

Aren't you supposed to tie them down?

Only if they jump.

I ask as I sent an old Remington extractor to a Trapper down that way...can't have been you though as he didn't seem to be a dick.

And why has that got anything to do with anywhere I hunt?, what you brought crypto once and want me to put up all my passwords for the world to see incase you have the same words in yours or we all just keep guessing till we figure it out , ? Your being the dick champ , I’m just trying to add abit of content that people here might not get to see , I just don’t want my area getting bombed up because I put afew big Roos up I think anyone would think that’s fair enough

You attach too much importance to yourself, as Dunkeld, Maroona, Moyston, Ararat area is known to all and nobody really cares.

As for 'roos...once again, too much importance.


Have a nice day.

Forgot to add...when you finish shooting 'roos for a quid you stop getting paranoid about someone poaching your country.

Something for you to look forward to.

Fc king troll get a life

What, do you think you are the only clown out there that has shot for a living. Not only are you not that important, you aren't even particularly unique.

Grow up.

James Stuart
Hay NSW

My old Trappers licence was PT05295


Have a nice day.

Funny thing is that I can go back to shooting for a dollar any time I want, with new everything and on most of my old country.

Not a hope in hell, no way, not a chance.

You will get to that same point eventually...remember this conversation, it will amuse you.

35Sambar, I wouldn't trust some of these "gentlemen" on this thread either, who knows what their real intentions are, given their dubious sexuality.

Haha thanks riflehunter there’s definitely some special people on here

All things being relative.

I thought that was a Tasmanian thing?

It could be an American thing. America being a leader in all the things of the World, being bigger and better at all things.......

I watched some youtube videos on professional roo shooters. I like shooting and I like knife work but I have to think that would be a tough way to make a living and the new wear off pretty quickly.

Like anything the novelty wears off quick many a night I’d rather be home with the family I have to go out and keep the clients happy but I have a goal I’m working towards and I keep that in mind and push on , the shooting is over in minutes then the lugging dead carcasses start and the processing begins , I work two jobs and the Roos is a supplement income , the benefits are meeting and talking to farmers and being out and about , also being mates with other shooters we are constantly talking and sharing our experiences the benefits out way the negatives I just treat it like a business and be as efficient as possible, the downtime requirement’s ie knife sharpening and bullet loading is probably the biggest drag when you’ve got a lot on but you just keep going , I have a block of land and I’m saving to build a house so I have the desire to achieve that so I just keep getting in the Ute and doing my job

Sounds like a man with a mission. Good on ya.

Thanks mate I count myself lucky , I would never put these hours into my regular job I’d go mad 😂

PB Roo tonight 81kg dressed also my biggest [img]http://imgur.com/a/zsXtXRS[/img]night just under the ton

Funny you should say that not one to believe such embellishments I was gutting a big boomer the other night and as I slid up past his balls this 22magnum solid popped out got through the skin but not through the gristle , they are very thick there due to when they fight that’s where they get kicked, almost like a deer or buffalo’s neck it’s twice as thick as anywhere else , I’d say someone give him marching orders as he hopped off , there was absolutely nothing wrong with him
[Linked Image]

Kangaroos do not fart............ who knew!?!?!?

Interesting shot the other night shows how careful you have to be with your background when shooting even a 223 I was using 55grain super Roo projectiles which are renowned for being hard, I will be considering a change when I finish this lot .
If you look closely after the shot you can see the projectile fly upwards on a 40 degree angle up through the trees , bit of a eye opener and I’ll be extremely careful even more now I’ve seen this
https://imgur.com/a/rj159Ig

It could have been a piece of bone or flesh?

Bone or flesh loose momentum quickly , this flew up through the trees 100m away in a straight line probably had flesh on it

thanks for the great pictures and what`s going on down in OZ land when your hunting Roos. i would think a 22 Hornet would be the perfect cartridge for night hunting with a spot light ? take care ,Pete53

Yeah the 17 hornet is perfect but the minimum is a 222 with 50grain projectile, or a 204 with 40grain