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.