‘Roo Shooting in Pictures
As I have mentioned before, I am working on a large feature story about my experience shooting kangaroo in Australia. My other mate Luke Simon is a fantastic and talented photographer, and just returned from a shoot (in more ways than one) with these photos…hopefully we can use them with the story.
I seriously cannot stop looking at these…
Here’s a ‘roo shooter scouting for packs of kangaroo:
The first one of the night:
I cannot remember what sort of bird this is, but they are native to Western Australia, and I don’t think they are in the owl family:
Like all too many other species, foxes were introduced into the Australian ecosystem and have run absolutely wild. They hunt and eat all manner of indigenous marsupials and are wreaking their own sort of havoc on the ecosystem. Consequently, it is a perfectly legal activity to just go out into the bush and drill as many foxes as you can. There is a difference between legal and enjoyable in my book, but I understand the reasoning behind it…
As a soft inner city kid with a penchant for digital photography and comic book reading, I was totally unprepared for the harsh reality that comes along with killing mammals. I would like to state for the record that this sort of thing is not for me at all, but I do see the value in culling ‘roos, hunting, and I definitely eat meat. If you’re going to eat meat, you have to be willing to participate and get your hand dirty at least once, and I sure did. I overemotionalized what is a very normal, common thing for any country person that has ever slaughtered a hog or dressed a deer.
But one thing that hit me was the weird, grimly comical faces that the animals could make. I saw sights like the following a lot, and I never got completely used to it…it’s silly and scary all at once, and really makes you understnad he power of laughter as a coping mechanism.
If you get queasy easy or get bummed out by pictures of dead animals, don’t scroll down. I am building in a bit of space for the fainthearted so you guys can navigate away if necessary….
July 18th, 2005 at 8:22 am
unreal…
the spectre of death is so conveniently overprocessed out of our daily lives. if people only had the constitution to come face to face with the faces of their meals!!
August 11th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
why do you guys take pictures of dead kangaroos? as if people want to see something that was shot and has blod coming out of it’s mouth. secondly, why ever would anyone want to kill a kangaroo or any animal? unless it was trying to kill you but i dont think those would have done it
August 11th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
Uh…these are for a magazine article about kangaroo shooting. And kangaroos are a plague in Australia. I don’t mind being questioned, but please do a bit of thinking before you point the finger..
November 12th, 2005 at 8:44 am
I have been farming my whole life up until recently and can verify first hand the damage roos do to a wheat paddock, what they don’t eat they lay on and make into beds where they sleep in the cool during the day. Shooting roos is sad but is the most humane way of lowering numbers and at least the carcasses are put to a good use rather than being left to rot as is often the case when other means of control are utilized. By the way that bird is commonly known as a mopoke or a frogmouth.
December 20th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
i am currently a roo shotter in south west australia and the amount of roos that wreak havoc on farmers are harrandous i have shot out 25000 this year and will have no problem doing it again next year because i have seen first hand the damage that they do
January 27th, 2006 at 2:05 am
i think culling is nesecery for a healthy population of skippy’s
February 3rd, 2006 at 5:05 am
i think that they taste good and also great fun to chase down and hunt. there are shitloads of roos and they need to be killed. i reken all you poofs should go to the country and find out first hand what the roos do to the farm and the farmers land. then come tell us what you think about kulling them.
February 3rd, 2006 at 5:12 am
I think culling roo’s is very inportent in austrlia, because they are wrecking all th farmers land witch we need to live off. I enjoy shooting roo’s with my friend it is a good game to hunt. all greenies that cry about this sort of shit should piss of and go hug a tree, so greenies piss off and get a life.
February 3rd, 2006 at 5:17 am
oh to right mate i love killing them with my mates from work.
then go hame catch up on the footy scors .uno how it goes.
if there wasnt guys like us all u greeny pooters will be hiding from the aussie roo in ten years there will be that many of them.
SO STOP FUCKING WINGING!! u all sound like a pack of sheelas.
February 3rd, 2006 at 5:23 am
to right mate, if there wasnt people like us culling the kangaroos there would be more of them then us, and there would bee no roo meat for us to eat. so how about all u windging wineing dicks just shut up and stop sooking because your to scared to get some blood on ur hands be a real aussie……
June 12th, 2006 at 3:25 am
yeh g’day mate i just come back from barreling a heap of roos in morra and there’s no shortage of the bastards. IT NEEDS TO BE DONE!!!
June 13th, 2006 at 6:58 am
hey mate i go shooting with my uncle heaps and all that we see is the fuckers jumping in front of the car so we blow em and then take em home and make the best stew
October 1st, 2006 at 7:46 pm
im a roo shooter in northern NSW. things are hard enough for the farmers around here let alone roos comin on to the properties and fuckin things up more then they are. there is plenty of them and with the department not issuing anymore tags for here untill next year there will be a fuckin shitload of them. ill be goin on a bloody rampage next year
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:48 pm
sorry to put a dampener on this but im a full time shooter who requires this practice for a living. now you silly cowboys mouthing off at the greenies and calling them poofs. you guys are the idiots. talking about chasing them down and blasting them. you are a dickhead. if you had any idea how to shoot roo properly you wouldnt say that. a Pros roo are one shot clean kills. and the carcass is cared for in a manner that befits meat for human consumtion. and gettin blood on your hands doesnt make you an aussie.
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Hi — I actually own this blog, and wrote the story in question, which you can see here:
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/04/roo-shooter-part-1.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/04/roo-shooter-part-2.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/05/roo-shooter-part-3.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/05/roo-shooter-part-4.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/05/roo-shooter-part-5.html
I’m going to have to side with the last commenter. ‘Craig’, the shooter I worked with, was a consummate professional and took no real joy in killing ‘roos. I saw him get a head shot about 90 percentof the time, and was always concerned with bringing the animals as respectful a death as he could manage.
A lot of the talk on this thread just reads like you guys are trying to prove something and don’t really mean what you’re saying. Perhaps if you just got a ruler and measured your units privately, real ‘roo shooters wouldn’t have to defend themselves against so much unfair, blanketing criticism.
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Hi — I actually own this blog, and wrote the story in question, which you can see here:
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/04/roo-shooter-part-1.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/04/roo-shooter-part-2.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/05/roo-shooter-part-3.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/05/roo-shooter-part-4.html
http://andiamnotlyingforreal.blogspot.com/2006/05/roo-shooter-part-5.html
I’m going to have to side with the last commenter. ‘Craig’, the shooter I worked with, was a consummate professional and took no real joy in killing ‘roos. I saw him get a head shot about 90 percentof the time, and was always concerned with bringing the animals as respectful a death as he could manage.
A lot of the talk on this thread just reads like you guys are trying to prove something and don’t really mean what you’re saying. Perhaps if you just got a ruler and measured your units privately, real ‘roo shooters wouldn’t have to defend themselves against so much unfair, blanketing criticism.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:47 am
i work as a boilermaker and shoot roos professionaly on weekends in cetral old. This is a very healthy 2nd income for me and my family. Roo shooting is a multi-million dollar industry that keeps thousands of aussies employed all over Australia.shooters pay a fee for licences and accreditation. Every year we are audited by Safe Food to ensure our vehicles,racks,claners,return books
etc are up to standards.Every roo is head shot hung on the rack and dressed for either humam consumption or pet food.At the end of a nights work the carcasses are taken into the chillers and sold.This is a very professional job and iwould like to see this industry be around for many years to come.So when you hear dick
heads mouthing off ignore it ,talk to a pro shooter and find out this isn’t about killing or blowing roos away.Roo sooting is a living and a humane way to keep the kangaroo population to a sustainable level.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:07 am
what is the qualification test for us guys these days. 5 out of 5 shot in the bull. You have to have CLEAN HEADSHOT kills. I shoot roos professionally (our only income) and between me and my mate i shoot with we have had about 8 misses this year. by misses i mean not head shots
December 30th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Anyone reading through the comments left here would do well to only note those made by Sako 223 and Rooshooter.The rest of the opinions expressed here are obviously made by those who have no idea of what a Professional Shooter is or what the Wild Game Harvesting industry is about.I have been in the industry since 1987(harvesting in Queensland),and have seen the image of the roo shooter change dramatically in that time.We don’t need to see opinions of idiots ruin our good names.
March 30th, 2007 at 1:05 am
8 miss shots in 1 year? what is it, never windy? or you only shoot 10 per year.. maybe being a sniper might be more suited to you.
ya bloody clown!
May 13th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
i have been feral game hunting 4 only 7 years and have shot many roos.i admire sako 223 and the way roos should be shot, BUT greenies are loopy fucks. just wate till the cunts get all types of projectile firing weapons made ilagal.
May 13th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I also have been huntig with the last guy for 4 years, and been a gun enthousiest since the craddle. to see the greenies talk shit on this page annoys me. when they wanted the buyback done all it did was put alot of guns under ground and on the streets being sold 2 drug dealers etc.
May 17th, 2007 at 4:17 am
Sako 223 has a point. I’m a young bloke looking at becoming licensed to cull Kangaroos, as a supplementary income to my fragile Uni student income. Kangaroos are a viable industry, and are in great demand overseas, whether it be on a German’s steak, or on on Beckam’s feet. I have shot since I was a boy, and I certainly grew out of the ‘kill everything’ stage very quickly. It is a neccessity to head shoot, for both the animal, and your wallet. The farmers out there ensuring there livelihood and killing cleanly are to be commended.It’s the people who think it’s tough and emasculate to shoot a roo for the hell of it,talk about it and then as an afterthought cite ‘crop damage’ as a reason really piss me off (Especially since I live on a station in N.Qld where cattle and not wheat stalks frequent the paddocks). Sure, shoot them, but do it quick and well… don’t shoot your mouth off like the activity will extend your dick size or your pickup rate.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
i used to chase them down in my holden ute with a guy on dolphen tourch and two blokes in the back with semi auto shoties (back when they where leagal), those days are over and i feel very ashamed of wat we did, if the guys on the back didnt finnish them off (which was a freqent thing) the wheels would if all alse failled we’d stab them in the neck…….. i now no how fucked up that was.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:24 am
im only 13 and i have shot 256 roos and 113 pigs and 74 rabbits and only 28 foxes i want to no if i should be a roo shooter and is it good money i live in hay nsw and it full of the busteds
June 14th, 2007 at 1:43 am
for sako223
I agree with you but Roo shooting may be a profesion but you can still have fun doing it. personaly i think all the aussie greenies are poofs (and much worse) because they have no knowledge about culling pests but they still say its crule and the typical question of ‘what did the kangaroos ever do to you’. I have been roo shooting for many years now for the meat and the enjoyment. If there are any greenie types reading this, get a life! and before you go telling us that were crule go roo shooting yourself and realise that if your responsibly shooting there is no crultey envolved and you are simply culling a pest and using the pest as a food source.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:46 am
What is your oppinion…
should i get a .204, 223 or 22/250 for roos at around 150m and longer. i would aso use the gun for smaller varmint e.g. cats and foxes.
June 17th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
how coud some heartless pice of s#!$t do this to a living creature
were did you see it