[deciple-of-keith]

Sorry but I've been away for a while as things have been pretty hectic round my part of the world . I,ve had several contracts for Dingo culling to fill ,a Fox skin contract (to help a Mate out that's a buyer of skins ) & THe Price Of Kangaroo meat has gone to a point that I found it too good to be avoided ! I was talking with a Proccesser the other day who manages a firm that is in compertition with the Company whom I sell to& he suggested that I might like to shoot for him as well ? I laughed & pointed out that he would'nt be able to match the price I'm getting ! He turned round & not only matched the price But suggested that I might like to have the chiller on my property :what: I jumped at the chance & neglected to tell the wife ! :uhoh: This morning I was awoken by the Wife informing me that a Semi ad just dropped a Chiller off round the Back & did I know anything about it? :scrutiny: Ah well ! Once I can get both eyes open & the swelling of my nose goes down I'll be right for work again !
Dave

[robertbank]

You Sir are a bear for punishment. You are lucky you could get both your eyes open!

Take Care

Bob

[lamazza]

lol-what is a chiller?

[deciple-of-keith]

A Chiller is a large mobile Freezer that measures about 30x 10 & is used by us Pro shooters to store our kills until the Proccessor collects them once a week ! The problem being they take up a lot of space(not that that is a problem in our place ) & they look unsightly ,with the added bonus of several shooters will use one chiller so that means a kitchern full of Shooters every morning for coffee :D Which to me has to be as close to heaven as you get on earth .......But to the Cook ? No more sleep ins :cuss:

Dave

[NRA4LIFE]

Keith,

As the shooter, do you have to dress and skin the animals also?

[deciple-of-keith]

THe requirement these days is that the head ,forepaws ,lower back legs are removed (of a Kangaroo ) But the liver, heart,kidneys are left in place ! THe skins are left on & this makes life a little easyer for us as when we were shooting for Pet food only we had to cut the top half of the animal off & just use the bottom half Unless instructed that full skins were needed ! The draw back of Human consumption was that whereas we used to be able to take HEAD SHOTS & CHEST SHOTS! Under the new regs we have to take Neck shots as if a Roo is hit directly in the Brain it does a back ward flip (which whilst looking very impressive to a bystander ) Causes the Tail to break & Bruises the Meat in the Rump thereby down grading the meat from Human to Pet food which is a lot less money per Kg (2.2lbs ) Also if a Pro is caught useing Chest shoots his Permit can be cannceled :cuss:
When this idea came into force we were all horified at the thought of trying to take a neck shot at 200mtrs (180yrds) + these days it comes as a second nature ,as we shoot on average 30 Roos a night (or preferably 1.2 Tonne ) My best night ever was 60 at a total of 2.5 tonne!

Dave

[sturmruger]

So people are actually starting to eat kangaroos and they are commercially sold!! Wow that really blows me away; here in the US I don't know of any game animal that can be sold. It is legal to raise whitetail deer or elk on a farm, but not to sell animals that have been shot in the wild. It sounds like someone in your government finally got smart and figured out a way to get rid of the over population problems.

I heard that there are also large amounts of camels and wild asses in Australia are these being shot for human consumption or pet food??

[deciple-of-keith]

Most Animals are being exported as Human consumption these days The Kangaroo Industry went over to Human about 10-15 years ago & now is a 13million dollar a year industry ! Feral pigs & Goats are also becoming a industry unto them selves ! Camels (of which are public enemy #1 to me as one almost killed me once ) Are now used for both live export & Human consumption ! There was a time that they were either shot on sight or Pet food !Rabbits were the main stay of the shooting industry for more years than any of us can remember until the Carlise virus wiped em out Pro's used to shoot a average of 150pair per night ! Water Buff were shot origanialy for their skins ,then for Pet food (about the time I was involed in the Buff industry .Later the Gov Culled them out (this was a black point of my long career as I was involved in these culls .Shooting from a chopper ) Donkey's areshot for Pet food only at this time to the best of my knowlage as I have'nt shot them in years
Dave

[Skoghund]

Most of the deer meat shot in England is exported to mainland Europe.As is farmed deer meat Little of it is used for home consumption. Here in Sweden its nearly all for home consumption.

[MCgunner]

Wow, there is commercial hunting somewhere in the world????:what: Amazing. Them Roos must be prolific SOBs, eh? The fir market has all but died in the US, too. I can remember getting forty bucks for a Coon pelt in the early 80s, no more. I sold all my traps long ago. It's fashionable to be a PITA moron now days.:banghead: Guess they don't have a chapter down under. Good on ya. I need to move to Australia, I guess. :D Jist call me Quigley. :D

I know guys that hunt feral hogs here and sell 'em. I've bought quite a few in the 100 lb range for 20 bucks dressed. They sure ain't gettin' rich doin' it, can tell ya that! I also know a fellow that traps coyotes on big ranches around here. He's not exactly rich, drinks his profits at the bar down the street. :D But, predator control I can see how you could find work on large ranches, especially those dingos which are basically feral dogs.

We need to get them Roos started in Texas...:D Oh, and remember the big ruckus over McDonald's selling Roo burgers? Much ado about nothing back in the early 80s. I'm sure I've eaten Roo meat, just didn't know it at the time. :D I think the McDonald's deal was spurred by the cattle industry. I don't eat there anyway...yuk

[shermacman]

Let me get this thread going in the right direction...we haven't had a caliber war in about 15 minutes, so:

What is the best caliber for kangaroo?!:evil:

[MCgunner]

Let me guess, .303 British? :D

[deciple-of-keith]

What is the best caliber for kangaroo?!

Now if it's a "cal war" ya want, it's "a cal war" ya goin to get!:D

Right first up ! The rules are set by some pimple faced kid who has never seen a Roo out side of a Zoo ! But his studied for 4yrs in University & has great knowlage of the Animal in question !

Now When the Laws changed over here & it was decided That humans could eat Roo meat :) God only knows thre effect that it had had on those wh had been eating it for 1000's ofyears :confused: ! WE as PH's had to go to school & do a whole lot of courses ! Including Game meat preperation ,How to shoot ,How to reload,& the Effect of bullet wounds kills (I kid ye not ) :cuss: It was explianed to those of us who went on the first ever course by our instructor that he'd never shot a Roo before :what:
But much to our relief ....This Kid who was still ****ting green when most of us had been shooting for more than 20yrs had studied the habits & the Nervious system of the Kangaroo & therefore was well up to speed !

Right in the days before enlighten ment ! A .22lr was good for head shots out to about 75yrds ,.22Hornets were great ! 25-303's & yes .303's accounted for mre tonage than anyother cal up till the 70's then it was the 222 that was the craze followed by the 243/6mm's they faded out in favor of the 257roberts ,270,22-250,220swift ! Then the .223 became the main stay of the industry !
After enlighternment ! The min legal Cal for the Humain culling of Kangaroos is the .223 !!! Now to show the Knowlage of the Mental Pigmies that Goven these laws ! I asked recently about the .204 as a roo cal & was told no Sir .223 is the min cal ! So I asked about the .222mag & was rewarded with the same answer & I pointed out they both use .224 dia bullets! The Answer ? Sorry Sir .223 is the min cal :scrutiny: Ok not to be out done ! I suggested what about a 17-06 (a 30-06 sized down to .17 I explianed ! ) Sorry Sir but .......... I hung up

Dave

[shermacman]

Disciple:
That was one of the best dissections of both caliber and government ever!

[NRA4LIFE]

I seen Kangaroo on a buffet over in Denmark a couple weeks ago. But it smelled kinda funky and the other guys who ate it said it was the toughest piece of meat they ever put in their mouths. I may have tried it except there was a prime rib of good ol' beef and a wild boar ham plunked next to it.

[MCgunner]

I seen Kangaroo on a buffet over in Denmark a couple weeks ago. But it smelled kinda funky and ....

You reckon the chiller on the boat they shipped it on broke down? :uhoh:

[Jalexander]

We need to get them Roos started in Texas...

Have mercy. I can't help but think of all the deer out in the hill country that get taken out every year, then adding kangaroos to that mix. They'd have to start rating brush guards for kangaroo, and I'm sure the Parks and Wildlife folks would have a collective siezure. On the other hand, several non-native species (nilgai, sika deer) have naturalized very successfully and are roaming more-or-less free through parts of Texas, so what's another game animal? A really *cute* game animal.

Dave, do they compete much with cattle, sheep, and goats for forage? And do y'all have many problems with kangaroos getting smacked by cars while they're in mid-leap? Seems like they might go through a windshield pretty handily.

James

[deciple-of-keith]

Roo Vs Car the roo wins every time ! They do hundreds of thousands of Dollars worth of damage to cars each year . THey are attracked to the road side of a everning due to the moisture in the roads surface being realised & will jump out in front of a car! We have bush ,Roo Bars ,bull bars fitted to most of the cars you see that spend a lot of time on country rds .Of course near all of our city dwelling 4x4 Owners have the biggest & best Roo bars fitted along with the very brightest Spot lights (Now the thing is these vehicles never leave the city limits:barf: But I suppose at the end of the day apperance is everything & you never knw when a rouge roo is going to jump out at you in the car park of a shopping centre! :rolleyes: )
Roos do compete with live stock for both Feed & water & dispite what my dear & educated Freinds of the Roo say ! There are more Roos in Australia now than from before white settlement due to farming & irrigation ! The damage that Roos do to ceral crops is amazing ! It's like a all you can eat for free eatery for them.

Dave

[MCgunner]

We have a similar phenom here in Texas, huge elevated pickups with huge monster truck tires, middle of Houston, commuting to work with one driver in all their 7 mpg glory. :rolleyes: If these things ever got a spot of mud on 'em, the owners would have a heart attack. :rolleyes: You need a friggin' rope ladder or one of those 747 boarding ramps just to get in and out of the things! I reckon some of the "urban cowboys" aka "drug store cowboys" aka "cosmic cowboys" will be trading in their Texas Cadillacs when gas hits four or five bucks a gallon. :D

[sturmruger]

It is good to know that whenever the goverment tries to do anything the world over they are bound to screw it up!!! I can't believe they have a goverment official telling you what you can use to kill kangaroos!!

[p35]

There are persistent rumors of spottings of feral 'roos around here. Many people who have seen one won't admit it for fear of being accused of imbibing to excess.