This Australian Kangaroo Hunting Jeep J4 (with kangaroos) was displayed at the 2013 Fulda Meet by Andreas Kaluzny. This type of vehicle is used by Australian kangaroo hunters. "Roo" (the short form of kangaroo) shooter is a job in Australia, which is strictly regulated and can be done only by trained people with permission by the Australian government.

The farmers in Australia can hire a "roo-shooter" for hunting a quoted count of roos on their ground per year and the farmer has to pay for each roo killed. The roo-shooter can sell the roos to the butcher and earn money for a second time. Notice, in Australia there live about 20 Million inhabitants an about 57 Million roos. 3 Million roos per year are hunted. Andreas tells us, "If you ever have the chance to taste roo-meat, try it. It’s delicious. And of low fat. Only 2%. You have to eat it medium rare. Otherwise it will be very  chewy. ;-)"

The model is a combination of a Busch model of the J4 and a resin-based bed, pushed up with parts of Evergreen styrene and some other things from the parts bin. Wheels are from Roco's Dodge, the gun is made from Evergreen and brass. The antennas are absolutely normal, because in the outback you have no mobile network and communication is possible only by radio with long range antennas. The bumper is an etched part for a Dodge Ram, but it fits to the Toyota as well. The car has a lot of strong lights, because roo-hunting is a night job and the day roos hide in the bush. They come out by night and the shooter have to glare them for shooting.

Note: We want to expressly thank Andreas for sending us these details after our initial posting; it is very much appreciated!

Posted October 28, 2013