Friday, March 19, 2010

Lions and tigers and bears. And wolves. And kangaroos. And face-eating monkeys.

Since we're on the subject of Mother Nature hating her some joggers...
Mr Striegl, 25, was running up Canberra's Mount Ainslie during his lunchbreak yesterday and did not think twice when he spotted one of the resident roos nearby.

The bushland reserve in the nation's capital is popular with joggers and cyclists, and assaults by the marsupials who share the mountain are rare.

Mr Striegl was knocked unconscious and remembers little about the attack...
Actually, the slavering attack kangaroo probably saved him by knocking him out before he jogged into the territory of the drop bears.

What gun for 'roo, anyway?



(h/t to reader Tarb.)

33 comments:

  1. Tourists sometimes get hurt in Lapland during the reindeer mating season because they encounter a reindeer which doesn't run away and get the bright idea of getting a photo of it, or a photo with one of the group standing right next to it, and then get get kicked. The males can get aggressive at that time.

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  2. With their kicking and punching ability would have been fun to watch......Sort of like Kang Fu....

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  3. Traditionally, I think a sporterized Lithgow #1 Mk3 would be appropriate.

    Practically, I think defending yourself from bouncing 'roos attacking from ambush is shotgun work.

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  4. I can't help picturing the thing with boxing gloves on. I can't decide if I'm picturing the one from Tekken or the one from the Sylvester cartoons.

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  5. Aren't these bear, lion, tiger, puma and roo attacks just cover stories for guys, who are still in denial, going out in the woods and queering each other?

    Sort of like the alien abduction stories?

    Shootin' Buddy

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  6. WOW SB, project much? LOL

    As for what gun for 'roo? I'm thinking this is exactly why the Taurus Judge was made.

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  7. The Taurus Judge was made because somebody said "Hey check out this gun I designed wouldn't that be AWESOME" and all the other guys said "HELLS YEAH" and left off sticking firecrackers in anthills and went and built it. They may tell you some other story if you ask, but that's how it really went down.

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  8. HOLY CRAP! You noticed me! Omigodomigodomigod! (runs around the room with much pathetic fanboy squeeeeing.)
    Ahem. Sorry about that. I've been reading your blog for a long time, but I'm not much of a commenter. Anyways, here's another, older story if you're in the mood: http://www.theage.com.au/national/rogue-roo-a-fearful-combatant-in-dam-attack-20091123-iysk.html
    If they're being hunted by dogs, their last-ditch defence is to hop in the water and drown it. As to What Gun? a single .22 in the right spot will do the trick, or a lot of .22 in the wrong spots also, although PBD is right and a sporterised .303 would be pretty sweet, too. The boxing gloves they used to put on them in novelty boxing matches were to ensure that the soft, squishy human didn't get disembowelled and generally mangled. Oh, and Shooting Buddy? Have you ever been attacked by a bear? Do you like movies about gladiators? Heh heh. Sorry about the verbal diarrhoea, Tam. Keep up the excellent blogging!

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  9. The Taurus Judge was made because somebody said "Hey check out this gun I designed wouldn't that be AWESOME" and all the other guys said "HELLS YEAH"

    Sounds perfectly reasonable to me!

    HOLY CRAP! You noticed me! Omigodomigodomigod! (runs around the room with much pathetic fanboy squeeeeing.)

    Tam...you must use your powers only for good.

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  10. Alright, I have to explain this.

    I didn't know what "drop bears" meant, so I entered that term in google.

    I got this page.


    Being interested in crime, I clicked on the Urban Dictionay link, and this was my result.


    The definition was there, but the advert on the right! They may change, but this is what was on when I looked at the UD page.


    And in case it was a joke, and since these referral pages may expire or be randomised somehow, I checked the basic URL- yes, it's genuine.

    So maybe SB isn't just projecting.

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  11. staghounds-- "learning allthetime" /Benny Hill voice.

    Which is why I come here every day.

    And aren't Ozzies prohibited from owning any firearm likely to be effective against 'roos?

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  12. The Rooger of course.

    AT

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  13. Never hunted them but a friend's b-in-law hunts all the time. Rabbits, deer and more. He has several centerfire bolt actions. He thought it was funny that the govt gave him twice what he figured his Browning semi-auto rifle was worth when they took them all - got $800 if I remember right. They shoot Cowboy Action and I'll bet a .45 Colt lever action would drop a roo pretty well.

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  14. Roo? The No.1 Mk III Enfield, of course!

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  15. Striegl was lucky. 'Roos have a set of hind claws that are longer than most sets of kitchen knives, and their usual offense/defense mode is a ripping kick to the guts. Which is often fatal unless competent medical help is on scene almost immediately.

    What gun? If you have pull enough, lucky enough, or are rich enough to get a permit to possess, 'roos are soft skinned critters. My Queensland friend uses a .22 for pest control.

    Stranger

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  16. A camel gun will do nicely for a roo, even an old silvertail.

    When they finished the railway to Alice Springs, they told the Afghan camel drivers who had been supplying the Alice with regular camel trains to go home. It wasn't worth shipping the camels back, so the Afghans released them into the desert. Now we have thousands of them, enough to export to Arabia, and they are a menace. A camel will go through a fence that will hold any other stock. Station owners and jackaroos shoot them on sight, and keep a camel gun to hand on stock bike or in ute.
    Other than a camel gun, I've always thought a 12 bore with slugs pretty adequate.

    Best wishes.

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  17. Heh. Drop Bears... Haven't encountered that beast since EV:Nova was the big time-killer on my 7200/120.

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  18. "Aren't these bear, lion, tiger, puma and roo attacks just cover stories for guys, who are still in denial, going out in the woods and queering each other?"

    Wow, WTF? Hate much, SB?

    "The definition was there, but the advert on the right! They may change, but this is what was on when I looked at the UD page.

    [...]

    So maybe SB isn't just projecting."


    Staghounds, you do realize how ridiculous some of those referral ads can be, right? You were looking at a definition with the word "thug" in it, and the ad has the word "thug" in it. Hmm, I wonder how the automated referral ad system connected the two?

    I know! It's because people who say they were attacked by animals are "queers" just using it as a cover story!

    Sheesh!

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  19. Friend of mine in Queensland used a .577-.450 on an aussie jackrabbit once and posted pictures of the result. I think the bullet probably weighed more than the target.

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  20. A camel gun will do nicely for a roo, even an old silvertail.

    Okay, so what gun for camel? They don't roam wild here, so I've got no idea what one uses on them.

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  21. "What gun for 'roo, anyway?"

    I was thinking ROOney gun.

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  22. In the interest of public safety, it sounds like instead of trying to ban guns, someone should ban jogging.

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  23. Jake (formerly riposte 3), I understand that.

    And I feel confident that SB was joking. Mostly.

    One of the things I love about the internet is that it has let people who thought the were the only person on earth with their sexuality find out that they are not alone.

    I was just intrigued that there was such a thing as gaythugdating.com.

    Learning all the time.

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  24. "No matter how perveted you are, there's someone on the Internet who makes you look like a von Trapp by comparison." -- Lore Sjoberg

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  25. "Wow, WTF? Hate much, SB?"

    We're here, we're queer, you better get a gun for bear.

    :-)

    Shootin' Buddy

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  26. "Jake (formerly riposte 3), I understand that.

    And I feel confident that SB was joking. Mostly."


    Mea culpa, then - I didn't catch the humor/sarcasm/etc. through the internets. It happens.

    Any joking in SB's original comment REALLY didn't come through, though.

    WV: priate - a dyslexic pirate? (What does a dyslexic pirate say? "Raaaaaaa!")

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  27. SB: Nah ... they're getting raped by the roos.

    "You don't really come out here to jog, do you?"

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  28. The only gun for 'Roos is the only gun for EVERYTHING. The Ruger Alaskan Outback Edition (comes with cool flap holster and "Bang!" flag).

    -Rob

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  29. Scottw said:
    With their kicking and punching ability would have been fun to watch......Sort of like Kang Fu....

    Hell, I had it figured for just plain ol' kanga-ryu ninjutsu.

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  30. Chas - Fire!

    As for the roos... I'm sure you all know what I'd suggest.

    Jim

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  31. .243 is a very popular cartridge in Australia. Flipping through price lists for local gun stores you'll see a surprisingly large number of them.

    I don't really get much of a chance to hunt but I'm led to believe that the .243 works well for 'roos because ideally you want something bigger than a .22 centrefire but not that much bigger.

    The onerous nature of our firearm laws deter many people (who otherwise would, myself included) from owning guns so nearly all the guns on the shelves here are destined to be bought because they're useful tools not because anybody thinks they're interesting or beautiful or fascinating pieces of engineering. Which is sad.

    - Alex

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  32. AusHunt says:

    "Three main calibers are used for kangaroo shooting: the .222, the .223 and the larger .22/250, the latter two currently being the most popular."

    That matches with my own impressions, though it's been a long time since I last went spotlighting, so I'm not positive. I know my Dad (who was a professional roo hunter before I was born) used to have a .22-250 when I was younger.

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