Mark Sullivan the Expose’

[HankBuck]

An ethical hunter who actually cares about the animals he hunts will do everything in his/her power to end the animals suffering in as quick a manner as possible. What is possible obviously varies depending on method of take. How long it may take also depends on whether or not you can actually see the animal or not. If you can see the animal and have a shot you have no excuse for prolonging it.

Watch the first scene of this video (the comment section of which is hilariously turned off). He has time to get the client a shot and yet chooses to coax an already wounded buff into a charge.

@Wishfulthinker580 - I had Not seen that video before, watched it and appreciate you attaching it to your post. Although there were only short “snips” shown vs the entire hunt….that was some damn fine shooting. I know that I would not be able to shoot that well “Consistently” it those situations, not sure what led up to those shots but the shooting was Impressive and the kills “Quick”.
Thank You for posting. Opinions differ and I respect that, everyone on AH shares more in common then differences, an occasional “Family squabble” is to be expected.

 

[BJH65]

These old videos are not shedding any new light or somehow bringing some new clarity into the controversy. MS has been very clear about his philosophy at least in his early videos and I’m paraphrasing: MS is clearly stating he’s giving the buffalo and/or hippo a fighting chance to get even, get revenge or even the playing field (however you want to define it) rather than kill it from a safer distance. Although he has the weapon and the skill to successfully conclude this, he’s increasing the odds in the animals favor. Perhaps this resonates more to the non hunter lending a sense of fairness to their way of thinking.

I have not read one AH member who agrees with or supports this style or type of hunting and not one PH who also engages or supports this type of hunting. Whether it is ethical or not, in MS mind which he has clearly conveyed, he’s giving the animal a fighting chance to get even. He clearly feels this is ethical while the vast majority of us do not although I suspect a non hunter may be inclined to side with MS. Honestly, I just don’t see any controversy because nobody is supporting this while many like MS the man and his skill displayed. MS has stated his philosophy, gained some notoriety and perhaps some good income from the videos. After MS is gone it will be perhaps an interesting foot note. Nobody else is picking up the mantle to continue this, it’ll end with him.

Much of this boils down to those who either have a friendship with him, like or admire him although may not endorse his style of hunting and those that can’t understand this viewpoint and dislike or profoundly disagree with him so much that they cannot understand how others may feel this way.

 

[franzfmdavis]

Approaching a dangerous game animal to allow it to attack may be just be the most "fair" form of dangerous game hunting.

The main allure of hunting "dangerous game" is the "danger" that the hunter may become the quarry.
Denying this would be dishonest.

For certain dangerous game animals such a lion, leopard or tiger, there is also no culinary value in hunting them so it is either to protect (people, livestock, or their own population) or it is sport.

To the extent that this hunting is done for sport, providing your "opponent" a chance at the same outcome using their "weapons" is as "fair" or "even" as it could reasonably get (unless you want to test the ridiculous and go against an dangerous animal using only your human teeth and nails).

Of course, there is going to be an adrenaline rush - all dangerous game hunting is an adrenaline rush for the same reason: that the hunter risks being injured or killed.

Mark Sullivan enhances this risk a step further than many hunters would. However, all dangerous game hunters are enhancing the risks a step further than non-dangerous game hunters would. Correspondigly, all hunters are taking things a step further than non-hunters would, etc.

Not wanting to do enhance the risk is fine, but speaking out against it (so long as wounding the animal is unintentional) ends up landing on the "slippery slope" toward the rationale of the anti-hunters.

To reiterate, I don't support or respect intentionally wounding an animal to later provoke a charge, but it does not seem that is what Mark Sullivan does. It appears that when a dangerous game animal is unintentionally wounded, he approaches it and allows it to either run or charge. The client and support crew know this and seem to be there willingly.

I believe it was @Hunter-Habib who mentioned that none of his clients have ever been injured over his 35-year career as a PH. That says something about the true risk involved in his approach, as well as his skill with his rifle.

I give him proper respect for both!

 

[Scott CWO]

View attachment 692604
Here’s a brown bear shot by Mark with his .375 Holland & Holland Magnum Lon Paul custom piece (built on a pre ‘64 Winchester Model 70 action), loaded with 270Gr Barnes TSX custom loads. He hunted this fellow with a mutual friend of ours whom I know for upwards of 25 years. Bear took one Barnes TSX behind the shoulder and went down. No charges.

Knowing him as I do, it’s hardly surprising that he would say something along the lines of “Let’s get a brown bear to charge”. But out of all of the brown bears Mark’s shot over the years, only one actually had to be shot during a charge. And that genuinely wasn’t Mark’s fault.

During the COVID Alaska nonresident hunting closure in May 2020, I was unable to guide brown bear hunters on the Alaskan Peninsula. Instead, I was invited up to help a longtime friend and colleague, whom I had guided for, Scott N., get a bear for himself in SE Alaska on Chichagof Island, one of the famous ABC Islands for brown bears (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof). The bears in SE Alaska don’t get quite as big as the bears on the Alaskan Peninsula but it is a great hunt. Scott N. is retired now from guiding and sold his business to another outfitter I have worked for, Keegan McCarthy.

Scott N. had not shot a bear for himself since 1987 so he invited me up to help him get one since we had nothing else to do. I got permission from the Governor (a hunter who has been in our camp) and the Alaska Department of Health to quarantine on Scott’s boat for 14 days as long as I went straight from the airport to the boat. We took Scott’s boat from Petersburg all the way up to a honey hole great spot we knew about on Chichagof Island and I spotted this great bear that we took as we were surrounded by several bears.

It was a bit unnerving to be amongst several bears at close quarters, especially because Scott was horribly attacked and mauled by a wounded brown bear that had been shot twice with a 375 H&H Mag by Scott’s client and once by Scott with his Sako 416 Rem Mag. Scott followed the bear into the forest and then got another shot at 10 yards into the charging wounded bear before it mauled him. The Sako’s bolt malfunctioned and Scott couldn’t cycle another round. He kept the bear away from his head and face by shoving the rifle into the bear’s mouth. The bear tore at his hands, thighs and feet but never got his head. Scott later had several surgeries to repair his hands and a foot that had been shredded. He is fully recovered and now runs a charter flight service out of Petersburg with his Beaver aircraft. I tell this story because no person in his right mind should ever think or suggest provoking a charge from a wounded brown bear. To say something to that effect is just ignorance and braggadocio bravado. I’ve been in this industry the exact same time as Mark but I did grow up hunting and my grandfather and father taught me to have respect for animals and to dispatch wounded animals at first opportunity. Mark missed those lessons and his first hunt ever was in Tanzania.

 

[BJH65]

View attachment 692700View attachment 692701
During the COVID Alaska nonresident hunting closure in May 2020, I was unable to guide brown bear hunters on the Alaskan Peninsula. Instead, I was invited up to help a longtime friend and colleague, whom I had guided for, Scott N., get a bear for himself in SE Alaska on Chichagof Island, one of the famous ABC Islands for brown bears (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof). The bears in SE Alaska don’t get quite as big as the bears on the Alaskan Peninsula but it is a great hunt. Scott N. is retired now from guiding and sold his business to another outfitter I have worked for, Keegan McCarthy.

Scott N. had not shot a bear for himself since 1987 so he invited me up to help him get one since we had nothing else to do. I got permission from the Governor (a hunter who has been in our camp) and the Alaska Department of Health to quarantine on Scott’s boat for 14 days as long as I went straight from the airport to the boat. We took Scott’s boat from Petersburg all the way up to a honey hole great spot we knew about on Chichagof Island and I spotted this great bear that we took as we were surrounded by several bears.

It was a bit unnerving to be amongst several bears at close quarters, especially because Scott was horribly attacked and mauled by a wounded brown bear that had been shot twice with a 375 H&H Mag by Scott’s client and once by Scott with his Sako 416 Rem Mag. Scott followed the bear into the forest and then got another shot at 10 yards into the charging wounded bear before it mauled him. The Sako’s bolt malfunctioned and Scott couldn’t cycle another round. He kept the bear away from his head and face by shoving the rifle into the bear’s mouth. The bear tore at his hands, thighs and feet but never got his head. Scott later had several surgeries to repair his hands and a foot that had been shredded. He is fully recovered and now runs a charter flight service out of Petersburg with his Beaver aircraft. I tell this story because no person in his right mind should ever think or suggest provoking a charge from a wounded brown bear. To say something to that effect is just ignorance and braggadocio bravado. I’ve been in this industry the exact same time as Mark but I did grow up hunting and my grandfather and father taught me to have respect for animals and to dispatch wounded animals at first opportunity. Mark missed those lessons and his first hunt ever was in Tanzania.

Thanks for sharing I remember reading about this I believe around the time I either went or was preparing for my Alaskan grizzly hunt in 2004, although I could be wrong, so long ago. If my memory is correct, he was using a Sako TRGS 416 Rem Mag, a push feed now discontinued and tracked the wounded brown bear alone after having been wounded by his client, brave man indeed, and short stroked it after getting a shot into the bear before it mauled him. I was glad to hear he recovered. I’m pretty sure this was it as not many Alaskan guides carried a Sako 416 Rem.

I helped my guide skin my grizzly, took about 2 hours, sound about right?

 

[Betterinthebush]

View attachment 692700View attachment 692701
During the COVID Alaska nonresident hunting closure in May 2020, I was unable to guide brown bear hunters on the Alaskan Peninsula. Instead, I was invited up to help a longtime friend and colleague, whom I had guided for, Scott N., get a bear for himself in SE Alaska on Chichagof Island, one of the famous ABC Islands for brown bears (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof). The bears in SE Alaska don’t get quite as big as the bears on the Alaskan Peninsula but it is a great hunt. Scott N. is retired now from guiding and sold his business to another outfitter I have worked for, Keegan McCarthy.

Scott N. had not shot a bear for himself since 1987 so he invited me up to help him get one since we had nothing else to do. I got permission from the Governor (a hunter who has been in our camp) and the Alaska Department of Health to quarantine on Scott’s boat for 14 days as long as I went straight from the airport to the boat. We took Scott’s boat from Petersburg all the way up to a honey hole great spot we knew about on Chichagof Island and I spotted this great bear that we took as we were surrounded by several bears.

It was a bit unnerving to be amongst several bears at close quarters, especially because Scott was horribly attacked and mauled by a wounded brown bear that had been shot twice with a 375 H&H Mag by Scott’s client and once by Scott with his Sako 416 Rem Mag. Scott followed the bear into the forest and then got another shot at 10 yards into the charging wounded bear before it mauled him. The Sako’s bolt malfunctioned and Scott couldn’t cycle another round. He kept the bear away from his head and face by shoving the rifle into the bear’s mouth. The bear tore at his hands, thighs and feet but never got his head. Scott later had several surgeries to repair his hands and a foot that had been shredded. He is fully recovered and now runs a charter flight service out of Petersburg with his Beaver aircraft. I tell this story because no person in his right mind should ever think or suggest provoking a charge from a wounded brown bear. To say something to that effect is just ignorance and braggadocio bravado. I’ve been in this industry the exact same time as Mark but I did grow up hunting and my grandfather and father taught me to have respect for animals and to dispatch wounded animals at first opportunity. Mark missed those lessons and his first hunt ever was in Tanzania.

Well said.

I started in the business packing for Rocky Morgan of Kodiak fame. Rocky was a wild one. Partied hard and lived fast. But in the bush took no chances that weren’t necessary, never made claims he couldn’t back up and never exaggerated.

Rock got F-ed up by a bear too. A black bear. But, that’s his story to tell, not mine.

 

[275r7x57]

An ethical hunter who actually cares about the animals he hunts will do everything in his/her power to end the animals suffering in as quick a manner as possible. What is possible obviously varies depending on method of take. How long it may take also depends on whether or not you can actually see the animal or not. If you can see the animal and have a shot you have no excuse for prolonging it.

Watch the first scene of this video (the comment section of which is hilariously turned off). He has time to get the client a shot and yet chooses to coax an already wounded buff into a charge.

I don’t believe the two videos I have, have anything like this, although it been a while since I have seen them.

Not sure if I fully agree with you on everything, but I do see what you mean.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

I sound to me like you and others have double standards with your ethics and in regards to MS. That’s what I trying to get to.

I don’t believe the two videos I have, have anything like this, although it been a while since I have seen them.

Not sure if I fully agree with you on everything, but I do see what you mean.

No double standard. Case by case basis. Depends on method of take and whether or not you can see the animal or not. It’s pretty cut and dry.

That first scene in that video I posted is a prime example of what I’m talking about. Instead of putting that bull down as soon as the opportunity arose he decided to prolong the suffering for no other reason than to provoke a charge. There was absolutely no excuse for that. If you can see the animal and have a shot it’s a hunters obligation to end it then and there.

I won’t skin or filet a live fish by the way. One time I saw a guy cut the tails off of some live catfish to let them bleed out. That stuck with me. I’m personally not big on poking things with sticks or using marginal equipment either.