Mark Sullivan the Expose’

[fourfive8]

No one has explained how he could be soooo unlucky to be charged that many times and have a video camera soooo well situated to capture the final charge. Equally, no one has explained why he approaches wounded buffalo laying down, in the open and waits until the buffalo gets up, sees him, charges before before shooting. Is it because it is so obvious what he is doing, the faithful can’t believe what their lying eyes are seeing??

 

[Hunter-Habib]

No one has explained how he could be soooo unlucky to be charged that many times and have a video camera soooo well situated to capture the final charge. Equally, no one has explained why he approaches wounded buffalo laying down, in the open and waits until the buffalo gets up, sees him, charges before before shooting. Is it because it is so obvious what he is doing, the faithful can’t believe what their lying eyes are seeing??

The client fired (and for whatever reason, didn’t want to do the follow up shot himself). Mark walked up to the Cape buffalo, waited for it to turn and face him and (once the animal had faced him) fired rather quickly. The first shot (put in by Mark) was taken within a split second of the animal turning to face him (while simultaneously standing up). Watching the video in slow motion, I can see that Mark is firing his first bullet into the Cape buffalo at the 1:28 minute mark. Before the animal had even begun to charge. He lets off the second barrel mid charge. Now, this means that unless Mark was specifically aware that his first barrel wouldn’t drop the Cape buffalo (extremely unlikely)… he had no way of even knowing that the Cape buffalo would survive long enough to charge. Now, yes. Maybe, he could have run up to that Cape buffalo faster than they way that he walked towards it. Maybe he could have fired into that downed Cape buffalo while it was staring at the other side. But Mark has gone on record saying that he likes his game to face him while he’s shooting them. Ethically debatable, but I can understand. Mr. Cheffings (my white hunter in Kenya) and Lionell Palmer (a white hunter working for Safari South in Botswana) had a similar philosophy.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

I do not know Mr. Sullivan. I have seen some of his videos and they are entertaining. My Momma always taught me that if I could not say something nice, that I should just say nothing.

I was always taught to approach a downed buffalo from the tail end and not the head, in case it did regain its feet. I have seen a dead buffalo get up and attack the hunter (an acquaintance of mine) and the PH after having been supposedly killed. It happens. But, charges by buffalo are statistically not that common. I find it impressive that Mark's clients encounter so many instances where the wounded buff does charge. Why is that?

Mark's skill at arms with his doubles is impressive and that is about the nicest thing I can say. I would not want to hunt with him. Not my style. If he wants to kill buffalo, he should be paying the trophy fee. When I hunted buffalo, I did all the shooting. Not because I told the PH not to. On the contrary, I told him that if the buffalo threatened him, the trackers or myself, he should shoot if he had a shot and I would do the same. He did not need to shoot and the buff did not charge as most do not. Are they dangerous?, yes, they can be. Can they be provoked? absolutely. If that is your thing, knock yourself out. Just not for me. Have a good-un Sir.

 

[MS 9x56]

We have beaten this horse throughly to death. Shall we move on gentleman!

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I do not know Mr. Sullivan. I have seen some of his videos and they are entertaining. My Momma always taught me that if I could not say something nice, that I should just say nothing.

I was always taught to approach a downed buffalo from the tail end and not the head, in case it did regain its feet. I have seen a dead buffalo get up and attack the hunter (an acquaintance of mine) and the PH after having been supposedly killed. It happens. But, charges by buffalo are statistically not that common. I find it impressive that Mark's clients encounter so many instances where the wounded buff does charge. Why is that?

Mark's skill at arms with his doubles is impressive and that is about the nicest thing I can say. I would not want to hunt with him. Not my style. If he wants to kill buffalo, he should be paying the trophy fee. When I hunted buffalo, I did all the shooting. Not because I told the PH not to. On the contrary, I told him that if the buffalo threatened him, the trackers or myself, he should shoot if he had a shot and I would do the same. He did not need to shoot and the buff did not charge as most do not. Are they dangerous?, yes, they can be. Can they be provoked? absolutely. If that is your thing, knock yourself out. Just not for me. Have a good-un Sir.

In a 35 year career (covering a three figure sum of game hunted by his clients), he has had exactly nine Cape buffalo charges and six hippopotamus charges that got caught on video.

 

[Happy Myles]

Interesting. During 55 years of Cape buffalo i have killed scores of Nyati and never had a PH fire a round. I do not feature myself a special marksman just do not fire unless confident of shot. And use enough gun . My job walk quietly. Keep up. And shoot straight killing quickly and cleanly. I owe that to this worthy quarry.

 

[Happy Myles]

Over the decades i had many PHs buffalo hunting they all left the shooting up to me even if extra shots required

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Interesting. During 55 years of Cape buffalo i have killed scores of Nyati and never had a PH fire a round. I do not feature myself a special marksman just do not fire unless confident of shot. And use enough gun . My job walk quietly. Keep up. And shoot straight killing quickly and cleanly. I owe that to this worthy quarry.

Very respectable & commendable. But context is key. Your example is 55 years of ONE hunter (you) shooting Cape buffalo. Mark’s career is 35 years of him backing up scores of DIFFERENT client hunters (each with varying degrees of proficiency). Out of Mark’s nine Cape buffalo charges to be caught on video… one (his first one who is seen firing from the truck in “Africa’s Black Death”) involved a client who was missing an arm and in very poor health (Mr. Barnes). And one had the client (Mr. Egger) provide both the first shot & the final shot that eventually drops the game (with Mark firing off one shot whilst the client is reloading). And one encountered bullet failure (Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid breaking apart).

On a related subject, in my 51 years of hunting 19 Cape buffalo… I have only had one incident where my white hunter actually needed to open fire.

 

[WAB]

Interesting. During 55 years of Cape buffalo i have killed scores of Nyati and never had a PH fire a round. I do not feature myself a special marksman just do not fire unless confident of shot. And use enough gun . My job walk quietly. Keep up. And shoot straight killing quickly and cleanly. I owe that to this worthy quarry.

Well said sir.

 

[Red Leg]

Interesting. During 55 years of Cape buffalo i have killed scores of Nyati and never had a PH fire a round. I do not feature myself a special marksman just do not fire unless confident of shot. And use enough gun . My job walk quietly. Keep up. And shoot straight killing quickly and cleanly. I owe that to this worthy quarry.

Remarkable how all that actually works.

 

[Aaron N]

Remarkable how all that actually works.

It’s equally remarkable how many clients can’t fulfill those duties.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

It’s equally remarkable how many clients can’t fulfill those duties.

It’s strange how many MS clients are apparently poor shots..

 

[Flbt]

Very respectable & commendable. But context is key. Your example is 55 years of ONE hunter (you) shooting Cape buffalo. Mark’s career is 35 years of him backing up scores of DIFFERENT client hunters (each with varying degrees of proficiency). Out of Mark’s nine Cape buffalo charges to be caught on video… one (his first one who is seen firing from the truck in “Africa’s Black Death”) involved a client who was missing an arm and in very poor health (Mr. Barnes). And one had the client (Mr. Egger) provide both the first shot & the final shot that eventually drops the game (with Mark firing off one shot whilst the client is reloading). And one encountered bullet failure (Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid breaking apart).

On a related subject, in my 51 years of hunting 19 Cape buffalo… I have only had one incident where my white hunter actually needed to open fire.

You know it’s surprising when you put the numbers out.
At least to me it’s interesting because I can not count the number of hog charges/ running towards you I have be involved with or around.
I am not sure how many would be real charges or how many you are just in there way when they get the chance to run.
In a thick spot if they can slip the dogs they will run a lot of the time.
Some times you can tell they are after you sometimes not.

And I am sure people that hunt hogs close with dogs have seen some.

 

[Aaron N]

It strange how many MS clients are apparently poor shots..

I would say that the poor shot clients made for the most engaging/enteraining videos.
There’s not much excitement watching a 50 yard one and done shot on a buffalo. And MS didn’t make the videos for educational purposes.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

I would say that the poor shot clients made for the most engaging/enteraining videos.
There’s not much excitement watching a 50 yard one and done shot on a buffalo. And MS didn’t make the videos for educational purposes.

That is true but it seems like MS picked the wrong profession. Should’ve been a symphony conductor given the way he orchestrates follow ups that end in charges…

 

[Hunter-Habib]

It’s strange how many MS clients are apparently poor shots..

Over 240 clients in a 35 year career.

He's had 20 charges/cases of him needing to shoot in total (17 of which got caught on video).

9 Cape buffalo
6 Hippopotamus
2 lion
2 leopard
1 elephant

That's less than 8%

 

[Aaron N]

Over 240 clients in a 35 year career.

He's had 20 charges/cases of him needing to shoot in total (17 of which got caught on video).

9 Cape buffalo
6 Hippopotamus
2 lion
2 leopard
1 elephant

That's less than 8%

Get out of here with your empirical data!

 

[375Fox]

Some interesting math. I wonder how many charges occurred while making videos vs after? I think that percentage goes up considerably if you stop adding years after 2010 or so.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Some interesting math. I wonder how many charges occurred while making videos vs after? I think that percentage goes up considerably if you stop adding years after 2010 or so.

The cases of him needing to finish off any of his client's game drastically dropped around 2004 when he started advising his clients to bring a telescopic sighted .375 Holland & Holland Magnum magazine rifle in addition to their heavy double rifles. And then having them use said .375 on game instead of the heavy double rifles if he rationalized that they can't shoot a heavy double rifle well enough. This was from 2004. He kept on making videos even after that. And still sporadically does.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Over 240 clients in a 35 year career.

He's had 20 charges/cases of him needing to shoot in total (17 of which got caught on video).

9 Cape buffalo
6 Hippopotamus
2 lion
2 leopard
1 elephant

That's less than 8%

I find it odd that out of 240 clients he’s allegedly only had 20 charges and 17 were caught on camera. That’s 85% caught on camera. That’s either incredibly fortunate or intentional. My opinion is it’s the latter