Mark Sullivan the Expose’

[Hunt anything]

Definitely agree @Vintageguy, especially about the truck and blind guys. I may try and get one of his full videos and watch an entire hunt to gain perspective.

 

[Scott CWO]

@grand veneur @buck wild @sgt_zim @BJH65

You’ve all had countless pleasant exchanges with me over the last four years. And I definitely respect your differences of opinion. And I don’t mind it at all. I always welcome different perspectives.

I will also do my best to address your statements.

On the subject of Mark provoking animal charges
Yes, he’s guilty of this but not in the way some of his critics claim he is. Let me explain. In his life, he has NEVER wounded any Cape animal specifically for the purposes of provoking a charge. Not once. He’s vehemently opposed to the practice. But he does (as per Mark’s own words) “Get in their face and let them know that I’m hunting them”. It’s a question of personal ethics and okay… some of you might find it to be unethical. But it is what is is. In my personal opinion, there are other white hunters too who have carried out this practice. Ivan Carter (to name a few) sometimes waves his .600 Nitro Express Heym Jumbo in front of elephants in order to incite a charge. When we hunt leopard over hounds (for instance, in Botswana), the standard method of hunting is to keep pushing the leopard until he eventually charges.


On the subject of Mark’s personality being off-putting
It’s totally reasonable for people who’s only means of interacting with him being through watching his videos…to find him arrogant & pretentious. I can’t fault you there. When I first saw “Death At My Feet” (his first hunting DVD), I initially thought of him as an overconfident hotshot. But I’m immensely glad that I had the opportunity to interact with him personally & getting to know his inner circles. It let me see him in a completely different light.

On the subject of Mark’s actions putting clients into potential danger
Actually, Mark’s track record here is quite impressive. In a career spanning 35 years (and counting), he’s never actually had even a single client wounded on safari. As a matter of fact, due to his sheer firsthand experience with stopping dangerous game charges (allegations of provoking said charges notwithstanding)… he’s probably the one white hunter whom I’d completely feel safe hunting dangerous game with.

On the subject of Mark never stopping a lion or leopard charge on video
Mark actually has stopped one lion charge on video (that I know of). It was in Zimbabwe and he was a client during that hunt. Mark was armed with his Charles Osborne boxlock extractor in .577 Nitro Express (loaded with 750Gr Barnes TSX all-copper hollow points). Since Mark sold that particular rifle in 2012, this hunt must have occurred before that. I can ask him to send me the video. His book also shows a leopard which he shot in the head (mid-charge) with a Benelli Super Black Eagle in 12 gauge 3.5” Magnum (loaded with Remington 9 Pellet 32 gram 00 Buck shells). But @BJH65 is spot on when he says that lion & leopard are far faster than Cape buffalo or hippopotamus. As well as presenting smaller targets.

At the end of the day, we (as client hunters) are consumers/customers. If the hunting style of one white hunter doesn’t appeal to us, then we can simply pick another. Many of us here wouldn’t want to hunt with Mark Sullivan. That’s fine, but there are many of us (myself included) who would consider it to be a privilege.

I’ll add another insight from Mark himself. When Mark began his career in the early 1990s, the concept of hunting videos were JUST beginning to catch on. If my memory serves me correctly, they began to gain popularity after Peter Capstick filmed a hunt with Jeff Rann in Botswana. When Mark began his hunting videos, his primary market was towards rich American hunters (many of whom were hunting in Africa for the first time). So in his own words “Looking back, some of my earlier videos were specifically aimed at highlighting how dangerous African game can be”. I was already hunting in Africa for 15 years by then, but I imagine that a lot of aspiring first time client hunters were genuinely drawn towards his videos by seeing all those Cape buffalo and hippopotamus charges. It was a good marketing gimmick.

Over the years, he’s slowly mellowed out and he’s even publicly stated more than a few times that he hates shooting his client’s game.

I’ll give a final piece of insight. In the last 20 years or so, the model of African hunting has greatly changed. Nowadays, most Cape buffalo hunts present themselves like this: The white hunter gets the client within 100-200 yards of a Cape buffalo. The shooting sticks are set up, out comes the telescopic sighted .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. A 300Gr premium grade expanding bullet is sent to the animal’s boiler room from a broadside position. The creature goes maybe 100 yards and then drops. If this is the standard modern hunting practice, then it’s quite easy for people to make statements like “Cape buffalo never charge under normal circumstances”. I personally have nothing against this style of hunting (I hunt a lot of Cape buffalo this way, as well). But Mark likes a more, shall we say… gladiatorial approach. Getting close. And yes, at relatively close ranges… Cape buffalo charges (while definitely not a regular occurrence) are not all that uncommon.

With all due respect to you @Hunter-Habib and Mark, I believe in putting a wounded animal out of its misery as soon as possible. I would not advocate getting closer than necessary or waiting longer than necessary to finish the animal just so I can provoke a charge and shoot it during a charge to get an adrenaline rush at the animal’s expense. Getting charged comes with the job but shouldn’t be the goal.

Mark admits to purposefully walking up on wounded animals to facilitate a charge instead of immediately putting them down. He also puts himself in the best position when hunting hippos on land and sometimes shoots the hippo when it charges while the client is off to the side at a less desirable angle. Mark has undoubtedly hunted hippos and other dangerous game on his own without clients. If he wants to hunt hippo in that manner, that’s great and I enjoy it as well but I’m not going to pay anyone else to be in the best position and shoot my game for me. To each his own.

 

[hwr239]

I may be in the minority opinion, but I enjoy his attitude and cockiness. I enjoy it in the same way that I enjoy the attitude and cockiness of a fighter jet pilot. To me he has never seemed arrogant, but rather expressly confident (in a manner that I don’t personally have but appreciate). For me, there are people whose experiences support their confident attitudes. He is one of them and I have found his videos to be both entertaining and, at times, informative. I hope I get the opportunity to meet him someday hear some stories firsthand.

Well said, amigo! Everyone loves Maverick in Top Gun, except for those who can't fly as well as he does.

 

[Hunt anything]

Well said @Scott CWO , the video of him walking up on the buffalo at the beginning that was struggling to get up and not putting him out of his misery did not sit well with me and prejudiced my thoughts about the rest of the video.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

With this addition, the guys that write the "textbooks" you rely upon are "influencers" as they certainly do so with a monetary goal behind their efforts to get published. Thanks for the clarification. That pesky Graeme Wright has been influencing too many here lately. Time for a good old fashioned book burning!

I don't "rely upon" any "textbooks." I learned to hunt with my feet on the ground not arse on the sofa. Reading hunting and fishing stories just never turned my crank. That's just me. I don't burn the books - I just don't buy them. Others may get their jollies watching fakey staged videos or reading colorful stories. Never been my thing. I'm more of a nonfiction kinda guy. Prefer technical manuals and loading charts.

 

[VertigoBE]

Well said @Scott CWO , the video of him walking up on the buffalo at the beginning that was struggling to get up and not putting him out of his misery did not sit well with me and prejudiced my thoughts about the rest of the video.

I'll admit that that does not sit well with me either. It is one thing slowly approaching an unwounded animal until it either fights or flees, and waiting for a suffering wounded animal to get back up for a charge.

 

[BJH65]

It’s interesting to note that when I first hunted Africa back in the mid to late 90’s, specifically the recently reopened Mozambique after the end of their civil war and also SA, the 4 PH’s that guided us, all having extensive experience anywhere from 10 to 20 or more years guiding in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, SA, and Mozambique weren’t too kind in their opinion of Mark Sullivan, but they all grudgingly admitted he was still capable and skilled as a PH. I had watched his video Black Death numerous times and read many Peter Capstick books prior to going on safari so naturally it came up in conversation with the PH’s.

I felt they considered Sullivan somewhat of a showboat but that his videos were good business for African hunting whether they agreed with his style of hunting or not. All of these experienced PH’s were far, far more harsh with their opinions on Peter Capstick, all feeling he was a wonderful writer and that was about it.

 

[Surgeon1]

I truly love to hunt buffalo and I do it with a double. Tracking and getting in close is the thrill, I don't care for antagonising a wounded animal of any kind to instigate more tracking or a charge. Making the best initial shot(s) in close is enough of a thrill.
Even the best plans on follow up with a wounded dangerous animal can have tragic outcomes. Of the buffalo I've taken I believe all but one have been taken within 30 yards. The one taken at 102yds was the only chance of taking a great bull we had put days of effort on, out of a big Hurd and my least satisfying.

"If I'm down wind and I can smell their breath Im close enough to kill them"

 

[BGGMKLR]

I do not know Mark.
I have however met and spoken with him on numerous occasions in the past 30 years or so.
In my recollection, he was one of the very few early guys who recognized the potential $$$ value of DG hunting videos...along with Ken Wilson (Sportsman on Film)...and for a time they had pretty much "cornered the market" so to speak.
That said, I think we can all agree that watching a Buff, Ele, Hippo, et al, simply fold up the tent and call it a day, upon receiving a perfectly placed pill, is neither a stellar marketing strategy...nor edge-of-the-seat viewing...for the adrenaline junkies amongst us (his potential customers).
Respectfully...IMHO...I believe that Mark's interest in his marketing efforts had a great deal to do with his resultant hunting
"style".

Man Bites Dog!!!

Sells every time

Best
Spike

 

[Hunt anything]

It’s interesting to note that when I first hunted Africa back in the mid to late 90’s, specifically the recently reopened Mozambique after the end of their civil war and also SA, the 4 PH’s that guided us, all having extensive experience anywhere from 10 to 20 or more years guiding in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, SA, and Mozambique weren’t too kind in their opinion of Mark Sullivan, but they all grudgingly admitted he was still capable and skilled as a PH. I had watched his video Black Death numerous times and read many Peter Capstick books prior to going on safari so naturally it came up in conversation with the PH’s.

I felt they considered Sullivan somewhat of a showboat but that his videos were good business for African hunting whether they agreed with his style of hunting or not. All of these experienced PH’s were far, far more harsh with their opinions on Peter Capstick, all feeling he was a wonderful writer and that was about it.

Do you think any of this animosity towards them was because they were outsiders and Americans? With that being asked, I’ve never heard anyone talk bad about Jeff Rann whom I would love to hunt with.

 

[BJH65]

Do you think any of this animosity towards them was because they were outsiders and Americans? With that being asked, I’ve never heard anyone talk bad about Jeff Rann whom I would love to hunt with.

You know it’s interesting, those PH’s from the 90’s I hunted with are long gone and so are their opinions. Some modern PH’s I recently hunted with in SA have no idea who Mark Sullivan is and Capstick for that matter too. I think those PH’s from the 90’s back then had some direct knowledge of both Sullivan’s and Capstick’s real world hunting experience or lack theroff regarding Capstick which shaped their opinions. I note presently a younger generation of hunters and PH’s have no such negative knowledge or opinions about Capstick and perhaps Sullivan too. People come and go, memories fade but Capstick’s books still stand the test of time due to his excellent, captivating writing.

 

[sgt_zim]

Curiously, this just showed up in my YT feed

 

[grand veneur]

Between 5:40 and 6:00 on the video in the first post. The sequence that triggered some negative comments back then in the nineties. The entire Black Death video contains a lot more sequences that prompted various negative comments, but that all is old history. You cannot judge a person based on that for their entire life. There was much more positive stuff after that.

 

[375Fox]

Between 5:40 and 6:00 on the video in the first post. The sequence that triggered some negative comments back then in the nineties. The entire Black Death video contains a lot more sequences that prompted various negative comments, but that all is old history. You cannot judge a person based on that for their entire life. There was much more positive stuff after that.

What positive stuff would that be? He is the image he created and still is as far as I can tell. That’s all I can judge on.

 

[rookhawk]

These Mark Sullivan threads come up from time to time. They usually go round and round about how he's an affable guy and his friends think he's great. A person can be fun to be around while still being someone with poor ethics or low integrity.

Taking Mr. Sullivan at face value, we just have to believe what he says he thinks is what he really thinks. When he describes his ethics in his own words, that is sort of the final word on the matter.

I wrote an analysis on what he says and does in his video series based on his own words and its covered here:

Thread 'Mark Sullivan Video Death At My Feet - Reviewed and Ethics Evaluated'

Apr 30, 2016

After hearing so much chatter on this forum and elsewhere about Mr. Mark Sullivan, I decided to see for myself what makes this safari personality so polarizing. To do so, I watched his video “death at my feet” figuring that it would be the best representation of his values, body of work, hunting style, and persona. Considering that Mr. Sullivan is the PH in the video, the narrator, the producer and the distributor, I accept as gospel that he believes what he says and does since he has full creative control of the entire process.

The first thing that caught my attention is the name of the...

• rookhawk
• Replies: 44
• Forum: Hunting TV shows, books & video discussions

• 

On the other hand, if its a matter of personal opinion and hunch which carries far less weight, I can give you my personal hunch which you can absolutely disregard. What Mark says and defines as his ethics in his own words are rather warped and may lean towards sociopathic. In light of the testimony of his friends and my personal hunch, I think he's just full of BS and doesn't believe what he says and what he claims as his ethics are just rationalizations for him to act the way he does. This would explain why he has friends since someone that actually believed the ethos that Mr. Sullivan states in his videos and print are generally anti-social and incompatible with many friendships.

So choose: Psychopathic and irrational with a smattering of illogical ethics, OR a BS-er that is braggadocios but largely full of hot air. If you believe the man's own words, it points to the former, if you believe his friends it suggests the latter.

Neither conclusion is very complimentary.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Curiously, this just showed up in my YT feed

View attachment 692090

Same here. What gives? I never looked at his stuff.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

The rubber necker in me wants to see a video of him guiding Tim Sundles...

 

[Sabre]

I do stand by my comment about the hunting community being extremely judgmental, vindictive, hateful, self righteous & jealous though. For instance, Jeff Rann hunted a leopard over hounds a few years back (which got covered on video). A group of anti hunters began falsely bitching that the hunt was illegal. That’s hardly surprising, since they’re, well.. ANTI HUNTERS. But what really appalled me was how fast the international hunting community was quick to socially crucify Jeff and throw him under the bus without even bothering to properly research all of the background facts regarding that particular hunt.

I see this all the time, especially when it comes to predators. The level of hypocrisy is directly proportional to how "cute and cuddly" the individual finds the predator. Kill a crocodile or alligator and there is little concern about doing predator control. Kill a coyote, very little, but some concern. Now, if you should step into the realm of Bears, Wolves, or Big Cats, now you will draw the fire of both Anti-hunting groups, and hypocritical hunters alike.

One slight disagreement in your line of thinking about people on this thread and Mark is that I don't think most people here dislike him for jealous reasons etc. Although, I am sure there are some. I think most people take issue with him making the hunt more about himself getting a shot than the client, and increased, unnecessary risk. That's been my take on it.

 

[sgt_zim]

Same here. What gives? I never looked at his stuff.

I'd guess for some reason, the software running this site gives access to its cookies to google. I can think of no other reason.

 

[hwr239]

Same here. What gives? I never looked at his stuff.

It's all about the algorithm. That's what they use to try and control the information we have access to.