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Mark on his own is OK but in groups the same posturing gets way too much all the time. Part of the image he purposefully projects.

I agree with the battlefield comments made above. Hunting is not a battlefield. But again the 'image' he uses to sell himself.

The belt comments were good I thought. I would have probably extra stuff on my belt, or in a day pack. But in Africa where the PH has trackers to carry his stuff what he says makes sense. Many clients carry a knife or two, but the trackers and skinners usually do all the knife work anyway. The client knife is usually just for show. But when hunting on one's own, needing to carry everything oneself, extra stuff on the belt and in the backpack is necessary. That said, positioning the bullet belt for easy extraction of cartridges is a good point. Certanly when shooting BGRC and when speed of reloading is essential I always double check the placement of cartridges so my hand knows where exactly to go to get them. Making sure they are easy to extract was a good point too.

I also learned something about the carry method which I had not consciently thought about. I think he made good points on the point of carrying muzzle down and not muzzle up.

The point of a charging buffalo head moving up and down when galloping was a very good one. AND shooting the buffalo as its head rises was excellent. Never considered that and I think it takes a cool mind to purposefully wait for a point when the head is rising. AND even cooler to wait until the buffalo is so close as 10 yards. I know from experience one WILL shoot much earlier than this, and in my case resulted in an empty double rifle. I took evasive action moved behind a tree to reload, in the hope I could skirt around the tree and shoot the buffalo if it was that close after reloading. My first shot when the (water) buffalo was standing missed completely, the second as it came down the hill straight for me hit but the buffalo didn't even flinch. Luckily I think the second shot must have caused the buffalo to consider turning once I moved behnd the small tree as it ran past instead maybe 20 metres away. I fired again into its chest, again no reaction. In the end after a long look for it in the forest and scrub along the side of the river, I found it dead in the river intself. No that far away from the last shot. However I had looked for it for 2kms away and back again right along the river and at the end extremely thick undergrowth, fresh young trees with lots of leaves. Visibility down to one metre. Finding it dead in the water only when walking back to the Landcruiser on dusk was a relief and good that it was down and not wounded somewhere.

The end result of my charging water buffalo

SO I do think if one could keep a cool head, and shoot when it is closer and the shot actually easier might actually be a very good idea. I do think practice for such is very worthwhile. A charging buffalo target, preferably if it jumps around a bit and waiting until it is closer might be worthwhile practicing on.

The Heym .577 NE double rifle Mark is using is an excellent rifle. I handled one of these and shot one at the Heym factory and also at the Schwinefurt International Challenge and liked it a lot. I would buy one fitted to me very quickly if I had the funds. But without anyone's name engraved on it as I am not into that sort of thing ...

Sullivan and the Heym "Sullivan" .577 Nitro Express double rifle

Mark Sullivan and myself holding the Heym .577 NE double rifles at the Heym International Challenge in 2012

BTW I have spoken or corresponded with a number of Mark's clients years ago and they all said they all shot their own beasts. Allen Day was a member on NE but he sadly passed away since. He hunted with Mark a number of times and Mark never shot any of his buffalo. I think the client's buffalo Mark shoots have been wounded and need finishing off. I think he approaches the downed buffalo from upwind so his scent gets to the buffalo, and approaches them from head on, from behind as most PHs and smart hunters would do. This is why he has so many charges by wounded buffalo. Myself I would be worried about wounded buffalo just getting up and running off further and perhaps being lost. So would NOT approach head on and also NOT from upwind.

I have had two charges, the one described above and one pseudo charge by a very angry scrub bull which I had shot from behind with an angling shot from behind. Stupidly, as I should have waited to see if he would turn more before I fired. I also used a 480 gr SP which may not have penetrated the gut well enough to get to the chest. A FMJ would have drilled him straight through. None were in my chambers though. On being hit and turning I shot him again in the chest and shoulder but did not disable him. I used a convenient, this time very large tree to jump behhind to reload. He had run straight down the hill and stopped parallel to me and was angrily looking around for me. I had reloaded one barrel only, peeked around the tree and shot him well in the boiler room. A mist cloud of vaporised blood flew metres into the air from the other wound hole in his shoulder/chest and he dropped instantly.

Now afterwards I thought had I stepped right out into the open, could I have engineered a charge? Takes a lot of guts and a fair measure of stupidity to purposefully do that.

I remember telling Graham Williams and he said "Or the scrub bull may have just run away instead ... "

Smarter to take the safer and smart options I think when it is possible.

As I said above Mark is friendly and not full of himself when one on one or in a small group. He is probably being honest when he said how to interacts in camp, joking around etc. In a group or on camera, the "persona" constantly comes out.

I think the video is quite good instructionally, just ignore the "bravado" and "persona" stuff.

Edited by NitroX (25/08/16 08:19 PM)

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