Meet Shane Sunn of Sunn Ranch

The Bear, by William Faulkner, describes how the repetitive hunt for ‘Ole Ben’, a wily old black bear, transformed young Isaac McCaslin. Trips, you might even call them adventures, or quests, are imbued with the capacity to change the pilgrim. But first you must conceive a fish, a goal, a place, a celestial city enough to set out and cast your bait on the water. Pilgrims who persevere to the end receive the reward. The resulting experiences and stories become signposts along the way. My purpose is to provide opportunities to experience earth’s beauty, mystery, power, and bounty and thus catch glimpses and tastes of the world to come.

The Rev. Shane Sunn grew up in Ackerman, Mississippi surrounded by hunters, fishers, and story tellers.  For thirty years, Shane employed his gifts as a Presbyterian minister serving others, grabbling with words, telling stories, and writing sermons.  Perhaps it was inevitable his life’s journey would lead to serving others through guiding, writing, and telling stories-some old, others new, and some yet to come.

  • "I have been to SunnRanch twice now. It is a stunningly beautiful place - sleeping in the yurt amongst the sage fields, the mountains, the stars, and the bugling of elk is an awesome and unique experience. Combine that with it also being the place where I killed my first bull elk, my first cow elk, and my first mule deer, and you have the perfect hunting destination."

    David Daniel Athens, Georgia

  • “Words cannot adequately communicate the thrill of bagging my first cow elk! That moment will live on the rest of my life!”

    Richard Rieves, Memphis, TN

  • “Sunn Ranch is uniquely situated to take advantage of the migration of this massive herd. Taking my first cow and bull with those views was awesome! I witnessed 300-400 elk stampede within 100 yards of me. Epic life moment I will never forget!”

    Jay Harvell- Nashville, TN

Publications

Moon and Sunn was published in summer 2022. The memoir chronicles the remarkable stories of author Shane Sunn’s bigger-than-life dad, Moon Sunn.

Moon and Sunn: Memoir of a Fishing Legend and his Son Moon and Sunn: Memoir of a Fishing Legend and his Son Moon and Sunn: Memoir of a Fishing Legend and his Son
Moon and Sunn: Memoir of a Fishing Legend and his Son
from $20.00

SHANE SUNN grew up in Ackerman, Mississippi, in the shadow of Moon—his legendary, often absent, and always fishing father. With literary acuity that sometimes reads more like a novel than a memoir, the author recounts exhilarating stories of fishing beside Moon in snakeinfested Mississippi backwaters along with painful accounts of what he endured and internalized when Moon left home yet again in pursuit of the world record Alaskan king salmon.

  • "Shane Sunn has written a very entertaining and thoughtful book about his father “Moon” Sunn and their complicated relationship. Moon Sunn lived in the small town—Ackerman, Mississippi, population 1500—where I grew up. He and I are distantly related by marriage. While I was growing up, Moon was a near-mythical figure. He was nearly always gone and rumors about where he was and what he was doing swirled around. Some were probably true at the time but many almost certainly were not. Shane’s stories about him have removed much of the mystery while seeing him as a flesh and blood human but also allowing the larger-than-life image to remain. His stories are poignant, funny, and, sometimes, terrifying. “Moon” is an epic character and Shane has done him justice with this book."

    -Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy 2009-2017, Governor of Mississippi 1988-1992, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 1994-1996.

  • “Moon and Sunn reveals the joys of a boy and his father in the outdoors and the painful and long-lasting effects of divorce into adulthood. As a product of both experiences, Sunn’s memoir and its themes of forgiveness and healing hit home with me and served as a wonderful reminder of the beauty that can arise from the ashes of broken relationships."

    -Brad Dye, Outdoor writer, syndicated columnist (home paper—The Meridian Star)

  • "This is a fishing tale-- and an entertaining one at that-- complete with comedic anecdotes from the rural wilds of Mississippi and harrowing accounts from the riverbanks of Alaska. But, for Shane Sunn and the men who populate his memories, everything -- even life itself-- is a fish story, heavy with meaning and holding out the promise that, for those with enough patience and determination, the payoff is just one cast away. In Moon and Sunn, the oral history of a family fractured by death, divorce, and distance, Shane shows us, we who are living our own stories of generational and personal pain, that sometimes truth and reconciliation come to us unbidden and unexpected. It may be ugly and bereft, like a stray dog, or brilliant and mysterious as the Aurora Borealis, but truth comes on its own terms and in its own time. Shane Sunn approaches his family's story with the care and attention of a fly fisherman who knows both the risk and reward of stepping to the ever-moving water's edge of memory and time and with the faith and hope of a man who believes, and bids us to believe, that in the muddy waters of life 'every ripple among the sticks reflected the brilliance of the world to come.'"

    -Jim Wood, MD, MA (English Literature), Assistant Professor of Surgery, LSU Health, Baton Rouge, LA