Welcome to the Ojibwa Bowhunters Website

Brian Tessman May 27, 1953- September 23, 2023T

The following tribute was written by Todd Szmania

Brian Tessmann was a friend to Ojibwa, but more importantly he was a friend to archery.  When you've known someone for thirty plus years, it's hard to remember when you first met.  I remember talking to Brain and finding out that he thought I was a long-time Ojibwa member when he joined Ojibwa and I though he was a long-time member when I joined.  In reality be both joined about the same time.  To the best of my records and recollection it was sometime between 1988 and 1992.  Pretty sure it was before '92.  

We started going to Traditional Shoots.  At that time there was only two, Coon Rapids and Eau Claire.  These shoots were very well attended.  Coon Rapids at the time had over 600 shooters.  The light bulb went off in our heads and we can thank Brian for two Traditional shoots that we have to this day.  Our best attended shoots.

Brian did more than love archery.  He supported archery.  He was a Wisconsin Bowhunter Association since 1980, and a life member since 1996.

In 2004 Brian was a WBH Director.  The president at the time was Mark Houslet.  That fall, Mark killed a deer with a recurve glass laminated bow made by Earl Hoyt and given to Art LaHa in thanks for being able to hunt at 'The Bear' in Vilas County Wisconsin.  That bow was a piece of Wisconsin history.  It got Brain and Mark talking about preserving Wisconsin's rich archery history.  That started the Wisconsin Bowhunting Heritage Foundation.  Brian being the first President.

This all turned into the Wisconsin bowhunting museum.  It has the first modern deer bow kill in it.  This deer was killed by Roy Case on December 6, 1930.  The deer mount is preserved with all the equipment used to take it.  Roy Case and that deer are responsible for the start or our bow seasons, really the path we've chosen to follow.  Thanks to Brian for putting it in Clintonville, with other historically important items of Wisconsin bowhunting history.

Locally, Brian was also a member of Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club.  Joined in 1982, he served as president, board member, was on the scholarship and award committee.  He also wrote the foreword to the first record book,

Nationally, he joined the Professional Bowhunters Society in 1980, became a regular member and was on council 2010-12.  His membership to this club helped bring a PBS event to Ojibwa.  We hosted 'The Odd Year Gathering" multiple times.  The first time, late afternoon on Saturday, I walked out in the parking lot and counted 7 license plates from states other than Wisconsin.

Brian joined the Pope & Young Club in 1987.  Became a senior member in 2005 and started measuring for them in 1986.

Compton Traditional Bowhunters was started in 1999.  He joined in 2003 and became a life member in 2007.  

These are the affiliations I could track down.  For these organizations he scored 606 animals.  This is an incredible accomplishment.  The time commitment is not measurable.  A bear or a cat is a very simple measurement, but it still takes probably an hour when paperwork is included.  Plus, we can only guess at the animals scored which did not make the minimum or the animals that did and were not submitted to the appropriate club.

I'm happy to say, we, as Ojibwa Bowhunter, are very lucky.  Ojibwa Bowhunters was Brian's archery club and Brian Tessmann was our member. 

Todd Szmania