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Todd and his wife met when they were 14 and got married four years later. They’ve been together every since and have a son and daughter. “My daughter will graduate in May 2007 with a bachelors degree in Paralegal Studies and my son will also graduate in May with an associates degree in multimedia, so that makes me happier than a Boone and Crocket buck would.” Although things are great now, it was a rough start when Todd and his wife got together. They lived in a trailer that used to belong to Todd’s grandfather. At the time, he was working as a part-time janitor for the local school district and making minimum wage. After his daughter was born, he knew he had to do better, so he enlisted in the Air Force. Before leaving for basic training, they were pregnant with their second child. His first permanent duty station was in Las Vegas. Then he received orders to Wichita Falls, TX to teach F-16 maintenance. “It didn’t take me long to discover I wasn’t cut out to be a teacher. And Texas would have been a great place to fish and hunt, but I didn’t have a boat and couldn’t afford a hunting lease.” So he received an honorable discharge and moved his family to his home-state of Ohio and got hired at Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corporation. While working there, he went through two company bankruptcies and two strikes. With pay cuts and an unstable steel market, Todd joined the union and became a boilermaker. Todd’s dream hunt would be to go to Canada for black bear or caribou. He’s been to Canada and seen black bear, but has never had a license to hunt them. “The biggest thing I’ve hunted is deer,” Todd said. “I would love to get a bear. It would be unbelievable. I can’t even tell you how excited I’d be! I imagine myself sneaking along a small stream in the north country and then ‘wow!’ there he is, it’s time to shoot. I’ll never get to do that in Ohio and with two kids in college it’s going to be a little while before I can afford to go on my own, but I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything – they are well worth the wait!” Todd has been with his dad hunting since he was around 2-years-old. As Todd got older, he started being a participant in the hunting going after rabbits, squirrels and coyotes. He loves hunting with his father more than any one, but he’s getting up in the years now and it’s difficult for him to get around. But Todd’s son is getting more and more into hunting as he gets older. “I enjoy hunting with young sportsmen, especially my son, passing along what I know, answering their questions, giving them some of my tackle or an old arrow rest,” he said. “More of us need to spend time with any youngster that wants to learn. This is important not only to continue the traditions of sportsmanship, but it is also the union way of life.” Another hobby of Todd’s is raising beagles. He currently has six and a litter of pups, which he uses to go rabbit hunting. He’s also involve with three sportsman’s clubs, goes fishing a lot and always finds the time to help his buddies process their deer after a harvest. Last year, Todd says that between Nov. 1 and Feb. 1 he only missed 10 days where he didn’t go out in the woods. “I’ve got 30 acres around me for great deer and squirrel hunting. I can just walk out my back door and shoot.” |
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I don’t know if I can find the words to express my gratitude to the many people who made my dream come true. I would like to thank the TRCP, Berretta, Winchester, Burris, and the Union Sportsmans Alliance for giving me the opportunity to go on this hunt. I would also like to thank the Woulfe family of Green Water Marean Lake Outfitters for taking me into their home and treating me like family. My thanks to Tom Ackerman, a man that truly lives to be in the outdoors and takes great pleasure in making another’s dream come true. I would also like to send a very special thanks to the people behind the scenes, Nathan Charlan and Troy Batzler who are two of the most impressive young men I have ever met. The first night of my hunt we made it to the treestand around 4:00pm. At 6:30pm I saw something out of the corner of my eye and there he was right under the tree I was sitting in! Within the next hour, five more bears showed up. I was kind of overwhelmed and since I was not experienced on judging the size of a bear very well, Tom and I decided to pass on shooting the bears we saw that first night and instead went back to the lodge for a professional opinion from John Woulfe, one of our guides. John told me what to be aware of for example, the smaller the ears look the bigger the bear and if the hump in a bear’s belly looks like it’s dragging to the ground that means it’s a big bear. The most important piece of advice John gave me (and I’m glad Tom was listening) was if all the other bears that are around “spook” when another bear comes in sight...that’s the bear you want. This turned out to be exactly what happend. The second night a young bear came in early and milled around for a good while before a second bear came in. The second bear was a good one, probably over 200 lbs but we decided to wait a little bit to see what would happen. Then all of the sudden, the smallest bear made his way from the ground to about 30 feet up a tree in about three seconds. The other bear came right into my shooting lane and stopped. I had the cross hairs on him and I asked Tom if I should go ahead and take this one. Tom said “Wait, remember what John told you.” So I waited...and there he was. I could see him coming towards us and I could tell he was bigger than any of the other bears that we had seen. He started walking right through my shooting lane from left to right. I wanted him to stop and he did. I’ve never shot a bear before and through the scope he looked broadside to me so I squeezed off the shot. The bear jumped straight in the air and ran off into the woods. That was when Tom said he noticed the bear was more quartering toward me and he thought I might have shot low because of the way the bear jumped. It was an overcast evening and light was fading fast so we started tracking as soon as John arrived. I was sure that my shot wasn’t low but I wasn’t too sure if he was completely broadside. After tracking in very thick brush for about sixty yards or so, we heard a bear move. We didn’t see a lot of blood and everyone decided to go back to the lodge to look at the tape so we could see exactly where I had hit him then we would go back in the morning to find him. It turned out that Tom was right about my shot placement because is was back a bit further than it should have been for the angle the bear was at, however the height wasn’t bad only a little high. That was why there wasn’t much blood on the ground. The blood had to fill up to the entrance wound before it could come out. Thanks to two esteemed trackers, John and Dereck Woulfe, my bear was recovered at about 7:30am the next morning within 150 yards of where I shot him and we had it all on film. Shooting the black bear on day two of my hunt made my dream come true, but the new friends that I met and the new country that I saw made the trip even more unforgettable. Many thanks again to everyone involved and to June and Lana Woulfe for their hospitality and delicious cooking. |
EQUIPMENT LOG
| Firearm/Bow: Tikka T3 .300 WinMag Rifle www.berettausa.com Ammunition/Arrows: Winchester Ammunition - .300 WinMag XP3 www.winchester.com Optics: Burris Optics www.burrisoptics.com Blinds/Stands: Treestand (no brand) Calls: Other Equipment: Beretta Clothes www.berettausa.com Outerwear: Beretta Jacket |