Upland
Top Public Upland Hunting Areas in Iowa
Top Public Hunting Upland Areas in Iowa Iowa’s rolling fields and picturesque landscapes set the stage for an exhilarating outdoor pursuit that is just around the corner, pheasant season. As the leaves begin to turn and a crisp autumn breeze fills the air, hunters from across the state and beyond eagerly anticipate the opening of […]
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5 Tips to Bag More Pheasants this Season
5 Tips to Bag More Pheasants this Season It was an unseasonably warm South Dakota day, the kind of day we all love, unless we’re in the midst of a pheasant hunt. This weather made the birds jumpy, which was troublesome, considering we were hunting public land birds that receive a great deal of hunting […]
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Gun Safety Tips for the Field
Gun Safety Tips for the Field When a person mentions safety, some may shrug their shoulders and write it off as a dry subject. However, it never hurts to open your ears to a few commonsense reminders. After working a career in the DNR, I will comment on a few basic field safety reminders and […]
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Upland Game Drills
Upland Game Drills If we desire to improve our skills, we need to be ready to put in the work. Rather than just showing up to the field opening day of upland season, hoping our dog is just a natural rockstar, we can deploy some simple strategies. If we want our dogs to feel comfortable […]
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Improve your Pond with Native Habitat
Improve your Pond with Native Habitat The northern corners crown our state with their excellent natural fisheries that are unparalleled throughout the vast majority of the rest of the state. In the Northeastern counties we have pristine, cold water trout streams and in the Northwestern counties we have our few and only naturally formed lakes. […]
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Keeping Older Dogs in the Field
Keeping Older Dogs in the Field “Every good thing has an end”. No matter how much we try to ignore this reality, it’s just that, a reality. Think about it, vacations, hunting excursions, championship seasons, this article (just checking to see if you’re still with me) every good thing has an end. The truth is, […]
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Establishing and Maintaining Native Warm Season Grasses
Establishing and Maintaining Native Warm Season Grasses My husband and I just moved to our current residence a few years ago. During that first year, we knew we wanted to attract wildlife to our property. We wanted to create a wildlife mecca, holding gamebirds, deer, and other wildlife. The first steps included planting cover and […]
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What Knife is best for you this Season?
Making the Cut: What Knife is best for you this Season? When it comes to hunting, there is no shortage of age-old debates that hunters like to dive into: archery vs. firearms, meat hunter vs. horn hunters, fixed blade vs. expandable broadheads, 6.5 Creedmoor vs. B-52 bomber to name a few. One debate that seems […]
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Iowa Pheasants are Making a Comeback
Iowa Pheasants are Making a Comeback Growing up, I would hear hunting stories from my Dad about his youth, most of these were shared while we were in the field pursuing our own game. During his youth, deer were scarce, there were just a few days a year set aside for deer hunting seasons. You […]
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Planting Switchgrass for Cover
Planting Switchgrass for Cover “Switchgrass on my property would be a great way to bring in the pheasants”. This is what I told myself, an avid pheasant hunter, after I bought a small acreage in northwest Iowa. However, I knew enough about plants to know that I was no agronomist, and the thought of planting […]
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