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Back to the Basics
Back to the Basics Basic drills are where a great bird dog begins. The basic drills are where bird dogs maintain greatness. I like to think of basics as building blocks. Once my dog consistently accomplishes a foundational skill like retrieving, I can add a layer and start doing memory retrieves. After my dog consistently […]
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Favorite Small Game Cartridge
Favorite Small Game Cartridge I have a picture of my grandpa, Ron, sitting on a mountainside in Colorado with his Ruger 22 Single Six on one knee and a Gray Jay sitting on the other. My grandpa was an avid outdoorsman who used to travel to Colorado for an annual elk-hunting trip. One of his […]
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How to Find Spring Turkeys
How to Find Spring Turkeys There have been many times throughout my turkey hunting years that I have heard the phrase “There aren’t any turkeys on my ground”, or “I only see turkeys when I’m deer hunting, but never in the spring”. In my early years I never thought much about it when people said […]
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Fishing Iowa in March
WHAT TO TARGET FOR MARCH The month of March is characterized by rapidly rising daily high temperatures, with daily highs increasing from 41 deg to 56 deg over the month. Southern reaches of the State will likely have open water by the end of March, if not sooner. Central Iowa will have fishable ice, depending […]
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Introducing Youth to Shooting Sports
I can still remember the day my mom told me we had to watch the next episode of “Buckmasters TV.” Being an oblivious five-year-old, you can only imagine how excited I was to see my picture pop up as their weekly winner of a FREE Buckmasters Daisy Model 840 BB gun. Bubba and Shotgun Red announced my name, and I was the proud new owner of my very first firearm.
I ran to meet the mail carrier every day to check for that long cardboard box. Watching “Buckmasters” with my parents fed my enthusiasm for the outdoors, but I was already obsessed with all things related to shooting at an early age. That BB gun gave me so much more than a tool to shoot targets with. It gave my parents an opportunity to teach me about gun safety. It gave me my first memories of being in the woods, tagging along with my dad and his .22 chasing squirrels and rabbits. It gave me another way to spend time with my younger sisters when they began to learn about gun safety. Most importantly, it sparked a lifelong love for hunting and target shooting.
Created By Iowans, For Iowans
The Iowa Sportsman website and magazine are Iowa’s only privately owned media sources catering to hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts here in Iowa. Simply put, we are unlike other Iowa outdoor media sources: All our staff is from Iowa, from our publisher to our writers. We actually follow through on what we advertise; we provide knowledgeable content from people who know the industry or sport discussed.