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Mastering Summer Catfish
Iowa Sportsman July 2025
This Issue Brings You:
- Mastering Summer Catfish
- Fishing Iowa: Iowa Hot Spots
- Do It Yourself – Iowa Kill Plots
- Introducing Youth to Shooting Sports
- Whitetails 365 – Drought, Deer & Looming Threat of EHD
- County Spotlight: Iowa Fishing Destinations
- Blind Buyers Guide: Clear Sight Hunting Blinds
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Whitetail Sidearms: Choosing A Handgun for Deer!
Whitetail Sidearms: Choosing A Handgun for Deer! By Michael Ware, CEO Controlled Chaos Arms The best handgun for deer hunting you ask? Wow. That’s a tall order. A question like that depends on so many variables there is no correct answer that is truly universal. As you know this really hinges on things like your […]
READ MOREFollowing the Number for Ringnecks
Following the Number for Ringnecks By Tim Ackarman Introduced to Iowa in the early 1900s, ringneck pheasants were the premier game species across most of state from the 1960s through the early 2000s. Beginning in 2007 habitat loss, changing agricultural practices and several consecutive years of unfavorable weather sent populations spiraling downward. Meanwhile deer, turkey […]
READ MOREStraight Walled Rifles: Expanding Your Arsenal Season
Straight Walled Rifles: Expanding Your Arsenal Season By Aaron Stonehocker I have always scoffed at the claims made about Iowa’s landscape. While there are places where you can see for miles in any direction, most of the state is blanketed with rolling hills, scattered timber stands, sandy hills, and limestone bluffs. The “Iowa is Flat” […]
READ MOREEncountering Iowa Bobcats
Encountering Iowa Bobcats When Bret Paulsen filled his archery tag with a 155 inch, eleven point bruiser of a buck in mid November, some would call it a very successful fall already. What he didn’t know at the time was just how incredible his month of November for 2011 was yet to be in Iowa’s […]
READ MOREFeatured Story
10 Killer Big Buck Bow Hunting Ambushes
Why do top notch hunters shoot quality mature deer year after year? Sure they scout, don’t shoot young bucks, maintain their land, pay attention to the wind, plant food plots, are in big buck country, ect. Yes all of those and many more reasons can attribute to better chances of shooting bigger bucks consistently. However do you know the most important reason why people shoot big deer year after year? Because they place their stands in locations where big bucks like to frequent…it really is that simple. They are in the right place at the right time. You will never consistently shoot mature deer if you are not putting your tree stands in the proper locations.
Whitetails are creatures of habit and instinct, they do everything for a purpose and that is actually a good thing for us hunters. If we know what they like to do, what they don’t like to do, and how they navigate their day then we can key in on certain geographical locations on our properties and ambush an unsuspecting bruiser.
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.