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Des Moines River Kayaking
Des Moines River Kayaking By Ricky Kinder The trip wasn’t off to a good start. At 6:30 p.m. on Friday May 10th my cousin Nick and I were standing in what used to be the parking lot for the Yellow Banks Park boat ramp, but was now consumed by the swollen Des Moines River. Three […]
READ MOREChasing Early Season Northern Pike
Chasing Early Season Northern Pike By Steve Weisman When the ice begins to leave our northern Iowa lakes, anglers head out looking for ice-out smallmouth bass, pre-spawn walleyes and panfish. However, there is one prolific game fish that is often overlooked: the northern pike. In many cases, they are totally ignored. As a result, a […]
READ MORECapturing Nature: Tips for making the most of your Outdoor Photos
Capturing Nature: Tips for making the most of your Outdoor Photos By Laura Woten Imagine the SCENE: trout fishing in the Driftless Region of Northeastern Iowa in the spring. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding, and the water is flowing fast and clear. A mother doe and her new twin fawns wander up […]
READ MOREYour Guide to Herbicides
Your Guide to Herbicides By Tom Peplinksi I spend a lot of time and money getting things to grow on my farm. Between food plots, apple trees, evergreens, and timber regrowth I’m always trying to get the varieties of plants I want…in the right places, and growing without competition from other plants. When growing food […]
READ MOREFeatured Story
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.
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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.