hunting
Small Tracts Can Yield Big Racks
Small Tracts Can Yield Big Racks By Kevin Sturm Small farm owners are faced with a constant juggling act of income vs. habitat. In most cases, there has to be a happy medium of both to make a small farm work, not only from the checkbook stand point but also by what is hanging on […]
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Introducing Youth to Shooting Sports
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 […]
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DIY Iowa Kill Plots
DIY Iowa Kill Plots Developing a food plot for deer requires more than a few months of preparation, it’s a year-round process. Some of my best food plot strategies have been born from time spent in the stand, carefully observing how deer move, what they browse on, and where natural edges or clearings create opportunities. […]
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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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Planning Your Deer Food Plot
Planning Your Deer Food Plot When February rolls around, I always feel a shift—it’s like the start of a new season for those of us who love the outdoors and deer hunting. The hustle of hunting season has settled down, and now, instead of watching deer from the stand, I start preparing for how I’ll […]
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Tips for January Coyote Calling
Tips For January Coyote Calling The sun started to peek over the horizon, casting soft, pink light across the field. It was a perfect morning for hunting. I’d set up just off the edge of a field bordered by dense woods. From my vantage point, I had a clear line of sight for a […]
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Plan for Deer Season 2025
Plan for Deer Season 2025 As Iowa’s 2024 hunting season winds down this month, hunters across the state feel a mix of accomplishment and anticipation. For many, the season has been rewarding, with crisp mornings, challenging hunts, and stories to share. Yet, as the final days slip by and the fields quiet down, the […]
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Tips for Hunting in the Snow
Tips for Hunting in the Snow On a snowy Saturday morning last December, I doubted the instincts of one of my Small Munsterlanders, Della. We were chasing pheasants with some of my friends and their dogs. We were two birds shy of a three-man limit and one of those birds was mine. On our way […]
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