Iowa Sportsman

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 […]

Following 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 […]

Straight 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” […]

Encountering 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 […]

Whiskers and Ditty Poles

Whiskers and Ditty Poles By Brad Durick One of my fondest memories of setting bank poles, or ditty poles as many call them, took place on the Des Moines River two summers ago. My friends Josh, Jarred and I fished for two nights out of Jarred’s big twenty foot flat-bottom and camped along the bank. […]

Change with the Weather to Catch More Fishing this Fall

Change with the Weather to Catch More Fishing this Fall By Todd Reed Fall has arrived here in Iowa. There have been many signs of this for quite some time; shorter days, crisp morning air, the turning of the leaves and the mysterious fog that settles in over lakes and ponds. Everything around us is […]

Early Season Buck, Save your Time?

Early Season Buck, Save your Time? By Dan Johnson October 1st is already here and that means thousands of us are hitting the timber in hopes of either filling the freezer with organic venison or chasing big old nasty bucks in the fingers, draws, and river bottoms throughout this great state. For me, this year […]

Absolute Land Auctions

The Late Season Dilemma

The Late Season Dilemma It’s now the late season. You’ve hunted hard all fall and winter and yet you find yourself sitting here in the timber with an open tag. The snow is deeper, the cold wind is biting, and maybe you’ve spent too many hours away from your “honey do” list at home. Ending […]

Water Conditions and How to Fish Them

Water Conditions and How to Fish Them That crisp air that we feel each morning is a sign of things to come, fall is definitely in the air around the state of Iowa. This can be a welcome sign for hunters, hikers and anglers ready for cooler temperatures. The change in weather can also bring […]