Iowa Sportsman

Public Land Coyotes
Public Land Coyotes By Troy Hoepker Every fall the day comes when warm temperatures give way to a cold front passing through that stokes that burning desire to hunt inside of us! You know the feeling I’m talking about? When that mercury dips for the first time under 40 or 30 degrees and you just […]
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Late Season Pheasants
Late Season Pheasants By Troy Hoepker The clock was ticking on what was left of my pheasant hunting season and I dreaded the thought of no longer loading up my bird dog Ace and shooting those ringnecks over his points. It was January 2, 2019 and I wanted to make the most out of what […]
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Tight Lipped Ice Tactics
Tight Lipped Ice Tactics By Ben Leal We’ve all experienced it… a day we load up and head out full of anticipation of a great day out on the ice. You’ve dreamt of that ice rod bending as you set the hook on yet another slab crappie or 10-inch plus bluegill…Vexilar screens lighting up with […]
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Hunting the 11th Hour
Hunting the 11th Hour By Ryan Graden One of the hardest things for me to swallow is a “tag sandwich”. Would you agree? If you are like me, that’s just not something I like to deal with on a regular basis! So what do you do? What’s your move? What options do you have that […]
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Smoke Poles at the Buzzer
Smoke Poles at the Buzzer My father-in-law loathes the days on the calendar that follow the completion of the New Year’s arrival and fanfare. The “bleak midwinter” is what he dubs these blustery days, and I suppose the vast majority of people living above the 30th parallel share in the sentiment. But if you are […]
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Venison Processing 101
Venison Processing 101 You have just harvested a whitetail deer. Now what? You have two options: you can take your deer to a locker, or you can proceed with processing the deer yourself. Processing your own deer can seem like a big undertaking, but in all honesty, it is not very complicated. The biggest component […]
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Reflect on your Hunting Season: Whitetails 365
Reflect on your Hunting Season: Whitetails 365 Welcome to a brand-new year! You made it. As always, whitetail deer are on my mind and the first month of the year is no different. So often, January is a month that finds us making (and sometimes breaking) New Year’s Resolutions. One resolution that I have is […]
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5 Tips For A Better Deer Mount
5 Tips for a Better Deer Mount Shooting your first deer and biggest buck are exciting milestones in a deer hunter’s life. When these events occur, all hunters want to remember and reminisce on the memory of the hunt. One way to commemorate the memories of the hunt is to mount the deer. When you […]
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Taking on the Midwinter Fishing Doldrums
Taking on the Midwinter Fishing Doldrums Midwinter ice fishing is often completely different than early and late ice. Instead of the aggressive fish that come with both early and late ice, midwinter fish are often more neutral and have seen several months of lures. That’s why here on the Iowa Great Lakes the most successful […]
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Locked Down But Not Out
Locked Down But Not Out By Noel Gandy As the old saying goes: The only certainties in life are death, taxes, and locked down bucks come November. Well, most of that saying is well-known, but in the whitetail world losing tabs on a bruiser buck during November is almost always a certainty. Deer hunting can […]
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