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Matador WMA info??

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    Matador WMA info??

    Anyone ever hunt Matador WMA for hogs? I see they have archery only hunting march 5-18 but have no idea if there are many hogs on the place. 28,000 acres with a river in the middle of it you would think there would a pretty good supply.

    #2
    I have been there and done it once. I saw hogs, but had no luck.

    Try posting this in the campfire section. There is usually a group of guys that go out there every year and do it.

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      #3
      Get on a hilltop and glass until you see movement and go get'em. Been once and fired a couple of shots but haven't made it back yet.

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        #4
        Thanks for the info. I thought it would be a fun thing to do and see some different country and give me a break during wife season. I will post up when we make plans and maybe some folks from here will come along and join us at a bonfire for a BS session.

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          #5
          One other suggestion for Matador. Put in for the archery hunt drawing for mule deer. It is an awesome hunt. I drew a mule deer hunt there about 4 years ago and had a blast chasing bucks in the river breaks.

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            #6
            There are some huge mulies on Matador, but with the draw, you get a certain pasture for $150 bucks and you have to hunt that pasture and not the entire place like it use to be. There are a lot of hogs, but they are hard to hunt. Neat place.

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              #7
              I actually like the way they are running the draw hunts these days. At least you don't have to worry about someone else trying to cut you off from a buck right at the end of your stalk by running across a canyon at full speed at the same time hollering on this radio: " It's a shooter, I'ts a shooter" .

              Some people really have no class!

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                #8
                My father and I went for the mule deer draw hunt about 4 years ago. Neat hunt, lots of deer, and lots of people. One gentleman got lost and they were still looking for him when we left. I never heard how that ended up. Pretty scary situation. It's big country if you're used to hunting around here. We saw several groups of hogs and the old river beds and low spots seemed to hold the most sign.

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                  #9
                  I've done 3 hunts up there,never saw any hogs,saw several deer though.Eradicator when you say "lots of people", that must have been before they went to the draw system.These days they only allow about 15-20 people per hunt.All the gates in and out have combination locks and they give you the combo number with your permit.Theres some pretty deep and nasty draws on the area...hope that guy who got lost didn't fall into one!

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                    #10
                    "A man has got to know his limitations". ( Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry)

                    The property is only 28,183 acres and has the pease river running through the middle of it. If you are not sure of yourself, I'd suggest taking a GPS to help you get back to your truck.

                    I believe the guy mentioned made it out OK. Although the people that are running the place weren't so happy about it!

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                      #11
                      Yeah a gps is a must out there. I would recommend anywhere along the pease river, we hunted the north middle unit in 2005.

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                        #12
                        The year we went was right before they cut down the #'s. It wasn't a ton of people(especially for public land), but you still had people driving around a little bit. We had a great time and great experience. The buck to doe ratio for the mulies was way out of whack. Has anyone been recently and are the does in check at all. I wish they would have a youth doe hunt or something. We stalked some hogs(never got a shot) and saw a ton of deer. We never found a shooter muley. Good to hear the guy got out. I think they had horses, dogs, choppers, everything looking for him. You'll need a 4wd if you want to hunt the west side. Real sandy.

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                          #13
                          I've hunted there many times. It's a beautiful place that's well worth the trip simply for the experience. 28k acres.... that's 44 square miles! Lot of areas to loose yourself. I went many times in the early 90's when I was in school out in Lubbock. Saw a lot of monster muley's back then before they ever did rifle hunts.

                          Here's some scenic views:

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                          Several of us have done the hog hunt in the past there as well.

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                          l to r: Pops (Stan), Archer156 (Kenny), Saltfork (Larry), Devin, Mike Cox

                          Here's a recap from one such hunt that I had posted back in '01:


                          Friday afternoon we spent scouting and setting up the Pop-off camper. Friday night was spent telling lies while six of us split a twelve pack of beer because nobody knew that Cottle County is dry. The rest of the night was spent trying to sleep while you hang on to the walls of the pop-off camper with 50 mph winds, rain, thunder and lightning. We managed a peaceful nights sleep of about 2 hours.

                          The hunting was really tough. We split into two groups. Mike, Rudey and I in one and Kenny, Larry and Stan in the other. Kenny or Larry will have to recap their action, but I’ll give you the TRUE story of ours. We spent Saturday morning glassing from ridges into the river bottoms, but with more 30-50 mph winds, it was futile. The only lucky part about the bad weather was that the hard rain wiped out all the old tracks. We cut a fresh set of tracks around 11 Saturday morning, but since Mike and Rudey are girly men, they headed back to the truck for lunch while I followed the tracks up into a ravine. I followed them for about 200 yards until I bumped into the hogs. Most people would think that I spooked them on accident, however I was simply “pushing” them into easier stalking terrain. They didn’t run too far so being the great guy that I am, I backed off and went to get the girly men to come back.

                          After I held Rudey and Mike’s hands to lead them back to the pigs, I set Rudey up for a great shot on the largest of the pigs, a nice red one that would go about 200#’s. I grabbed my video camera and the hunt was about to begin, until Whistlin’ Mike showed up. As I stated before, he walked out from behind the same bush as the hog was sleeping under and tried to whistle him a tune. The hog was as impressed as Rudey and I were and quickly vacated the area.

                          Although the stalk was busted, we did figure out were the hogs were hiding from the wind. Not in the bottoms, but up near the ridges on the downwind side. On the way out of our first busted stalk we spotted a nice Mulie on the adjacent ridge. Being the gracious fella that I am I volunteered to put on a stalking clinic and show the girly men how a stalk is supposed to work. I left them my backpack (w/ the video camera inside) and proceeded to hop the cross the valley and stalk to within about twelve yards of the Mulie, but only had my bow. He turned out to be a decent 5x5. I drew on him a few times, but without my video camera, didn’t shoot anything. Needless to say Mike and Rudey were speechless.

                          The rest of the day was spent hoping ridges in search of fresh sign, but to no avail. During the afternoon hunt is when Mike decided to fatten the pocket book of the nearest locksmith 30 miles away.

                          Our Saturday evening hunt was interrupted when Ken and Stan located us to tell us that the pop-off camper had kept it’s new namesake and emptied it’s contents around the campsite.

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                          They graciously retrieved our belongings and then retrieved us to come inspect the scene. The pictures will explain a little better, but needless to say, Rudey was not in the best of spirits and the lack of cold beverages to rekindle his hunting desires were absent, so we pieced together what was left of the pop-off and he headed back to big D. Mike and I remained along with Kenny, Larry and Stan.

                          Sunday morning turned out to be clear skies and almost calm wind. A new hunting strategy was in order, but the hogs did not cooperate with the change in plans. Mike decided that the trip would not be complete if a vehicle had not been stuck, so he illustrated an age old truth that if you wait to put a vehicle into 4wd after you are stuck, it does no good. We had to hook up two other 4wd vehicles to pull his Explorer out. We headed out soon after with our tails between our legs, heading back to wetter counties and warmer beds.

                          The aforementioned is the TRUTH and if anyone else says different……………………….. they’re lying.


                          It is a big place. Many times over the course of that hunt I had to play navigator and correct Rudey and Mike as they were almost always lost.

                          Here's locations we've had lucks with hogs before:

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                          Archer156 (Kenny Baker) on here lives in Vernon and usually hunts there many times a year. Coachwhip (Staley) on here also has a lot of Matador experience. I'd hit them up if I was wanting some good inside info.
                          Hunting Videos & Flickr Pix

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                            #14
                            4 years?

                            Eradicator, you say you were there about 4 years ago? Was that back when they did it by postcard selection and not lottery? I was selected for that hunt the two years before it went to lottery. The second time (the last year they did postcard selection) a guy got lost out there. But I thought they found him that night. Maybe they didn't and I just didn't realize it. It is really beautiful country though. If you wanna see something cool you should take a predator call and watch the mule deer doe surround you, thinking you're a wounded fawn. Unfortunately the mule deer bucks don't do the same. I never saw any hogs out there though I did see a lot of sign. Good luck and have fun.

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                              #15
                              donpablo,

                              It was when they did the postcard selection. The guy got lost that night and they were still looking for him late the next morning when we had to leave. I have a whitetail slot on a muley/whitetail lease in Fort Stockton. You're right about the predator call and the mule deer. The guys on our lease all carry one with them and you would be surprised how many deer they call in with it. We saw a couple of sounders along the Pease River in the NE section of the property. I think there was one deer killed the weekend we were there. It's a beautiful place and I can't wait to get back there.

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