I ended up drawing a tag for a late season doe, unlimited feral hog and unlimited coyote with my wife also.... Does anyone have any experience hunting here or did anyone luck up and draw also? We plan on tagging our does pretty early and breaking out the coyote call or hunting for pigs if given the opportunity..
CF, congrats on drawing for the Chap. It is truly a magical place to hunt. SonOne & I drew the December GDE hunt and had an awesome hunt.(both of us took bucks.)
We did talked to most of the hunters that hunted back in Dec. Most of the guys were super good chaps,( get it?) Some thoughts you might be able to utilize
* Shouldn't be a problem killing the number of does/spikes you're allowed. They don't allow GDE (and pretty sure GDM) hunters to take any does, only youth and d/sp hunts like yours. However lots of young spikes out there from what we saw and heard from other hunters so look for the bigger spikes. Saw a number of yearlings with long spikes, but were (+/-)80lb deer. Due the great rain conditions in second half of '14 and all of '15, the bucks on the Chap have exceptional antlers this year, not a lot of one side spikes or mature or close to mature double spikes.
* North Jay, west and east Guajalote, one of the Blocker units and one other compartment that I can't remember was where hunters saw hogs back in December. Not sure if they were the actual hunters of those pastures or if from driving through the pastures to their assigned pasture. Combination of both, I'm thinking.
* There is a limited but frequently seen number of African Warthogs on the Chap. Western side units; Baldy, West Blocker, and W Guajalote seen to be the best locations. One was killed in Baldy on the Dec. GDE hunt. That Baldy hunter killed a 154 B&C buck, a huge 7 pt, and a Warthog all by the end of the second day of the hunt. Haven't heard of any Warthogs on the eastern side.
* Song Dogs are everywhere, shouldn't have problem calling them up. However make good shots on deer, the 'yotes will get to a wounded deer very fast.
* If your assigned acreage is large enough for you and YBH,(Your Better Half) to move to different areas, plan to do so once the Javelinas find your corn. Once found they'll always be there and they seem to multiple once they start on the corn.
* Try to hunt any low spot & top of draws no matter how small on your given acreage. It funnels the deer out to the senderos.
* The Chap is a east-west oriented 15K acres, lot's of E-W senderos looking into morning and evening sunset if sunny. Consider that when planning where to set up.
* The quadpods, youth blinds and other Chap hunting equipment is basic and can use modifications. We brought green camo burlap that we used to provide better coverage. There are a number of handicap blinds with ramps that are new and in good shape, looks like roughly half the compartments have these.
*Bring pop up blind or tripods if you have them and set them up where you like, might be better than the Chap blinds that probably are hunted frequently.
* bring and use a range finder if you have one or can borrow one. Distances stretch out there on the bigger pastures.
* They shut down all of the east side except South Jay for this weeks GDE hunt currently going on. Just so you'll know, if they reopen all of the east side for your hunt, the Hough & Rosindo units were closed from hunting of any kind at some point of the end of 2014 or early '15 and were only opened for the December GDE hunt.
They probably were hunted on the youth hunt a couple weeks ago, but that's it on hunting those units for over a year. You'll see plenty of does/spikes, 'yotes, and Rosindo does have a water tank on it that might draw some hogs. Wouldn't be high on my hog list, but you never know. You'll also see some super nice bucks in both units.
* Registration area and campground has deer cleaning facilities including walk-in cooler at former, so middle of day if warm/sunny might be good time to 1/4 deer if you roll that way.
* Bring a good camera if you have one and enough the wildlife. Lots of Green Jay's out there, a smashingly beautiful bird along with the swarms of Javi's and other birds and fauna. If nothing else you see some super nice bucks that you enjoy looking over.
Some pictures from December hunt including a 9 or 10 point that I passed on. He's about 375-400 yds out on pix.
Good luck, and enjoy the Chap, it's a special place. Get the $15 Chap hats located in registration building, there's a hunter orange, a duck and tan fabric hat. Nice hats, and the h.o. hat qualifies for the hat requirement.
