Any tips or comments on hunting the Chap? Which unit or tripod or ground setups? Never been there.

When we went they assigned us an area. They may assign you a stand though. I took my little brother on a javelina hunt there about 10 years ago.

Haven't been there since the fire last year or was it the year before?

Awesome place to hunt though. Should be even better once they get a few years in a row of decent rainfall.

What dates are you going? The deer there usually rut right before Christmas. Gonna do some rattling?

We were there this past January. There were 3 of us and we all got very good bucks, 2 10pts and a massive 8 pt that was 5 1/2 years old.

They will assign your group a pasture, but you get to pick based on when you were drawn. We were the second group drawn, so we got second choice of all the available pastures. I had talked with another THF member who had previously hunted there and he gave us invaluable information. The pasture he had hunted before was East Guajolote. After looking at all the pastures before the hunt, we were trying to decide between East Guajolote and Long pasture. Since we were drawn second, the first group chose East Guajolote and we chose Long pasture. We were 100% satisfied with Long pasture and if we ever get drawn again will probably try to pick it again.

They have stands and some tripods already set up. We took some portable tripods with us, but didn't use them as the stands were already in good places. If you do hunt Long pasture, be sure and ask the TP&W biologist where he would recommend for you to hunt. We found that stand #361 was the best, although they were all good. Our 3 bucks were shot on #361 and #360, but we saw bucks every day at all of the locations we hunted.

The biologist and personnel there are very helpful. We had a GREAT time and know that you will too.

Let me know if I can answer anymore questions and good luck to you and your group.

Her-man, which hunt are you going on? I'll be on the Dec.14-18 hunt. Lone Ranger, did the other hunters on Chap do as well as your group? How were the camping areas set up?

My son has also been drawn for the youth hunt Dec. 27-30. We have never been there either and really appreciate any and all of the information. I have also heard the rut should be going at the end of Dec. Is this true? Thanks for the info!!

badkins, email me about Dec.20. I'll let ya know what we do and how things look. Good luck with your son. Hope he gets a good one. My sons first was a 20" 10 point when he was ten. Hard to top that.

My is the bow hunt Oct.12-16.

furfinrfeather, I will do that and good luck to you and her-man!! But please leave one Big Buck for my son, he has not buck hunted south Texas and can hardly wait....What a Christmas present!!

Everyone saw deer, but I think that our group did the best of everyone and then the group on East Guajolote did almost as good as us. We saw bucks everytime we went out and were lucky to get the largest 3 that each of us saw.

There is 1 primitive camping area that is really pretty nice. It is a couple of miles east of the WMA. They have a bathroom and shower, covered picnic tables and a fire ring. There are no hookups, however, if you camped closest to the bathroom you could run an extension cord in there for electricity.

There is also a motor home/trailer type camping area, but it is really just an open parking lot type place and not much to look at.

Chaparral is a GREAT place, we had been putting in for 23 years when we finally got drawn. You are going to love it!!!

Let me know if you have any other questions, I will be glad to give you any information that I can.

Lone Ranger, Where on a map are the pasture you are talking about?

If you will send me a fax number I will fax you a copy of the map that shows the areas. I will be glad to give you any info that I can.

It is a GREAT place to hunt. You should see a lot of deer and some really good ones too!!

Don't have a fax.

we will be there with you on oct 12-16 look forward to meeting you. We will be staying at the camp ground also. Loneranger who do you talk to about the camp ground?

Where is LaWard?

I called Chaparral WMA last Dec. before we went there for our hunt in Jan. and they gave me information about the campground and other information as well.

Anytime that they have hunts going on, the campground is open. There is no water and electricity, but it is a pretty nice campground. Each site has a covered picnic table, fire ring and a place for a tent. Also, there is a bathroom with water, shower and electricity at the bathroom. If you need electricity, you can camp close to the bathroom and run an extension cord inside, otherwise there are no hookups, just primitive camping.

Let me know if you need anything else, I will be glad to help you any way that I can.

Say bigdavehunting, weren't you the guys that were hunting on East Guajolote when we were there in January or do I have you mixed up with someone else??