Youth hunt on Chaparral

[Lethal Injection]

We were lucky and got drawn for the youth management hunt at the Chap, will be my son and stepdaughter. How is it set up for the kid hunts? Are there stands setup that would fit myself and the kids?

I have bowhunted the place several times but have not been there since the fire.
Any info is appreciated, thanks.

[db@100]

I think on the youth hunts you can use bait. There are some elevated blinds that you can use. You bring some chairs to sit on. Be sure to bring a camera!

[sports]

Went on a Javier youth hunt. We had a pasture to ourselves. It had a couple of blinds in it. A tower with 4 foot sides no roof or top and a fiberglass half blind on the ground. We could use bait. They had 2 campgrounds one was for rvs..... No hookups and no generators after 10:00 pm. The other was a primitive campground...... No hookups but has a bath/shower facility and a couple of water spigots for shared use. We had a great time. Good luck

[sports]

Dang auto correct. ....... Javi

[E. Tex Hunter]

Congrats Lethal.
You and you’re kids are gonna have a blast.
They do have blinds but I highly suggest not using them, and opting for a pop-up instead. See details below:

My son got drawn for the 2011-2012 Youth only season. Hunt took place Dec 27-31 a week and a half after his 14th birthday. He wound up killing a 6 ½ year old 143 10pt on the first evening.

To my knowledge it wound up the biggest killed on the Chap that year. The memories of my son bagging that buck on the Chap are worth more than all the money in the world to me.

I actually had gotten drawn in 1996, but didn’t get to go because my oldest son passed away, so getting to finally go with my other son held special meaning to me.

I got lucky this year too, and was finally drawn again for the Adult gun deer either sex for Dec 16 - 20 so now it’s my turn.


Here’s how our hunt worked:
CHAPARRAL WMA Personnel: They go all out and do a bang up job of making sure every kid there has a good chance of success. I can’t praise them enough.

PASTURE SELECTION: They only hunted the East side of the ranch on one Youth hunt then the West side on the 2nd one, so all the advice about which pasture was best had to be thrown out the window.

BAIT: You are allowed to use corn and they pre-bait existing blinds for the YOUTH a few days prior to the hunts. You can dump your own after that.
Advice: there’s hogs and Javelina so don’t dump a big pile or you’re wasting it. It won’t be there overnight. We spread it in small then trails perpendicular across the Senderos so it forces them to be broadside for long periods of time. Kids waiting patiently for a good buck to turn broadside is not a good plan. Only 10-15 lbs at a time is enough to keep deer in front of you for an entire hunt if you spread it around in thin trails like that.

BLINDS: In answer to your question, YES, they have them. They are 4-walled open-roofed boxes. Some have walls of plyboard, some with burlap, about 12 feet high. With NO ROOF, little heads are bee-bopping up and down in them during the YOUTH hunts. Most of the other hunters used them, but we figured the older deer were probably wise to them so we opted to use our pop up. There were deer killed out of the blinds, but no big bucks seen within range of them so…..just saying…..

SCOUTING: We drove the Senderos very quickly and quietly looking for scrapes and trails.
Found 2 likely spots and set a camera up on one to keep an eye on it while we set up to hunt the other one. The 2nd one looked better. Had a good draw crossing a Sendero that had 2 fresh scrapes, so we dumped our corn, then headed downwind of that and chose a good vantage point, dropped off blind and gear, parked the truck then walked back in.

We picked a spot blind that had not been pre-baited, our corn got great action right off the bat by does and a spike. The big boy had rubbed and scraped about 400 yards away, crossed the sendero then crossed back to where he came from around 4:30. The other deer left and he came out on the other scrape and found our corn trails about 10 minutes before dark. S Texas deer will find your corn.


POP UP: Key is to give up seeing downwind and place it against natural cover on that side then brush it up completely. And I do mean COMPLETELY!!

Even though we had a nice little Father-son-head butting session about who was in charge when he decided that a couple of sticks was “good enough” when deer were already crossing our Sendero at 2:30 and I wanted to keep brushing it ‘till it looked like South Texas. You gotta win that argument I believe, because I think the older bucks are used to pop ups too…just my 2 cents but he did admit it was worth it, and thanked me later that night shaking hands over his buck.

HARVEST: They allow the Youth to shoot anything they choose, but encourage them to pass young bucks. My son has killed a few nice bucks so he was willing to go home with tag stew if he had to. Not all the dads felt that way though as some small bucks did get shot.

Overall, I believe every kid shot something when you take in account they get to shoot does, bucks, Javelina, hogs and coyotes. I’m pretty sure at least one of all the above got shot before the hunt was over. There won’t be lack of action that’s for sure.

My advice is having your kids shoot a lot at long distances to stretch out their odds. My son connected at 215 yards, with one shot right through both lungs (.270 short mag). I know it sounds far for 14 year old, but believe me he and gun used are plenty capable. Fortunately he’s MUCH more calm about things than his dad, and certainly most kids, so that helps too. He’s about to turn 16 and is now out shooting me with my own handguns too

He’s a very laid back kid and has always been real good about deciding what he wants and passing smaller bucks. He had said he wants to make TBGA (140) and he does NOT want to settle for a young buck. He would realistically settle for a consolation prize of a 110 8-pt if he had to, but would be willing to have tag stew if he had to. He just didn’t want a pencil horn young buck from the Chap.


OUR HUNT:
The one thing he had going for him was that I was using 20 power elk binoculars, and he had his scope dialed down to 6, so he had no idea how big the buck really was, even when he crossed earlier in daylight at 400 yards. He said that through the scope he was pretty sure he was looking at decent 110 – 120 8-pointer. Probably 3 ½ years old, maybe 4 ½ .

I was actually VERY rattled when I saw his big barrel chest and good mass, and thought it came through an over excited shaky voice. But he told me later on I did a good job of downplaying the buck.
I don’t really recall it that well but he said I just calmly said “we’re gonna want to go ahead and take this one, so get ready.”

I really thought he could hear my heart pounding out of my chest.

He asked me if I was sure, and I just replied “yeah he’s our buck … nice and easy now…. take your time…he’s not going anywhere…he likes that corn.”

Fortunately he just trusted me on making the call, because I knew he didn’t want to settle for a 110 on the first hunt, but that’s what he thought we were doing…bird in the hand..

I was very proud of the way he calmly took the shot, especially at 215 yards at last legal light, but that was NOT my favorite moment of the hunt…not even close…

I about came out my skin at the shot because he caught me off guard…I was in the middle of starting to say “just squeeeeze the….” and BOOM!!! I startled at the shot and my binoculars shook so I didn’t get a good witness on the bucks reaction. He just came out the scope and said, “Dad that shot was PERFECT, I surprise broke it with the cross hairs dead steady on shoulder…that buck is DEAD”

I wanted to wait to go look for blood but he was just too antsy…I took my time "finding" our flashlights in the backpack but I finally just trusted his “shot” and off we went.

By far and above everything my FAVORITE moment was finding the buck about 15 yards in brush and trying to keep up with him as he ran up to it, then seeing him stop short and step back grabbing the sides of his head saying , “Oh my GOSH Dad…this thing is HUGE….oh my GOSH…I had no idea he was….oh my GOSH….he’s got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,….oh my GOSH DAD…he’s a TEN!!!! …a TEN!!!....he’s HUGE….I had NO idea.”…then I hugged him!!! Then I told him to grab some bone.

Seriously….by far the absolute best memory of my hunting life.

No matter what I wind up doing myself this year, I won’t be able to ever top that memory.


Sorry to bore you with too many details, I just can’t talk about the Chap without getting all excited and choked up both because of the memories of both my boys.
It’s a real special place to me, regardless of what gets killed.

Wishing you guys good luck. Can’t think of anything to add and hope it helps.
Just go with the intent of having a good time and enjoy the ranch.

You’ll come back with memories to cherish and hopefully some bone to boot.

I'll post a pic if I can figure out how....

[Lethal Injection]

Wow, thanks for the write up.

[Mjjust]

E. Tex Hunter

Great Story! I loved reading it. I have had some great memories there with my son as well. Now my son is older and last year we took my 2 young nephews there and they both got their first whitetail. Just awesome to be a part of that. Much more fun being there with a kid hunting than pulling a trigger myself. Great memories at the Chap. I have to agree with you on the mature bucks. They do stare down the tower blinds. If going there on a management hunt I would hunt the towers as you will see plenty of does and spikes. My son went 5 years in a row on management hunts and shot at least one deer each year. If going on a buck hunt then the well brushed pop up would be my choice. While in the towers I have seen several very nice mature bucks but they seemed to always spot us first from 300yds away. The moment a buck steps out he is looking at the towers for any movement.

Bring a chair with you. No chairs in towers but they do offer buckets to sit on but often run out. Little tip. I cut a 4x4 square of old carpet to lay in the expanded metal floor of the tower. It makes it quieter with kids and helps keep the cold wind from blowin up from below.

[Bloodhound]

Great thread!
My friend and I got drawn for the first crossbow hunt this year. I'm stoked! I'll be buying a crossbow soon!
Let us know how your hunt goes.

[Lethal Injection]

I have bowhunted there three times in the past and once got busted trying to draw on a 150 class buck, it is a great place.

[1elkaholic2]

My son drew the management hunt. This was his first time getting selected for any youth hunt, so he is pumped!

[Czechoholic]

How many preference points does it take to get drawn for a YDE hunt?

I have 22 pts for the GDE hunt (I started applying when I was young)

[Lethal Injection]

My son had three points for the youth management when they were drawn, I am now up to 15 or 16 for the GDE hunts.

[mitchbcs]

Congrats Lethal.
You and you’re kids are gonna have a blast.
They do have blinds but I highly suggest not using them, and opting for a pop-up instead. See details below:

My son got drawn for the 2011-2012 Youth only season. Hunt took place Dec 27-31 a week and a half after his 14th birthday. He wound up killing a 6 ½ year old 143 10pt on the first evening.

To my knowledge it wound up the biggest killed on the Chap that year. The memories of my son bagging that buck on the Chap are worth more than all the money in the world to me.

I actually had gotten drawn in 1996, but didn’t get to go because my oldest son passed away, so getting to finally go with my other son held special meaning to me.

I got lucky this year too, and was finally drawn again for the Adult gun deer either sex for Dec 16 - 20 so now it’s my turn.


Here’s how our hunt worked:
CHAPARRAL WMA Personnel: They go all out and do a bang up job of making sure every kid there has a good chance of success. I can’t praise them enough.

PASTURE SELECTION: They only hunted the East side of the ranch on one Youth hunt then the West side on the 2nd one, so all the advice about which pasture was best had to be thrown out the window.

BAIT: You are allowed to use corn and they pre-bait existing blinds for the YOUTH a few days prior to the hunts. You can dump your own after that.
Advice: there’s hogs and Javelina so don’t dump a big pile or you’re wasting it. It won’t be there overnight. We spread it in small then trails perpendicular across the Senderos so it forces them to be broadside for long periods of time. Kids waiting patiently for a good buck to turn broadside is not a good plan. Only 10-15 lbs at a time is enough to keep deer in front of you for an entire hunt if you spread it around in thin trails like that.

BLINDS: In answer to your question, YES, they have them. They are 4-walled open-roofed boxes. Some have walls of plyboard, some with burlap, about 12 feet high. With NO ROOF, little heads are bee-bopping up and down in them during the YOUTH hunts. Most of the other hunters used them, but we figured the older deer were probably wise to them so we opted to use our pop up. There were deer killed out of the blinds, but no big bucks seen within range of them so…..just saying…..

SCOUTING: We drove the Senderos very quickly and quietly looking for scrapes and trails.
Found 2 likely spots and set a camera up on one to keep an eye on it while we set up to hunt the other one. The 2nd one looked better. Had a good draw crossing a Sendero that had 2 fresh scrapes, so we dumped our corn, then headed downwind of that and chose a good vantage point, dropped off blind and gear, parked the truck then walked back in.

We picked a spot blind that had not been pre-baited, our corn got great action right off the bat by does and a spike. The big boy had rubbed and scraped about 400 yards away, crossed the sendero then crossed back to where he came from around 4:30. The other deer left and he came out on the other scrape and found our corn trails about 10 minutes before dark. S Texas deer will find your corn.


POP UP: Key is to give up seeing downwind and place it against natural cover on that side then brush it up completely. And I do mean COMPLETELY!!

Even though we had a nice little Father-son-head butting session about who was in charge when he decided that a couple of sticks was “good enough” when deer were already crossing our Sendero at 2:30 and I wanted to keep brushing it ‘till it looked like South Texas. You gotta win that argument I believe, because I think the older bucks are used to pop ups too…just my 2 cents but he did admit it was worth it, and thanked me later that night shaking hands over his buck.

HARVEST: They allow the Youth to shoot anything they choose, but encourage them to pass young bucks. My son has killed a few nice bucks so he was willing to go home with tag stew if he had to. Not all the dads felt that way though as some small bucks did get shot.

Overall, I believe every kid shot something when you take in account they get to shoot does, bucks, Javelina, hogs and coyotes. I’m pretty sure at least one of all the above got shot before the hunt was over. There won’t be lack of action that’s for sure.

My advice is having your kids shoot a lot at long distances to stretch out their odds. My son connected at 215 yards, with one shot right through both lungs (.270 short mag). I know it sounds far for 14 year old, but believe me he and gun used are plenty capable. Fortunately he’s MUCH more calm about things than his dad, and certainly most kids, so that helps too. He’s about to turn 16 and is now out shooting me with my own handguns too

He’s a very laid back kid and has always been real good about deciding what he wants and passing smaller bucks. He had said he wants to make TBGA (140) and he does NOT want to settle for a young buck. He would realistically settle for a consolation prize of a 110 8-pt if he had to, but would be willing to have tag stew if he had to. He just didn’t want a pencil horn young buck from the Chap.


OUR HUNT:
The one thing he had going for him was that I was using 20 power elk binoculars, and he had his scope dialed down to 6, so he had no idea how big the buck really was, even when he crossed earlier in daylight at 400 yards. He said that through the scope he was pretty sure he was looking at decent 110 – 120 8-pointer. Probably 3 ½ years old, maybe 4 ½ .

I was actually VERY rattled when I saw his big barrel chest and good mass, and thought it came through an over excited shaky voice. But he told me later on I did a good job of downplaying the buck.
I don’t really recall it that well but he said I just calmly said “we’re gonna want to go ahead and take this one, so get ready.”

I really thought he could hear my heart pounding out of my chest.

He asked me if I was sure, and I just replied “yeah he’s our buck … nice and easy now…. take your time…he’s not going anywhere…he likes that corn.”

Fortunately he just trusted me on making the call, because I knew he didn’t want to settle for a 110 on the first hunt, but that’s what he thought we were doing…bird in the hand..

I was very proud of the way he calmly took the shot, especially at 215 yards at last legal light, but that was NOT my favorite moment of the hunt…not even close…

I about came out my skin at the shot because he caught me off guard…I was in the middle of starting to say “just squeeeeze the….” and BOOM!!! I startled at the shot and my binoculars shook so I didn’t get a good witness on the bucks reaction. He just came out the scope and said, “Dad that shot was PERFECT, I surprise broke it with the cross hairs dead steady on shoulder…that buck is DEAD”

I wanted to wait to go look for blood but he was just too antsy…I took my time "finding" our flashlights in the backpack but I finally just trusted his “shot” and off we went.

By far and above everything my FAVORITE moment was finding the buck about 15 yards in brush and trying to keep up with him as he ran up to it, then seeing him stop short and step back grabbing the sides of his head saying , “Oh my GOSH Dad…this thing is HUGE….oh my GOSH…I had no idea he was….oh my GOSH….he’s got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,….oh my GOSH DAD…he’s a TEN!!!! …a TEN!!!....he’s HUGE….I had NO idea.”…then I hugged him!!! Then I told him to grab some bone.

Seriously….by far the absolute best memory of my hunting life.

No matter what I wind up doing myself this year, I won’t be able to ever top that memory.


Sorry to bore you with too many details, I just can’t talk about the Chap without getting all excited and choked up both because of the memories of both my boys.
It’s a real special place to me, regardless of what gets killed.

Wishing you guys good luck. Can’t think of anything to add and hope it helps.
Just go with the intent of having a good time and enjoy the ranch.

You’ll come back with memories to cherish and hopefully some bone to boot.

I'll post a pic if I can figure out how....

Great Story! Felt like i was there... would love to see some pics from the hunt

[Huntindad]

the youth blinds are approx 4' x 5'. No roof with expanded metal floors. Cut ya a piece of carpet. The floor is noisy.

some are higher than others. I hear putting the corn in a zig zag pattern works well.

Watch out for snakes. Good luck. We'll be out there Thanksgiving weekend.

[Huntindad]

Congrats Lethal.
You and you’re kids are gonna have a blast.
They do have blinds but I highly suggest not using them, and opting for a pop-up instead. See details below:

My son got drawn for the 2011-2012 Youth only season. Hunt took place Dec 27-31 a week and a half after his 14th birthday. He wound up killing a 6 ½ year old 143 10pt on the first evening.

To my knowledge it wound up the biggest killed on the Chap that year. The memories of my son bagging that buck on the Chap are worth more than all the money in the world to me.

I actually had gotten drawn in 1996, but didn’t get to go because my oldest son passed away, so getting to finally go with my other son held special meaning to me.

I got lucky this year too, and was finally drawn again for the Adult gun deer either sex for Dec 16 - 20 so now it’s my turn.


Here’s how our hunt worked:
CHAPARRAL WMA Personnel: They go all out and do a bang up job of making sure every kid there has a good chance of success. I can’t praise them enough.

PASTURE SELECTION: They only hunted the East side of the ranch on one Youth hunt then the West side on the 2nd one, so all the advice about which pasture was best had to be thrown out the window.

BAIT: You are allowed to use corn and they pre-bait existing blinds for the YOUTH a few days prior to the hunts. You can dump your own after that.
Advice: there’s hogs and Javelina so don’t dump a big pile or you’re wasting it. It won’t be there overnight. We spread it in small then trails perpendicular across the Senderos so it forces them to be broadside for long periods of time. Kids waiting patiently for a good buck to turn broadside is not a good plan. Only 10-15 lbs at a time is enough to keep deer in front of you for an entire hunt if you spread it around in thin trails like that.

BLINDS: In answer to your question, YES, they have them. They are 4-walled open-roofed boxes. Some have walls of plyboard, some with burlap, about 12 feet high. With NO ROOF, little heads are bee-bopping up and down in them during the YOUTH hunts. Most of the other hunters used them, but we figured the older deer were probably wise to them so we opted to use our pop up. There were deer killed out of the blinds, but no big bucks seen within range of them so…..just saying…..

SCOUTING: We drove the Senderos very quickly and quietly looking for scrapes and trails.
Found 2 likely spots and set a camera up on one to keep an eye on it while we set up to hunt the other one. The 2nd one looked better. Had a good draw crossing a Sendero that had 2 fresh scrapes, so we dumped our corn, then headed downwind of that and chose a good vantage point, dropped off blind and gear, parked the truck then walked back in.

We picked a spot blind that had not been pre-baited, our corn got great action right off the bat by does and a spike. The big boy had rubbed and scraped about 400 yards away, crossed the sendero then crossed back to where he came from around 4:30. The other deer left and he came out on the other scrape and found our corn trails about 10 minutes before dark. S Texas deer will find your corn.


POP UP: Key is to give up seeing downwind and place it against natural cover on that side then brush it up completely. And I do mean COMPLETELY!!

Even though we had a nice little Father-son-head butting session about who was in charge when he decided that a couple of sticks was “good enough” when deer were already crossing our Sendero at 2:30 and I wanted to keep brushing it ‘till it looked like South Texas. You gotta win that argument I believe, because I think the older bucks are used to pop ups too…just my 2 cents but he did admit it was worth it, and thanked me later that night shaking hands over his buck.

HARVEST: They allow the Youth to shoot anything they choose, but encourage them to pass young bucks. My son has killed a few nice bucks so he was willing to go home with tag stew if he had to. Not all the dads felt that way though as some small bucks did get shot.

Overall, I believe every kid shot something when you take in account they get to shoot does, bucks, Javelina, hogs and coyotes. I’m pretty sure at least one of all the above got shot before the hunt was over. There won’t be lack of action that’s for sure.

My advice is having your kids shoot a lot at long distances to stretch out their odds. My son connected at 215 yards, with one shot right through both lungs (.270 short mag). I know it sounds far for 14 year old, but believe me he and gun used are plenty capable. Fortunately he’s MUCH more calm about things than his dad, and certainly most kids, so that helps too. He’s about to turn 16 and is now out shooting me with my own handguns too

He’s a very laid back kid and has always been real good about deciding what he wants and passing smaller bucks. He had said he wants to make TBGA (140) and he does NOT want to settle for a young buck. He would realistically settle for a consolation prize of a 110 8-pt if he had to, but would be willing to have tag stew if he had to. He just didn’t want a pencil horn young buck from the Chap.


OUR HUNT:
The one thing he had going for him was that I was using 20 power elk binoculars, and he had his scope dialed down to 6, so he had no idea how big the buck really was, even when he crossed earlier in daylight at 400 yards. He said that through the scope he was pretty sure he was looking at decent 110 – 120 8-pointer. Probably 3 ½ years old, maybe 4 ½ .

I was actually VERY rattled when I saw his big barrel chest and good mass, and thought it came through an over excited shaky voice. But he told me later on I did a good job of downplaying the buck.
I don’t really recall it that well but he said I just calmly said “we’re gonna want to go ahead and take this one, so get ready.”

I really thought he could hear my heart pounding out of my chest.

He asked me if I was sure, and I just replied “yeah he’s our buck … nice and easy now…. take your time…he’s not going anywhere…he likes that corn.”

Fortunately he just trusted me on making the call, because I knew he didn’t want to settle for a 110 on the first hunt, but that’s what he thought we were doing…bird in the hand..

I was very proud of the way he calmly took the shot, especially at 215 yards at last legal light, but that was NOT my favorite moment of the hunt…not even close…

I about came out my skin at the shot because he caught me off guard…I was in the middle of starting to say “just squeeeeze the….” and BOOM!!! I startled at the shot and my binoculars shook so I didn’t get a good witness on the bucks reaction. He just came out the scope and said, “Dad that shot was PERFECT, I surprise broke it with the cross hairs dead steady on shoulder…that buck is DEAD”

I wanted to wait to go look for blood but he was just too antsy…I took my time "finding" our flashlights in the backpack but I finally just trusted his “shot” and off we went.

By far and above everything my FAVORITE moment was finding the buck about 15 yards in brush and trying to keep up with him as he ran up to it, then seeing him stop short and step back grabbing the sides of his head saying , “Oh my GOSH Dad…this thing is HUGE….oh my GOSH…I had no idea he was….oh my GOSH….he’s got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,….oh my GOSH DAD…he’s a TEN!!!! …a TEN!!!....he’s HUGE….I had NO idea.”…then I hugged him!!! Then I told him to grab some bone.

Seriously….by far the absolute best memory of my hunting life.

No matter what I wind up doing myself this year, I won’t be able to ever top that memory.


Sorry to bore you with too many details, I just can’t talk about the Chap without getting all excited and choked up both because of the memories of both my boys.
It’s a real special place to me, regardless of what gets killed.

Wishing you guys good luck. Can’t think of anything to add and hope it helps.
Just go with the intent of having a good time and enjoy the ranch.

You’ll come back with memories to cherish and hopefully some bone to boot.

I'll post a pic if I can figure out how....

Very good write up. Congrats on the buck and the memories.