Dalton Garrett, of Joaquin, took this East Texas whitetail deer while hunting in Shelby County. Go to etxoutdoors.com to submit outdoors photos. Please include name, hometown, where the hunting, fishing or outdoor activity occurred and the date.

Opening weekend for “General Season” has passed and things are looking good.

Several “East Texas Ghost” success stories are filtering in. Some hunters do not wish to make public their hunting stories and others share it on social media.

One such trophy came in from Shelby County on Saturday morning. East Texas is steadily becoming a better place for larger bucks. The antler restrictions put in place a few years back has had a positive impact on our overall buck antler size. With the rut beginning soon, we should see more results indicative of an East Texas trophy buck.

Dalton Garrett, of Joaquin, took an absolute stud Saturday morning. The buck had not been scored at the time we spoke but it should be in the 170 inch range. The main frame 10 point was wide and had impressive mass throughout each main beam. Whitetail of a lifetime is a good way to describe this buck.

Again this is before or in the early stages of the rut so Garrett’s buck may have lost a few inches of antler during the vicious fights rutting bucks get into.

According to a Texas Parks & Wildlife study, fawn production in the northern section revealed that 90% of fawns were born by June 29. Considering the 200-day gestation period, this puts the peak breeding or rut date at Nov. 22 for the North. The Southern portion is a little earlier for its peak at Nov. 12.

Of course these values are for the “majority” of the deer in a region so not all bucks will be waiting until any date. Plus or minus a few days will still put a good value on actual rutting dates. Hunters often report seeing bucks chasing does prior to these dates and that is to be expected as some does will become receptive as early as the middle of October.

The study showed that the majority of breeding in the Pineywoods was done from Oct. 21 through Jan. 5. Again, this explains one hunter seeing rutting type activity earlier in the fall. A doe that does not breed in the main rutting period will come back into estrus (receptive to bucks) 28 days later. This explains the “second rut” theory held by some hunters.

Whitetail are resilient and prolific. The study revealed that 96% of does were bred by Jan. 5 and produce 1.7 fawns.

Go to the TP&WD website, search “The Rut in Whitetail Deer” and read the information. Do not forget that Nov. 6-21, antlerless by hunting license tag or MLDP tag and Nov. 22-Jan. 2, antlerless by MLDP only.

As always, get there early and stay late and remember the absolute best time to go deer hunting is any time you can.