My experience in the Cross Timbers region is peak is 2nd-3rd week of November.

Here is a story about the rut in Eastland this year.
This is a very long story, but I'm going to make it short. My wife and I have been hunting for the last 3 days south of Eastland. Only seen 1 doe and a 4 pt and 6 pt. We hunt together in the same stand. At 8:30 this morning she said, "I can't hold it any longer. I have to potty." She climbed down but said, give me those horns, I'm going to try to rattle." She has never done that before. She potted right under our stand, and I thought, "good grief, you have got to be kidding me, this hunt is over for sure." She started hitting the horns together. With-in 30 seconds, I saw a buck running at full speed across a field about 300 yards away. It headed straight for her and stopped about 10 yards away. But she was looking the other way and did not see the buck and because of the trees I could not get a shot. She stood up and started climbing back up the ladder to the stand when I leaned out and said, "sit back down and hit them again." The buck had circled to get down wind of her but when she hit the horns again, it stepped out at about 60 yards. The rest is history as they say. But I have to say, what a great memory we will have together for the rest of our lives. It was the biggest buck that we have seen on our place. As I have said on here many times before, I love my wife. A little more after today!!!!!!!!!