With the first one I waited about 15-20min before I climbed out of my tree and retrieved the arrow, and another hour or so before I started tracking. I would have waited longer but I could see the rain clouds building in the west and I knew I didn't have much time.

The one this afternoon I waited about an hour because I thought it was lunged. I started searching right before the sun went down and searched until the battery in my flashlight started going dead. I would have waited longer but there is rain forcast for tomorrow (I really pick great times to wound deer, huh?) and I wanted to at least find a starting point of the trail to determine where the deer was headed after it jumped that fence and got out of my sight.

I left my stand up (I almost just tore it down right then and there because I was so upset, but decided that I didn't want to hump my stand and my bow back to the truck after dark), so I might hunt tomorrow morning and then search for this deer at midday. I have two doe tags, so if I were to finally make a good shot and take a deer tomorrow, I'll still have a tag to tag this afternoon's deer if I find it.

I've never hunted down there, but I have hunted the Iowa River/Coralville Lake area and seen a lot of nice deer out there. I was hunting in Kent Park today because I have two special management antlerless tags for the park and there are a lot of deer out there. I saw a total of 17 deer today incliuding the one I shot. (9 mature does, 6 yearling fawns, a fork and a small 6 pointer with a really screwed up rack).

I really hope my luck turns around tomorrow, because I love hunting with the bow.

Mike