re: Gut shot deer

You would smell a gut shot on the arrow easily.
Sounds like just tallow n fat with some hair meaning a hit above the guts , maybe even backstrap. I've hit one before in this area and it was fine. Saw him two days later carrying on as usual. He was killed two weeks after that chasing a doe so take that FWIW.
Also if it was right behind the lungs you would have gotten liver which will kill them but takes a bit longer. Not to mention a solid liver hit would have sprayed blood out the other side like a rifle hit.