Shot a stud at last light....Pics in OP

Louisiana blood trailing network
Call one of them

maybe quit taking iffy shots and this may not happen?

Long white hair and no blood means you made a really bad shot and deer is most likely fine.

Pile of hair is never a good sign and would indicate just grazing it. That being said maybe you got into enough gut that the deer would go lay down and die without being pushed!?!
I would definitely go look again during daylight just to confirm. 40 yards is not very far on a bad hit.

I agree you probably just grazed him but its worth bringing a dog in to help, I hunt near you and have a good dog but I won’t be back until next week.

I would go with your gut. Did you feel like you hit him good? I know you said you felt like you rushed your shot but a stud up there is probably 200lb so there’s a lot of room for error. White fur could also be a neck shot and he’s laying dead somewhere. It could also be from an exit wound forward. 40 yards isn’t very far not to find blood. I’ve had no blood for 40+ yards before.

Also how did the deer react when you shot? What direction did he run?

All that being said you probably grazed the belly and he’s fine but it so hard to kill a stud its worth all the effort to find out.

Either grazed the deer or gut shot one of the two

Gut shot is the easiest track for a dog to find. If your dog gave up its likely because the deer wasn't hit and you gave it a haircut. You don't train a dog to find wounded deer. It's in their DNA.

There can be 10 deer in a pile and you shoot one. They all run in different directions. You take a dog to the area where the deer were and he automatically knows which deer was hit.

In a dog's point of view using his nose, he sees 9 trails that are white. The hit deer will leave a red trail that he will go after. I've never trained my dog on blood and I told him to find both my deer. He did it with no problems. Your dog found deer before. If it was hit your dog would have found it dead or jumped it.

Good luck baw hope you find him

quote:

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I was originally thinking I just grazed the belly and the deer is fine, but I keep second guessing myself on that.

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Your gut instinct is usually right. I understand you rushed the shot, but WHERE were the croshairs when the shot went off??

At 65 yards and shooting a 7 Mag, I'd expect even a brisket shot to produce blood. You prolly got a gut shot. Even then, the deer is probably layed up somewhere nearby, either dying or dead, especially having been shot 14 hours ago. For future reference, I'd suggest looking more than 40 yards. Use a powerful headlight and make a semicircular search pattern. In addition to blood, look for saplings knocked over, broken limbs, torn up earth and body fluids other than blood.