The stag walked slowly along the game trail. The night before had been busy.  He held a prime slice of Kaimanawa territory and had done so for the last 4 years.  He was a big stag with 8 points including 4 long deadly tops. The skin on his head and neck was thick and scarred, topped off with a long shaggy mane. He looked intimidating and had had the size and weapons to deal with any stags that dared enter his territory.
As well as young upstarts, the stag had to contend with 2 legs. This time of year he sometimes encountered one or two a day. They were noisy though, and smelly so usually he could avoid them. On a number of occasions however they had got close enough to bring the thunder.
Hinds had been hard to find since he came back from his summer ground, but he had managed to find a few of them over the last few weeks. He enjoyed this time of year, taking on challengers and seeking out receptive hinds.
He was getting on though, getting a bit slow. Last night a six pointer had somehow managed to sneak up on him and sniff around his hind. He managed to get rid of him eventually, but he had been too busy to eat or rest. He was starting to feel tired.
As he walked, he heard a noise, and the faintest hint of danger. Left or right? He went left, it was the biggest mistake of his life. Suddenly he walked into an unseen tree followed by a huge thunderclap. He turned to run but his strong legs didn’t want to move. He managed 10 quick bounds,  leapt a fallen log and fell dead on the other side.
It was a somewhat a sad end for such a beautiful beast, but all that lives must at some point die. His meat would put food on the hunter's table for the coming months and his head would hang with pride on the hunter's wall. A reminder of when he reigned supreme.

A diffrent style of story & to good effect, good looking stag too!

the way you have written that gives me both an admiration and sadness to the animal taken, well done on a stunning stag in all respects.

Nicely written, well done mate.

What an awesome read....... great stag.

DGA7 wrote on Apr 30^th, 2013 at 3:05am:


I couldn't have put the feeling into words better!
Well executed hunt and write up Meathunter72  .

Yeah got his jaw. Will be interesting to find out.

Cheers for the feedback guys

chur.

really good write up... puts personality to the stag.... very cool!