My Breton Battlemage is now doing the Hircine quest. I'm now in the step where she will hunt for the White Stag. Unfortunately, when she found it at the unmarked clearing it ran away. I waited and waited and waited and searched all over the place in vain. She ended up waiting overnight in that place, when she woke up one morning she saw a stag at a distance and attacked it. Only to find out is wasn't the White Stag. Ugh! I hate killing innocent animals! So I had to quit the game in frustration. I'm sure most of you here have done this quest, but I'm on my wits end trying to locate that White Stag, could you please give me some advice on how to locate that stag, kill it without it having to flee, and get this scene over with? Can I use the clairvoyance skill on it? Thanks for your replies.

From http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ill_Met_By_Moonlight#Bugs:

It is possible for the White Stag to relocate to a location outside of the playable world, making it impossible for you to reach him and progress the quest.

I have on a couple of occasion's had the misfortune of missing with the first couple bow shot's and had to chase the stag down. It will run, it doesn't come back.

I would reload and try again.

Other then by chance spawning on a DLC plain... doesn't it respawn at another location? I mean this is a hunt we're talking about. Its not suppose to be easy. I remember when I played on the PS3 and did this quest, the ring got stuck on my finger and if I didn't accidently turn right there in Falkreath lol. Anyway long story short I found the stage as a werewolf and was unable to get close enough to kill it. It ran off and I'm sure I was able to kill it at another place with a bow later on. Memory is foggy though. This was back in 2011. And probably on an unpatched Skyrim so who knows whats been changed by now.