Monster Trophies

One of the world’s largest deer, the red stag, was imported into New Zealand from Scotland more than a century ago and has since flourished. Now they are popular game for North American hunters. Freeland hunters Stan Wilczek and Pete Petrushka describe their New Zealand shoot in a story for the Standard Speaker. From a lodge on a mammoth ranch in the Whanganui River Valley, the pair departed early each morning looking for the huge antlers of a dominant stag. Their prize was a “monster” weighing 65 pounds with a rack of 438 inches. Wilczek and Petrushka donated the stags’ meat in New Zealand. The hides and antlers of both stags were treated in New Zealand and, after clearing customs, will arrive at a Pennsylvania taxidermist from whom Petrushka and Wilczek ordered full shoulder mounts of their trophies.