I found the "Great Beast" for the hircine quest fairly quickly to the east of town but didn't realize what it was and spooked it, now its trapped to the south west of town, according to the quest marker, in an area I don't seem able to reach. Has this occoured with anyone else?

I play on Xbox 260 version...

I have the exact same issue. I went to hunt Hircine, found him, but he ran off into the mountains to a place that is impossible to get to. Also, because of this I am now wearing that cursed ring that I cannot take off. So basically I can now never wear another ring that might actually be useful to me.

This bug is really REALLY upsetting me because of this.

Has anyone figured out a way to find the beast/Hircine when he's way up in the mountains?

I was able to find him by just following the quest locator, I had no idea what it was exactly until I was right on it. It was spooked and ran off so I first chased it, saw that it was running far ahead and went into a sneak crouch as I moved forward. It stopped and turned a few moments after it said I was hidden...so then I armed by elvish bow and thwak...got 'em. I have heard several though talk about it running up terrain you cant reach. Save many game save files and save often my friends! Good luck.

The 'reload the game from the previous save' doesn't work, because I left this quest alone thinking I'd come back to it. Now I'm 10 levels higher, came back to see if Hircine would be reachable, but he's still bugged, stuck somewhere way up in the mountains that I can't reach.

If you fast travel to somewhere else, wait a few hours and come back to that area does he come back down? I would think he would be like others, hard to climb but easy to descend. Maybe give him a bit to calm down and he'll return? Dunno...

WHAT!!!!!
An Xbox 260???
Where can i get one of those?
-trollface-

I sent in an official support ticket with this quest issue, but so far no luck. The reply I got back was explaining about an entirely unrelated bug to the one that I sent in....frustrating.

I encourage anyone else having this problem to submit an official support ticket with Bethesda about this quest bug or it may never get fixed. I don't want to play the entire game with this useless ring stuck on my character preventing me from wearing anything useful. Plus, this quest isn't possible to complete.

I finished this quest without any problems...