“KC,” 9, starts Moss crew on streak with 9-point, 200-lb. buck
Published 1:45 pm Tuesday, January 7, 2025
- Kathleen "KC" Moss enjoys a hunter's most rewarding moment soon after killing a 9-point, 200-pound buck Nov. 24, 2024, while hunting in Fayette County, Mississippi. The impressive buck was her first kill ever and it came on a late afternoon hunt with her father, Brandon Moss. Brandon Moss and his wife, Kathryn Moss, enjoyed Thanksgiving week to the max with their family because two of their other youngsters harvested their first deer the next two days as Drake Moss got a spike Nov. 25 and Camryn Henry dropped a doe Nov. 26. SUBMITTED
Hunting history for a 9-year-old girl was about to be made the moment her father, Brandon Moss, saw a large-bodied buck with a nice set of horns walking down a hill Nov. 24 in the hardwood forestland of western Mississippi.
The 37-year-old Delcambre outdoorsman who was born and raised in New Iberia hadn’t seen that deer on a trail cam during daylight hours since September. But there it was shortly after 5 p.m. the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day.
Moss wasn’t hunting, per se, that afternoon in the box stand on the 600-acre lease near Fayette, Mississippi, he owns with his sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Hunter Romero. He was with his daughter, Kathleen “KC” Moss, for the holiday week getaway with his wife, Kathryn “KC” Moss, and the rest of their family.
Kathleen Moss, 9, holds a horn of a 9-point, 200-pound buck that was her first deer kill ever. She was hunting late in the afternoon of Nov. 24 with her father, Brandon Moss, in a box blind in western Mississippi. A family celebration continued over the next two days as Drake Moss, 7, shot a spike the next day and Camryn Henry, 8, got a large-bodied doe the following day.
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“I said, ‘Hurry. Do you want him?’ She said, ‘Yessir!’ he said about the exciting sequence of events leading up to the young huntress’ first-ever deer kill. And, he admitted later, he never has been more nervous on a hunt than that one.
Kathleen shouldered the 7mm-.08-caliber youth rifle he bought for her to share with Drake Moss, 8, Camryn Henry, 8, and, someday soon, 4-year-old Cullen Henry. She took aim, breathed in deeply, held her breath and squeezed the trigger.
The shot smacked “dead into the front shoulder,” according to Moss.
“He took off running down the hill, ran 10 yards, then dumped. I could see his belly on the ground,” he said. “She was excited and Camryn was excited and both were shouting and they asked me why I couldn’t stop shaking.”
Moss, general manager of Service Communications of Acadiana Inc., the girls, and the freshly killed buck all arrived at the camp. Hunter and huntresses were in a triumphant mood while Kathleen proudly wore the blood on her cheeks, a hunting ritual dating back to the 700s AD.
Hunting history, however, was far from being made. While they cleaned the deer and made other preparations for hunting before Thanksgiving Day, Moss was hopeful the other two of the three oldest children could harvest their first deer.
Seven-year-old Drake Moss smiles from ear-to-ear soon after shooting a spike buck, his first-ever deer, Nov. 25, 2024, on a hunt near Fayette, Mississippi. Moss was hunting with his father, Brandon Moss, and other family members during Thanksgiving Week. A day earlier, his sister, Kathleen Moss, harvested her first-ever deer, a 9-point buck, and on the following day Camryn Henry downed a big doe.
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Next up was Drake, who was 7 at the time. The next morning he shot and killed a spike buck from a different box stand on the property.
The little buck walked out with a baby and they waited for the yearling to clear out of the way for a good shot with the 7mm-.08-caliber youth rifle. It dropped on its front legs immediately, got up and “ran about 20 yards and dumped in the woods,” the boy’s dad said.
“Oh, we were high-fiving and hugging. He was excited,” he said.
“Bubbie is on the board with his first deer! This is so much more fun than killing them myself! Great shot Bubbie. First of many,” Moss wrote on his Facebook page.
The Moss family had a streak going. Could Camryn make it three first-ever deer kills in as many days on Nov. 26, two days before the big holiday?
Camryn Henry, 8, and Brandon Moss smile broadly while posing with her first-ever deer, a large doe, that she killed Nov. 26, 2024. Camryn and the rest of the Moss family were hunting on a 600-acre lease near Fayette, Mississippi.
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On her first-ever participation hunt, the 8-year-old girl shot a big doe standing about 20 yards away while inside a different box stand with Moss. Her aim was true with the 7mm-.08-caliber youth rifle.
The trifecta was complete.
Kathryn Moss smiles proudly while she holds the head of a doe she killed Dec. 21, 2024, while hunting with her husband, Brandon Moss, and the rest of their family on a lease in western Mississippi. It was her first-ever deer.
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“Everybody was excited. My wife wanted to go get her first one, so we went in December,” he said, noting Kathryn killed a doe on Dec. 21.
“Yeah. This is the best season for them, for sure. Yeah, it was unbelievable,” Moss said, proudly. “We all hunt and fish. Oh, yeah. The whole family.”
Brandon and Kathryn Moss got married Feb. 24, 2024, bringing two families together. Theirs is a smaller, outdoors lovin’ version of The Brady Bunch, a popular family television series from 1969 to 1973.
This happy hunting scene is the beginning of an awesome family affair during Thanksgiving Week. Kathleen Moss, second from left, holds the horns of a 9-point, 200-pound deer she dropped with one shot Nov. 24, the Sunday before Thanksgiving 2024. From left to right, front row, in the Moss family are Cullen Henry, “KC” Moss, Drake Moss and Camryn Henry. Their parents are Brandon Moss, upper left, and Kathryn Moss.
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The two boys and two girls love to hunt and fish as much as possible, which means they are either at the camp in western Mississippi when the time is right or on the water in and around Vermilion Bay.
The three oldest children also play baseball, softball and volleyball. They attend Delcambre Elementary School, where Kathleen is in the 4th grade; Camryn’s in the 3rd grade, Drake’s in the 2nd grade and Cullen’s in PreK.
Moss, who graduated from New Iberia Senior High, where he was a standout baseball player, didn’t kill his first deer until he was about 20, he said, noting his dad, Jason Moss, hunted ducks mostly and occasionally went after deer.
“I got into it with my friends and stuff,” he said.
With her cheeks streaked with blood, 9-year-old Kathleen “KC” Moss stands proudly next to the 9-point deer she killed Nov. 24 while hunting with her father, Brandon Moss on a 600-acre lease in western Mississippi he shares with his sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Hunter Romero. “Blooding” is a storied post-kill ritual dating back to the 700s AD and the days of St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunters.
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Moss plans to get a head and shoulder mount of Kathleen’s first deer. The rack had a 17-inch inside spread.
And she faces a possible dilemma, an enviable one, in the future. Her first deer was a big buck, a bragging-size animal any deer hunter covets.
“I don’t know what I’ll do with her now or what she’ll do. I don’t know if she’ll want to shoot a doe or a smaller buck,” he said.
He wondered how she and the others would handle the 7mm-.08-caliber youth rifle. He had them train and practice with a .22-caliber rifle because he didn’t want the youth rifle’s kick to scare them, a tip he had heard from others.
“They didn’t even notice,” he said.
It’ll be there on future hunts for all. More memorable moments, more hunting history in the making.
Drake Moss, 7, gives a hearty “thumbs up” while riding with a spike buck Nov. 25. Moss shot the deer, his first-ever, while hunting with Brandon Moss at the family’s lease in Fayette County, Mississippi.
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In a time-honored tradition, Brandon Moss swipes the blood from a freshly killed deer on the cheek of Camryn Henry. Camryn shot the big doe on Nov. 26, 2024, while hunting with her family in Mississippi. Her harvest was her first kill, a day after Drake Moss downed his first-ever deer and two days after Kathleen Moss started the streak with a 9-point buck, her first deer kill ever.
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