Catching Up w/ an Old Buddy, Steven Dauster

In this engaging conversation, Chris and Steven Dauster reconnect after losing touch through the years, sharing their journeys into hunting and the experiences that shaped their passion for the outdoors. They discuss the thrill of the hunt, the importance of preparation, and the joy of family traditions in hunting. The conversation highlights the connection to nature that hunting fosters and the lessons learned through trial and error in the field. As they reminisce about their past and look forward to the future, they emphasize the significance of passing down hunting traditions to the next generation. In this conversation, Chris Romano and Steven Dauster delve into various aspects of hunting, including the ethics of baiting, the importance of finding the right outfitter, and personal hunting experiences. They discuss the nuances of high fence hunting and share personal stories that highlight the emotional connections and lessons learned throughout their hunting journeys. In this conversation, Chris Romano and Steven Dauster delve into various aspects of hunting, including personal experiences, tracking techniques, the importance of conservation, and the dynamics of the hunting community. They share insights on selective hunting, the significance of recording hunts, and the joy of being in nature. The discussion also touches on practical advice for new hunters and the culinary delights of venison, culminating in a rich exploration of the hunting lifestyle.

Takeaways:

• -Hunting can reconnect old friends and create lasting bonds.
• -The thrill of the hunt often comes from the experience, not just the harvest.
• -Nature provides a unique connection that many people miss in modern life.
• -Learning to hunt can be a challenging but rewarding journey.
• -Preparation and practice are key to successful hunting.
• -Family traditions in hunting can create cherished memories.
• -The process of hunting can be more enjoyable than the actual harvest.
• -Mistakes in hunting can lead to valuable lessons for future success.
• -Teaching the next generation about hunting fosters appreciation for nature.
• -Every hunting experience contributes to personal growth and understanding. 
• -Baiting can provide a more ethical shot but doesn't guarantee success.
• -Hunting is about the experience, not just the kill.
• -Finding a good outfitter can enhance your hunting knowledge.
• -High fence hunting has its pros and cons, but it's about the experience.
• -Personal connections in hunting can lead to lifelong friendships.
• -Every hunting experience teaches valuable lessons.
• -The thrill of the hunt is often tied to personal stories.
• -Ethics in hunting can vary based on personal beliefs.
• -Hunting can be a family tradition that creates lasting memories.
• -Mistakes in hunting can lead to significant emotional impacts. 
• -Nobody's perfect in hunting; it's a reality check.
• -Tracking deer requires patience and knowledge.
• -Recording hunts can provide valuable insights.
• -Selective hunting helps manage deer populations.
• -Conservation is about leaving a legacy for future generations.
• -The hunting community faces challenges of division.
• -New hunters should learn to read maps and practice shooting.
• -Turkey hunting offers a different kind of excitement than deer hunting.
• -Venison can be prepared in delicious and creative ways.
• -Hunting is as much about the experience as it is about the kill.

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Chris Romano (00:01.914)

Is she talking? I could edit all this later.

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Steven Dauster (00:05.186)

Well, there's probably going be a little bit of background noise because she just got home with a small child. But they'll be mostly in the kitchen in the other room.

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Cheers.

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Chris Romano (00:14.532)

Sounds of the podcast.

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Chris Romano (00:19.958)

What is going on guys? Thanks for joining us here for another episode of the Wing and Tail Boys. Today is actually a really exciting episode for me because a good friend of mine from back in the day grew up together, played sports together on the same teams, went to the same school. We've lost touch for like the last 12 years, give or take. And ironically, hunting kind of brought us back together. We've we've touched base again in these last few years. And I'm joined here today by Stephen Doster. How are doing today, man?

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Steven Dauster (00:46.934)

I'm doing friggin awesome Chris, it's good to talk to you again man, I mean I know we've been talking a bunch the past couple of weeks but it's good to see your face.

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Chris Romano (00:55.123)

Yeah, same here. I mean, we signed on it. It's amazing because like, you you see yourself in the mirror every day. So you don't realize how much you change, right? You know, like, I'm sure I've got, you know, I've gotten a little chunky in the face since I was younger. And, you know, you popped on, you just got this big, you know, monopoly, monopoly man mustache coming out. I was like, yo, I needed this right now. It's like the energy we need.

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Steven Dauster (01:09.432)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (01:14.306)

And people don't look at the fat cheeks, they're more focused on the mustache.

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Chris Romano (01:18.126)

There you go. Hey, listen, whatever it takes, right? As long as you're not breaking mirrors, we're all happy.

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Steven Dauster (01:23.95)

The wife won't shave it off, so we're good.

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Chris Romano (01:26.732)

Okay, listen, happy wife, happy life, right? So what I'm looking to do today is I'm interested in hearing what you've been up to for the last 12 years. We've been talking a lot about current stuff. What are we shooting? What bows are we shooting? What's our arrow set up like? But I really haven't, I don't know much about your hunting journey along the way, right? If I'm not mistaken, when we first started hunting together, we were in our early 20s.

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Steven Dauster (01:29.272)

Yeah?

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Chris Romano (01:55.13)

and you had just started hunting. But it's my understanding that you didn't grow up in a hunting family. So if you don't mind, just tell the listeners a little bit about who you are, where you're from, how you got into hunting, a little bit of your background, and we'll let it roll from there.

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Steven Dauster (02:10.508)

Yeah, so I grew up in Farallon just like Chris. We played baseball together. I think I'm only like what, two years older than you, something like that. And I grew up in the outdoors. My family was big in the camp and my father was really into freshwater fishing and whatnot. But I mean, I always kind of wanted to hunt, but never really knew even where get started. And I have now in true redneck fashion, I have a now removed uncle.

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from Georgia who was a firearms instructor actually from the CIA and he had some family land through multiple generations something like that and just gave me his, Stephen, you like fishing so much why don't you come out PA and catch some deer with me. All right, I went out there and whiffed on a doe at 10 yards with a 30-30 and it just became my obsession since then and

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I got back, to work. Remember two guys on Morlock Pizzeria? I worked there for, even after I got into the union and whatnot, I still worked there even a little after that. I'm real good friend of the owner. The barber next door lives out, moved from Fairland to PA so he could have acres and acres and food plots and obsessive hunting. I came back, told him that story. Next day he came in, he goes, here's my Hoyt from the 80s. It's an ancient bow.

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Chris Romano (03:12.442)

yeah, yeah.

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Steven Dauster (03:36.418)

But son, if you live in New Jersey, you're not gonna rifle hunt. And maybe you can shotgun hunt, muzzleloader hunt, but he goes, your opportunities for bow hunting in this state are endless. If you like this bow, go buy a new one. Like, shoot it, go home, shoot this, make sure you like it. from there, just, my entire life, everyone I've met, everything I've just been about hunting, every connection I've made, just, it's all been through the woods.

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Chris Romano (04:04.858)

Okay, that's really cool. you know, it's... What's that?

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Steven Dauster (04:07.214)

I don't even know where start. I'm not even sure where to start from there.

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Chris Romano (04:12.472)

Where to be? Yeah, I mean, so your story is very similar to a lot of people. It's not uncommon that someone goes out, you know, firearm hunting for deer before they end up bow hunting. What's really interesting to me is that you got hooked on what many people would consider a failed hunt. A lot of people, if they go out and they, you know, they go out and they don't harvest an animal, to them, it's a failed hunt. But to you, that was like your first success. I'm interested in hearing about that.

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Like what was it about, even though you didn't have a quote successful hunt, what was it about that experience that really sparked it?

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Steven Dauster (04:47.202)

just everything about I always love spending just time outside so it just in that was just freaking cool and just the hair on the back of your hand standing up when you're 10 15 20 30 yards away from a live animal that you could turn the mistake and it's got no clue you're there it's just like it's it's a it's in our blood that's when your lizard brain your caveman brain comes out and it's like

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God damn, this is the coolest thing on the face of earth. This is part of being human. this is it. We become so disconnected from the real world in modern society. feel like a lot of people don't get that feeling of when you're looking over a giant lake, or you're cliff diving or something like that, you're really in the middle of nowhere and the only thing you hear is birds and crickets, or you're holding a stick and a string, or a firearm, whatever.

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and you're 10 yards away from an animal and it... That cave membrane just cooks and that's the coolest freaking thing on the face of the earth. And then I had like a vendetta. I'm like, hmm, I'm gonna say 10 yards. First of all, this is embarrassing. And second of all, this is the coolest damn thing on the face of the earth.

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Chris Romano (06:04.196)

Yeah, now had you shot that rifle before? Was that your rifle? Was that your uncle's rifle? Was it just... Okay.

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Steven Dauster (06:08.972)

My uncle's rifle, I shot it once or twice behind the house until we dirt mound before then. And I think another big thing that really got me into that was that weekend is we stayed in a cabin with friends. like my first hunting experience was a real Northeastern deer camp thing too. In like a hundred year old cabin with like, you know what I'm talking about, the fireplace, breakfast in the morning, the burnt coffee, just the...

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Chris Romano (06:33.562)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (06:37.558)

My first time hunting was the full, like, romance of, like, northeastern hunting.

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Chris Romano (06:45.21)

So you really got to experience like the epitome of let's get away from modern technology. Let's get away from the hustle and bustle. Camp out in the backwoods for a weekend. Just have the guys, maybe some gals, or I don't know. But just hanging out with the hunting buddies and getting out. That to me is an awesome experience. And I've been fortunate enough, my dad, a couple of years ago, my parents bought the family a hunting property.

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So we now have 130 acres in upstate New York that I'm managing and planting some food plots. We've talked about this a little bit, you know, but I get to experience that hunt camp cabin experience like all the time. And to a point where it's like sometimes it happens so often that it's starting to become an extension of home sometimes. And it's, you gotta remember that it's not, you you're there with the family, I'm there with my brother, my cousins or whoever's coming to hunt with us, but

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it's really hard to have the perspective of this is hunt camp and not just an extension of being home. You know, so now that you've brought that up, I think that's something that's important to maybe focus on and try to, you know, tame back in because having like us hunters, we get a bad rap, right? From the non, from the non-hunting public, they think we're barbaric and they may not agree with it. And everyone's entitled to their opinion. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to get confrontational here, but I would argue that it's the opposite of barbaric because

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Anyone who's in tune with hunting, they don't go in the woods to kill. They go in the woods to experience the wild. They go out, they wanna walk around. I love the fresh air. I tell this story, I've written, I've opened essays with this a hundred times. You walk out in the woods, it's pitch black. You're walking through the dark. Everything around you can see you and you can't see a damn thing. You climb up your tree. It's dead silent. You're making every, every,

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a possible move that you can make to not make a single sound. You're in the tree maybe an hour before it gets dark. And about 20 minutes before the sun comes up, you hear that first rustling of the leaves. Maybe the wind starts to pick up just a little bit. And as the audio starts to pick up in the woods, the sun starts to come up. And as the sun starts to come up, the woods just become alive. That.

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Steven Dauster (09:02.872)

That is the one of the coolest things on the face of earth is being there early enough to see the natural world come alive. And then your brain starts going, is this chess game right? Did I hang this down the right spot? Am I in the right blind? Am I in the right pocket? Is this the right draw? shoot, is the wind turn? Between that and the chess game that we play with these animals, I don't understand how people don't think it's not the coolest thing on the face of earth.

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Chris Romano (09:11.873)

Yes.

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Chris Romano (09:31.704)

Yeah, and back to what I was getting at was some people think it's barbaric. To me, I think we're actually taking a step back and just coming in tune with nature. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, sure. If I go out hunting 10 times in a row and I don't see anything and I get skunked, maybe I'll start to get a little discouraged. You know, it's been a tough year, whatever. I had that happen to me this year, but it's not gonna stop me from going. It's not like I'm mad at, it's not like if I go out hunting and I don't see anything, I leave the tree like pissed off that I wasted my time that day.

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Because the day I start feeling like that, I'm gonna stop hunting. You know what I mean? Like there's just no point, you know? So, anywho, when you started hunting, that was, I think you said you went to your uncle's and then the following season is when I found out that you were a hunter. And you were like, I'm hunting close by to home. And I was like, where? And you told me where it was. I was like, shit. And you're like, why don't you come with me? Okay, cool. So we had gone out, we sat like, at this time, I didn't know half of what I was doing half the time.

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You know what I mean? Like we just went out and we found deer and it was a great time. And we sat that one day and I saw deer off in the distance. I think you may have seen one or two deer that day. don't, I don't really remember. but then I went back, set up a stand, found some more deer. never ended up harvesting anything there, but, talk to me about what it was like for you those first couple years of getting into hunting. So you got, you got hooked. You're starting to hunt with a couple of buddies. You're starting to figure some stuff out, but.

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Like me growing up in a hunting family, it's always been part of our culture. I like by the time I was old enough to talk and think I knew what a deer was and I was talking to my uncle and he was teaching me stuff. You know what I mean? So like for you not growing up in that and really having an adult brain at that, by the point you started and having all of this different, content, all this information, all these different media to find this information.

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Steven Dauster (11:14.744)

Mm-hmm.

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Steven Dauster (11:21.516)

Allegedly.

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Chris Romano (11:31.022)

How did you sort through it? Did you find it difficult to learn stuff? Like talk to me about what that was like.

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Steven Dauster (11:34.796)

I really gotta say, between having it be the whole archery side, because with just how short our gun seasons are in Jersey, I didn't even bother with guns the first couple years. Not that I'm like anti-second memory or anything by any means. It's just, they were so short, I just figured, all well, let's focus on this whole archery thing, because that's, you know, it's an infinitely long season in Jersey, almost. So having to learn all of that, and then also the whole actually finding deer on the hunting side.

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Chris Romano (11:58.574)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (12:05.066)

It was such a cursing and such a bless being in today's day and age with social media and all that kind of stuff. I really were into like find some podcasts and influencers and stuff that like after a couple years I could find aren't BS and then some that are and that I'm gonna say that really hurt me at first because you know all the best shows all the big shows the dreary's the Waddell's all those kind of guys around the Midwest growing like

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8,000 acre food plot something or hunting like that and until I started finding some other content and start figuring some stuff out like what really wasn't even seeing deer and it was just the There's a term I always heard called like working the ladder Shoot a couple does shoot everything you see if for a couple years get used to just killing something shoot an arrow at him shoot a couple spikes shoot a couple baskets and Okay, now you're looking for a real mature deer

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now you're not even shooting does. Like that was kind of just the method I took to it. with, especially because even the friends I had that hunted, it was only like two guys and they had their family farms in PA. So I got to talk them all the time. I never actually hunted with anyone until, this would get into later until I became real good friends with an outfit. It really took me under his wing and I'll like everything I know in the woods to him. But it was, it was,

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Really just me going out there alone for many years sitting in a tree stand not seeing a damn thing

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Chris Romano (13:41.442)

Yeah. Now was it... When you were... So I always say that you have to fail in order to find success, right? If you don't know what not to do, you don't really ever figure out what to do. We all have that friend who went out hunting for the first time and shot a monster. Everyone knows that one person, right? Beginner's luck. Some may call it. Maybe they're fortunate. Maybe they know what they're doing. Who knows, right?

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But I have quite a few friends that have gone out first time or two, they got lucky, they shot some pretty big deer. They don't have it in them to go out and find the deer anymore. Because they think that they could just go out and sit down and at some point they're gonna come by. And honestly, they might not be wrong. You know what I mean? But like, at what point did you say, I'm tired of throwing shit against the wall and hoping it sticks. I wanna start figuring out how to actually do this. Was it like your second year, third year?

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Steven Dauster (14:26.062)

Thank

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Steven Dauster (14:33.454)

It was probably only my second year I Tried everything there was never a lack of motivation. I don't know what it was just even without any success from Day one. I'm just like this is the coolest thing in the world. This is what I'm going to do with my free time as an adult I Can't tell you how many thousands of dollars I spent on every gimmick. Hi, every every gimmick every different call every

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I've killed them from the ground, from a blind, a tree stand, stalking, rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, bows. I have just tried everything and not being someone who's rubbing it, not being someone who's especially smart, I'm going to outwork everyone else. I'm going to try everything and when it works, I'm going do it again. And I write everything down, I document everything. I'm really a big nerd about it. I have spreadsheets on spreadsheets.

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of wind directions, what I was doing, I'm going to figure it out. I don't have great land, I'm not the world's best shot, but I shoot my bow almost every single day because I don't trust myself to not shoot it for a week and then pick it up and be off. And I would be distraught if Mr. 180 walked by and I flew one over his back or got wounded and didn't kill him. So it's just like how I approach everything else in life.

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If I work harder, it's gonna figure itself out. But if it doesn't, at I can sleep at night.

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Chris Romano (16:09.114)

I like that approach. That's sweet. I got a story to tell you because I'm just like you. I love to shoot. And when I'm in New York, I have a target in our basement. And before I go out in the morning, I take a couple shots just to get my form down and to make sure that my shots breaking right. Well, this year in Pennsylvania, I moved out here. I don't have the ability to do that. I don't have a basement. I'm not technically allowed to shoot outside without being in an HOA. Yeah.

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And being that I work in a school, the only thing I can do is bring my bow with me if I want to go hunting after work, right? The problem is where we are in the school, we're at the top of the mountain, the parking lot is open and the sun is hitting my truck all day long. So I'd bring my bow with me to work. I'd put it in the bed of my truck and I had like a cutoff. Like if it's above 70, 75 degrees for the high, I'm not bringing my bow with me. I've had the heat in a bow, like I've had a bow pop on me from the heat and I'm never going to let that happen again.

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Steven Dauster (17:01.922)

Yes.

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Chris Romano (17:09.114)

But, so it would get hot-ish, like in the bed of my truck. It wasn't like scorching. And then I'd go and I'd hunt and it'd be cooler in the afternoon. I never thought anything of it. Went hunting a bunch of times in Pennsylvania. Never got a chance at a shop. And then early November, I was hunting on our family property. I had a doe come in, I drew back and I have, not to get in depth of the site, but I have the Garmin site, like the range finding site and everything. it had.

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Steven Dauster (17:09.176)

there.

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Steven Dauster (17:33.857)

the exponent or whatever was.

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Chris Romano (17:35.842)

Yeah, the Zero AX A1i Pro or some shit, whatever. Doesn't matter. Anyway, inside the scope of the site, it has a thing where it's got a dot and a circle. Have you ever heard of the IQ site? Okay, so it's similar to the IQ site, except the IQ is like a bubble and a dot. This is both digital. So there's a ring and a red dot, and you have to get the red dot inside the ring. That's how you know your bow's lined up.

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Steven Dauster (17:52.908)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (18:05.614)

Well, I hadn't shot my bow for a month and I hadn't gone that long not shooting in over two years. When I went to go draw, my bow wasn't in alignment. And I was like, well, she's at 10 yards, I'm taking the shot. And it missed six inches low. I hit her, I had blood, I tracked her for a few hundred yards, but I just never could recover her. When I went back to my cabin that day and I shot, I was missing six inches low at 20 yards.

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And from the heat of the bow, heating, from the heat and the cooling, the heating and the cooling, the expanding and contracting and the different metals expanding and contracting at different rates, it just bumped my sight out of alignment. And if I had taken a shot before I went hunting that day, like I normally do, I would have realized that and I could have adjusted it before I went in the tree. So it was a little bit of a heartbreak.

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Steven Dauster (18:58.606)

It's funny you mentioned temperatures like that because we just moved into this house across town August right before deer season which broke my heart because our old house we had five acres like a bow hunt And I had freaking monsters. I had worked the tiny little food plot there for the two and a half years We lived there anyway, I could shoot in this garage So didn't even my I was leaving my bow in the garage, and then I noticed on colder days. It was creaky So I stopped keeping it in the garage

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Especially because you didn't tell me that full story, but you told me you had problems with the bow like delaminating or something like that and the heat. So like I didn't think about the cold and I'm like, crap. Chris told me this story the opposite way. I'm gonna go keep it in the case underneath the bed for the real cold of winter.

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Chris Romano (19:33.242)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (19:45.294)

Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is people don't like, you gotta think about it, right? Your bow has how many different metals? Your riser's aluminum, your limbs are fiberglass or carbon fiber, your cams are aluminum, your screws are all metal, different, they're not aluminum, they're steel. All, your site, what's your site made out of? A different type of aluminum, different grade aluminum? Every single type of metal is going to expand and contract at a different rate based on the temperature.

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something that's thicker metal is gonna expand and contract more than something that's thin, right? So all of these different things happening and it just bumps it out of alignment and I never thought of it until that happened. So it's one of those things where it's like, you don't realize that you need to take care of it until it happens. Similar, something happened to my dad this year. We had a target buck. I don't know if I ever sent you pictures of this guy, but we had a 10 pointer. He was just, I mean, we called them posts. This dude last year, if I saw him, I was gonna shoot him.

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and I'd never got a shot, he never came out of the brush. And when we saw him this year, we were like, oh my Lord, he is the biggest deer I've ever had on camera, hands down. I've never had a deer pattern like this. I could tell you what days he was gonna show up, what days he wasn't. I could tell you what wind he was coming in on, if it was too high or too low, too hot, too cold, too much sun, not enough sun, I could tell you to the day when he was gonna come. And he would never show up more than four days in a row. If he showed up four days, he was taking a day off, he'd be there on the sixth day.

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Opening day, I go hunting or opening weekend. think the season started on a Wednesday and I wanted to take off. My wife was like, you know, we have a baby on the way. Maybe you should think about what days you're taking off. I was like, all right, fine. I'll take Friday off so we can go as a family and we'll just stay Friday through Sunday. Wednesday, the deer shows up. Thursday, the deer shows up. That's day four in a row. So I'm like, you know what? Maybe he's going to slip up. I'll go sit there. Friday, I go and sit. I see a bunch of deer. I don't see him.

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Steven Dauster (21:30.424)

Bye.

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Chris Romano (21:40.462)

The next day, my dad goes and sits in the blind on that same food plot. I said, dad, he's coming today from 3.30 on be ready. He's coming four o'clock. get the call. I my dad. The deer comes in, surprised him out of nowhere. The deer comes in. My dad was shooting a crossbow. He couldn't handle the crossbow and the rangefinder at the same time. He estimated at 40 deer was at 50 went right under the belly. We never saw him again. We never saw him again.

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Steven Dauster (22:04.238)

You're more.

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Chris Romano (22:08.782)

So what did my dad do after that? He goes, why don't we have range markers out in the field? When you're hunting a food plot, there's nothing to range. know, like exactly. So what did he do the next weekend? He went out there and he hammered yardage markers into the ground. You know, so it's like, you don't like something, you don't realize you need to do something until you make a mistake and you're like, well, shit, why didn't I do that? And that.

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Steven Dauster (22:15.916)

There's nothing stopping you from putting T-Post up.

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Steven Dauster (22:30.67)

That's what sucks. That's what's awesome. Cause then, your dad can go home and go, hey listen, I fucked up. But there's a solution now. I'm not just gonna wallow in it. I did something about it. Lord knows there's a thousand different things that can go wrong next year, but that same thing won't happen cause he had an idea, and he executed, and all we can do is get better everyday.

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Chris Romano (22:53.782)

Exactly. And I always say like, I know I'm going to sound crazy for saying this. I actually think I enjoy the process more than the harvest. Because when you're going through the motions, whether it's a food plot, land management, scouting, putting up stands, whatever it is you're doing, you're always working towards a goal. And when you get that harvest, like you have that real quick spike in adrenaline. And then when it all settles, it's like, man, the chase is over. I got to start all over again.

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You know, but it's like, when you're in the process, there's always something to be done and you're always working towards it. You know what I mean? So it was really cool because we were just talking earlier about how some people would say, hey, I didn't get a harvest. It's a failed hunt. And earlier in the year, I was getting frustrated because I wasn't seeing deer. And my cousin was like, dude, what are you so upset about? He's like, you had your target buck in shooting range. You guys got a shot. That deer should be on your wall. That's success in itself.

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You know, and my dad didn't sit there and mope about it. know, he, honestly, he doesn't even talk about it anymore. I'd still be freaking dragging my feet over that. You know what I mean? But like, it was just really cool because we've had this property for four years. It's the biggest deal we've had. My dad was the one that got to see it and he's getting up there in age, man. My dad's like 67, 68 now, you know, so he's, you know, I hate to say it, but how many, how many hunting, how many more years is he going to be?

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able bodied to get out there and do what he's doing, you know? So the fact that he was the one who saw that deer, what was that?

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Steven Dauster (24:20.376)

you want to do in the first place.

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You want him to see the fruits of the labor of the land because you only had it four years? Your family? Exactly.

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Chris Romano (24:27.832)

Yeah, yep, yeah. So, you right now we're trying to get my dad on some deer and on the flip side, I have a seven-year-old niece, a two-year-old niece, a daughter on the way. So I'm thinking long-term, man. New York, can't hunt till you're 13 years old legally. So we have another, what, six years until my first niece is able to hunt if she wants to. She's showing interest in shooting the bow. So I have a seven-year timeframe that I'm looking at.

‍

Like, yeah, if I shoot a deer now, cool, whatever. But I'm looking, I'm more interested in getting to teach my nieces and my daughter and, you know, any other kids I may have how to hunt and what it's all about. And it's like.

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Steven Dauster (25:11.436)

That is going to be the coolest thing on the face of earth for you and your family. Having the whole little Romano deer camp. The second deer I ever shot with my bow, a coworker took me to his family deer camp. And he never takes outsiders there or anything like that. He's a volunteer fireman. He was the chief at the time. I'm volunteer fireman. And I was expressing my struggles on public land. Didn't have any friends who hunted, really. Didn't have anyone to go with.

‍

working with him for like two or three years and him just hearing me just trying and trying and trying. He was giving me tips. He's like, screw it. You're going to come kill one of my does. And he brought me up to his camp. I hung out with his family. We had the whole deer camp experience and I'm Shenango County, New York. I don't know if that's anywhere near. And it was, it was awesome. He's like, I'm not even shooting a doe this year. My brothers aren't shooting doe this year. I talked to my brothers. I talked to my dad, like.

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Chris Romano (25:57.306)

Sounds familiar, it sounds familiar, yep.

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Steven Dauster (26:09.806)

We're gonna get you something kid. I was thinking like 23 24th time and I literally sat in this stand for like 20 minutes and he was right dough 10 yards smoked it and um, it wasn't the first Dear I killed my bow. I think was a second was the first like good clean shot double long 10 20 yards with that real like I saw it dying like I text him it's down he goes Alright, well you got to sit there till lunch cuz I want to kill a buck So just sitting there

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Chris Romano (26:11.962)

That's awesome.

‍

Chris Romano (26:36.344)

Yeah, that's awesome.

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Steven Dauster (26:38.912)

excited shaken, but that's that's gonna be so freaking cool for your family that you have that kind of thing because like my kids I actually took my kids this year for the first time nothing were old enough to hug but they sat in the blind with me and bought them you know, little can with sweaters little can with bucket hats and they were so happy and was so freaking cool and my older wife But this year's Trogi is that picture I have with them in the blind with that and it's funny

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Chris Romano (27:00.154)

That's a trophy right there. That alone is the trophy.

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Chris Romano (27:05.732)

Mm-hmm.

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Steven Dauster (27:08.3)

My oldest, I don't think she's gonna have any interest in hunting, but this girl will come over, steal my back strap off my plate and eat the whole fricking thing. If I turn my head, she's like a dog. So, and my youngest, she's definitely going to be into it. All she does all day is play with a little toy rifle, shooting a little plastic buck. My buddy got her from Tracker Supply. She's definitely gonna be into it, but it's like, I don't have the deer camp family thing.

‍

But I'm seeing that my hunting lease is in town and like 10 minutes from my house. Granted it's a little five acre basically public lease that everyone trespasses on. It's a department spot. But I got get that little deer camp thing here. So I'll have like my family and friends over here. I'll go hunt and come back. And then my wife, she has no interest in hunting, but she loves cooking the game. She eats the crap out of it. And every Sunday I got a whole bunch of family here and the main dish is usually something venison.

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Chris Romano (27:47.094)

Hahaha

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Steven Dauster (28:07.342)

Especially because being in Jersey, I don't want Mr. Green Jean to come get me, but it's almost unlimited dough tags here. I shoot at least four or five doughs year and we eat them all. So.

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Chris Romano (28:18.362)

Yeah, mean, so this year I got one dough. got it with the rifle and I started, I was trying to be a little like, you know, well, let's hold off on making this piece for now. But then I started realizing my shit was getting like freezer burned. So now we're just kind of like, we're just running through them. I mean, I'm sending you pictures all the time, man. And I'm learning how to use my smoker a little bit better now. So, you know, every time I make it, something comes out better. But it's really cool. Cause the first year we had our property and we were going through it.

‍

We started to find some stands that the previous owners had left behind. And my uncle, my uncle was the one who taught us to hunt. He was the hunter, so to speak, of the family as we were growing up. And it was awesome. My brother's daughter at the time, I think she was three, maybe three and a half. And my uncle carried her up the ladder stand and sat up in the ladder stand with her. And from that day on, I said, this stand is now called Adriana's stand.

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Steven Dauster (28:51.414)

I love seeing them.

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Steven Dauster (29:16.579)

That's

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Chris Romano (29:16.708)

So now she has like a stand location that's named after her. And I made a food plot, like I've marked out a food plot. It's still got trees in it and stuff, but you know, as our property gets, as we start to develop the property, that's going to be clear cut for a food plot. And I told her, said, that's Adriana's tree stand and that's Adriana's food plot. And if you come with us, she's seven now. And I was like, if you come with us and spread the seed,

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Steven Dauster (29:39.736)

and how well they're shaping them.

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Chris Romano (29:45.21)

you're gonna have food there and you're gonna have deer in there. If you don't come and do the work, then it's not gonna be there. So it's like, I'm trying to start to instill that, but I don't also wanna force them. We convinced her to come hunting with my brother and I like two years ago. We have a shed that we turned into a blind, literally 10 minutes into it, she's like, yeah, I'm bored, I wanna go. And my brother tried to like keep her in there and then we were like, you know what, it's not worth forcing her to stay here. So she went, yeah, exactly.

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Steven Dauster (30:10.722)

then she might hate.

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Chris Romano (30:13.304)

And for like the next two years, she's like, no, I'm not gonna come until I can shoot the deer. And then we bought her a bow and she wasn't really shooting all that much. And we kind of just like, you know what? She's into cheerleading, she's making friends. You know what I mean? Like we gotta just let it kind of make itself happen. You know what I mean? And just recently she started asking her dad, like, hey dad, you when are we gonna go to the shooting range and shoot the bow again? And my brother's like, okay. Like she's asking about it. Maybe now it's time to kind of start fostering that.

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Steven Dauster (30:18.946)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (30:41.828)

You know, so I'm really excited for that. My wife and I are talking, like, I don't know that you can keep me out of the woods. So what I'm hoping to do is when the baby's born after a few months, because you you gotta give them time to acclimate to the world and everything, but I wanna get a backpack harness, just throw her on my back and just go scout, just go walk through the woods. You know what I mean? Like she starts crying, okay, time to go home. You know what I mean? Just to get her out. And if she's with me all the time, I gotta believe that, I don't care if she wants to hunt.

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Steven Dauster (31:03.341)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (31:10.478)

But at least have the appreciation of the woods. If you can appreciate the outdoors, the whole world is available to you.

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Steven Dauster (31:17.262)

I definitely think that's going to be my oldest with how much she just loves eating the venison and whatever and whenever Whenever it's not two degrees out or super tick season, you know jerseys a bait state. I Always take the girls to bait with me. I've they gone kicking corn around a thousand freaking times And then it was it was pretty cool. We went to bait on like a like a Friday or something like that

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Chris Romano (31:35.61)

Okay.

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Chris Romano (31:40.09)

That's awesome.

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Steven Dauster (31:46.606)

I took my youngest and it was the first weekend season and then that next day I shot a dough on that Saturday then that Sunday or Monday two days later I shot another dough and she's like, Dad, Dad, was that over by the corn we put out? I'm like, yep, yep, 100 % that's what it was. Smoked them right over our corn.

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Chris Romano (32:03.428)

Yep, mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (32:08.014)

That's awesome. I love that. You know, so since you brought up the baiting thing, I got a question for you. Not that I, let me preface this by saying I'm not a, like, I don't have anything against people that bait, especially if it's illegal. If you're doing it in a state where you're not allowed to do it, you suck. But you know, if it, if if it's legal, you know, whatever, do you, but I'm going to ask you, do you ever feel like you're kind of taking a little bit of the hunting out of hunting?

‍

when you're hunting over bait.

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Steven Dauster (32:40.724)

no, because what I've learned is you put bait out, it's not like you're drawing them in from five miles away. You're just, you're drawing them 10, 20 yards one way or the other. So especially with the bow, you're just giving yourself a more ethical shot. Number one, number two, big bucks don't come to bait in daylight. They, they, they don't. And if you have the kind of property like most properties in Jersey are, you need to

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Chris Romano (33:03.002)

They just don't.

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Steven Dauster (33:10.296)

kill does anyway just by all the QTMA standards and all that kind of stuff so who cares if you're shooting does you're not taking those from anyone else and just

‍

But I don't see new deer when I throw corn down. I just get them in front of my camera and I might get them 10 or 20 yards this way instead of that way. Like, especially having no clue what I was doing coming up doing this. I thought it was big, big, big, big, big, big, big. And I hiked that mountain I took you to 10 years ago. Two hours back with 80 pounds of corn in my back 100 times, then no avail.

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Chris Romano (33:29.295)

Mm-hmm.

‍

Chris Romano (33:43.738)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (33:50.458)

Dude, that mountain sucked. Dude, honestly, that's probably the number one reason I never went back. I'm going to be completely honest with you.

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Steven Dauster (34:00.438)

it's like this. You have to climb straight up and then you're still not even 100 yards away from the road. And then it goes right back down into that.

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Chris Romano (34:10.81)

my goodness, dude. just remember I remember going my uncle were carrying this freaking hang on and I'm like, what are we doing? And this is back in the day of the old school ones where you you know Each section was four feet long and they were heavy as shit and the stand itself was heavy as shit You know was just my goodness, but you know what? I had it I had a I mean I tell that story all the time like I told I was telling you earlier we were when we went down that so

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When we hunted that day and we saw the deer or whatever, and I was like, I think I know what they're doing, right? And I was like, I'm gonna go set up a stand over here. I think, you know, the deer are over here or whatever. And I ended up by the 4H camp, like the Boy Scout camp over there. I didn't actually know that that was there until I was hunting it. And that was the day I went with my climber. So I came with my climber with you the first time and I hiked that climber up that fucking mountain. Okay, it was miserable. It was awful. Anyway, that's why I decided to put a hang on in there.

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Steven Dauster (34:47.789)

Yep.

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Chris Romano (35:04.376)

And I went in and as we're hanging in the stand, a whole herd of doe are just starting to come and feed around us. I was setting up the stand, my uncle was down on the ground. was like, you you gotta be quiet. There's deer. He's like, all right, cool. So I'm just watching them. And I'm like, yeah, I found the deer man. Second time here. Like, let's do this. Next thing I know, those deer clear out. And I'm like, what did you do? He goes, I didn't do shit. Next thing I look up, there's a whole pack of coyotes coming, beelining for those doe. And I pull, I had this like little Remington pocket knife, dude. And I pulled this, I pulled this knife out.

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Steven Dauster (35:28.462)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (35:33.338)

My uncle goes, the fuck are you gonna do with that? I was like, I don't know, but I'm ready for it. That's what I'm saying, man. So it's like, it was just a good time. It really was. So, good.

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Steven Dauster (35:37.164)

Yo rambos, look at throats some frickin' yotes.

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Steven Dauster (35:47.457)

The one time I went out there with my gun during deer season for a six day shotgun, I shot two coyotes and didn't see any deer.

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Chris Romano (35:56.346)

You know what, I'm surprised and at the same time I'm not surprised. Cause I actually, that town that that mountain is in, was teaching, well I wasn't gonna say it, but yeah, I was teaching there for two years. Three years, yeah, while I was living in Jersey, I taught there for three years. And every time I would drive through the mountain, I'm like, you know, I gotta come hunt here. And then hunting season would start and I would just see vehicle after vehicle driving to work. And I'm like, I'm not gonna come hunt here.

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Steven Dauster (36:05.282)

Yeah, Ringwood.

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Steven Dauster (36:10.587)

were you really?

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Chris Romano (36:24.76)

You know, and I always wanted to, like if I pull up Onyx, could send you like, if you ever want to go hunting there, I can send you 100 pins that I made there over the years of me driving through there. Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (36:33.034)

It gets really bad there once you start getting towards the rut or you start getting towards 6th or muzzle litter. early bow and then winter bow there ain't no one going out there. That's really like the definition of the Orange Army and the guys who I mean I don't want to hang on anyone who's hunting but guys who aren't like super into it and analyzing it guys who just walk around and kind of pray. I'll never discourage anyone from hunting but it's E.O. I'm saying.

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Chris Romano (36:45.594)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (36:51.258)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (36:55.194)

Yeah, that's fair.

‍

Yeah, so we hunted together that second year and then you ended up linking up you had had a preferences earlier you kind of touched on it but you said you started you linked up with with a what's what we're looking for a yes outfitter thank you very much tell us a little bit about that how do you how did you get involved with them tell us the story

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Steven Dauster (37:18.19)

want a second break? Second to Ted? Alright. I figured. Hi, Evy.

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Chris Romano (37:20.046)

Go ahead. I can edit it.

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Steven Dauster (38:40.462)

good lord.

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Chris Romano (38:44.314)

There you go. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

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Steven Dauster (38:48.51)

Like I told you, my favorite podcast besides the Wing and Tail, Working Class Bow Hunter, those guys have pods where they'll get everyone from the crew there, like eight guys, they'll call it a BS session, and they'll get hammered. But it's all due to have multiple 200 inch bucks on the walls and stuff, so it's really cool to hear three hours of these guys who just really are straight killers just slowly get hammered. And then we'll take a few breaks and stuff.

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Chris Romano (38:59.78)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

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Chris Romano (39:13.817)

Yeah.

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And they they just slowly get louder and louder they forget how to take turns the only thing I don't like about because we've had that we've had like three or four guys on the podcast before what I don't like about that is all it gets very difficult to hear sometimes when you're when you're recording like that Yes, it has to be and you have to have people that like Like let's say we're talking and yeah, you go to say something like I'll stop You know what I mean? Like I'll stop talking so I don't cut you off You know what mean? Like you have to have people who are able to

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Steven Dauster (39:19.693)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (39:29.966)

I feel like that has to be in person.

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Steven Dauster (39:42.808)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (39:44.686)

converse with other people fluidly in a sense, you But anywho, yeah, well, that's the other thing. My cousin and I have been doing this and I live here in PA and he lives in Newton and everything is done over the computer. So it does get a little tough. We'd like to have, we would have liked to have more of a coffee table style thing, but long-term what I wanna do is I still have to finish this room. I'm gonna end up burning all this. I'm gonna torch all this pine.

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Steven Dauster (39:49.634)

I guess all those guys know each other.

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Chris Romano (40:13.54)

So that way it's like half burnt, half not. And what I want to do long-term is I want to sit in the corner in like my grandmother's like 75 year old rocking chair. I just kind of like sit back and have a camera up in the corner of the room instead and just get like a whole view of the room and then have different angles, like close to me, far from us. What's up?

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Steven Dauster (40:30.408)

No, that makes me think of... That makes me think of... what was it? Toxy and whatever. The original Masiok guys sitting on the front porch. You know, with the TV between them. Yeah, like the first Masiok hunting show.

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Chris Romano (40:43.438)

Kind of, but it's like old, you're talking old school, old school, right?

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Chris Romano (40:50.328)

Dude, what you're telling your work all way back this back in the day when my brother and I were playing hunting in the fucking living room One of us was one of us was a deer hunter on the couch. The other one was the deer. We'd shoot each other

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Steven Dauster (40:55.234)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (41:01.505)

That's what my two girls do.

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Chris Romano (41:03.236)

That's awesome. All right, so we'll pick it up. Just give a second of silence so I know where to cut it off.

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Steven Dauster (41:06.702)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (41:11.544)

So after we hunted that year, I think you said it was your second year, we hunted that spot together, what not, you told me that you got linked up with an outfitter in Pennsylvania. Tell us a little bit about that. How'd you get linked up with them? What's he all about? And what kind of experiences have you had along the way?

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Steven Dauster (41:25.706)

So I know everyone thinks their stories and experiences is the most different, whatever, but especially me having no idea what I was doing, not knowing anyone and jumping head first into everything, I wanted to go find an outfitter, not for someone to do the work for me, just to learn from someone. So I did a bunch of research and there was this dude, the Moonshine Ranch Outfitters.

‍

His is Lou Lampatelli. He goes to Africa, I don't know, all the time. Just super experienced hunter. He has a high fence and then thousands of acres of regular fair chase. And his prices weren't bad. And I read a bunch of good reviews, so I'm like, all right, I'm not gonna get my money stolen at least. I'll go, I'll kill one his high fence pigs, see what he's about, and maybe I'll go back for turkey season. I was one of like Lou's first customers right after he opened.

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And he was being so close to Manhattan. He was really happy just not to have a rich guy there and he kind of saw what I was about and that I see honey He um kind of saw I was all about and it was all enthusiasm all drive all go zero knowledge so He just like come back for turkey season. He goes just listen. Let me drive you around so we drove around

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Chris Romano (42:44.184)

Hehehehe

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Steven Dauster (42:53.454)

with, we may or may not have had some beers driving around his property. And he's like, look, there's roost in there, there's roost in there. The night I shot a pig, he taught me how to roost a bird. I never killed turkey in my life. So he's like, you're come back in like three, four weeks, whatever was? I'm like, hell yeah. We went back and we were on birds and I didn't have the opportunity to kill anything. But I was really, just really grinding with him some days and this one guy he has, old man Mike, great guy. And he was like, just tipped my guides.

‍

Can you come back next weekend? You can get to kill a bird like I feel bad. So I came back shot my first bird and then from then on I just I've stayed in contact with him. This is maybe 10 years ago. I go back every single year I'll go back in the winter just to help him with the property and as I've seen his business grow Excuse me. Um, he's able to make more money. It's We've been able to enjoy a lot of just um first

‍

friends and family, I was just going to hang out. Like I've helped him guide sometimes at the high fence stuff. just, I know people who are hate on the high fence stuff and I really don't care. You're not putting in the record books. You're shooting it, you're eating it. Who cares? I can't afford 99 % of it, but those who can, God bless them. But being back there, just being around Elk and Stag and he has Elk and Stag hybrids and Trophy Black Buck and giant Texas Doll Rams. It's just...

‍

so freaking cool to be around those animals. And he raises them next to his house too. So to go out there, cause I'll go up there now with my wife and kids. And then me and the kids are out there feeding these little baby sheep that are trying to run them over. they're like the size of little kid's using stuff. It's just like, like I was telling you before, like I, I, I, I based so much of my life around hunting and I've made the best connections anyone ever can. And now that after all these years,

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Chris Romano (44:33.402)

You

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Steven Dauster (44:48.524)

becoming good friends with Lou and his family and my family. That's my deer camp.

‍

Excellent.

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Chris Romano (44:55.96)

No, I mean, that sounds freaking awesome. And like you said, there are definitely reservations about high fence stuff, right? But at the same time, I can understand the aura of it, right? Well, first off, if you got the money to do it, that's freaking awesome, right? So whatever. But there are some people who can't afford a trip out West to go hunt Texas Ram.

‍

But if they have them in the backyard over here, that might be able to be doable. You don't mean like, I've never, I don't even know what the numbers are like. And I don't even want to know cause it's probably like astronomical, but it's like having the opportunity to hunt something that otherwise you wouldn't be able to. I can see the attraction to something like that, you know?

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Steven Dauster (45:43.968)

Certain things I know for a fact like an elk is more expensive behind the high fence than going out west You don't have to work for it other things like so as I've told you before this podcast i've gotten super into going to texas and their whole hunting culture or whatever. Certain things like a texas doll ram that was specifically bred as a cross between some sort of alaskan ram and something else just for hunting Yeah,

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Chris Romano (45:49.142)

Okay, right.

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Chris Romano (46:10.83)

Really? So it's only like, they're only in captivity, you're saying. Like there's no wild... Okay. Okay. Gotcha.

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Steven Dauster (46:15.598)

Um, yes and no. They run around Texas now with new high fences, but they were bred for that. Um, but that's one of cheaper things. If you can't afford and can't draw a tag for a Western sheep heart or whatever, any good blue collar guy who's good with money can afford to go to one of these high fence places and shoot a ram and it's fricking delicious. And you're not entering any record books. You got to shoot it. It was fun. I've seen other ones in PA that kind of make you feel suspect. They're like,

‍

Five acres it's really like shooting things in a pen, but like I don't know the size of my buddies But like you could walk around it all day like it's it's it's not like shooting a white tail in your living room But that runs in a whole different political problems he has with anti's and stuff, which is a whole nother conversation We could have with him and stuff because sometimes his life feels like Yellowstone with deer instead of cattle out there

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Chris Romano (46:52.826)

I you.

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Chris Romano (47:07.577)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (47:14.33)

All right. Now that makes sense. Listen, I don't know how far is he from, is he Southeastern PA, Northeastern PA? Where?

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Steven Dauster (47:24.482)

He's down there in New York, New Jersey in PA, all touch. He's in Beach Lake. He's like 20 minutes from Homesdale.

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Chris Romano (47:31.566)

No he's not.

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Steven Dauster (47:32.63)

Yeah, you know where Skinner's Falls is?

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Chris Romano (47:34.362)

Yeah, I know where Skinner's Falls is. You're talking about in Bushkill? No, that's Bushkill Falls. No, no, Skinner Falls, that sounds really familiar. Is it by Milford? Dude, okay. That's like 40 minutes from me.

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Steven Dauster (47:36.43)

That's usually the break I take.

‍

Steven Dauster (47:44.995)

Yeah.

‍

He's like, when I'm there and we go to town to get something more than like bread and beer, we're on the Honesdale Walmart.

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Chris Romano (47:51.545)

Yeah?

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Chris Romano (47:55.564)

Mm-hmm. The Homesdale Walmart is where I freaking live. I don't live there, but like that's where I go for everything. That Home Depot is where I bought everything for this office. That's fucking hilarious. Small, small world.

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Steven Dauster (48:05.454)

That's where I'll pick up my PA tags if I don't pre-buy them on my way there all the time.

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Chris Romano (48:12.058)

Okay. That Home Depot, when you get into late season about December, that field behind Home Depot has no less than 50 deer on it any given day. No. Nope. And right next to the Home Depot, so you know there's that shopping center right across the street. So there's the Home Depot and the Walmart is up on the hill.

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Steven Dauster (48:25.612)

is a public man.

‍

Sounds like.

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Chris Romano (48:38.052)

And then you come down the hill and you have to go across the main road and there's a shopping center across the street. Right next to that light, there's like a Christmas tree place and they have like a, it's like a farm kind of thing, like a farm situation. They have an apple tree right there on that, that, that, that grass that's, lines the road. I have seen like shooters, shooter bucks eating apples out of that tree. And I'm like, I just, I just want to knock on their door and ask them if I can hunt.

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Steven Dauster (48:42.412)

Yeah.

‍

Steven Dauster (48:49.23)

Mm-hmm.

‍

Steven Dauster (48:56.674)

You like it?

‍

Steven Dauster (49:07.662)

did you it? What you have to do is knock.

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Chris Romano (49:08.366)

You know, so that's what I'm saying. So who do we got here? Is that your deer? Did you shoot that deer?

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Steven Dauster (49:20.206)

That was my first archery buck. That's a big big buck. That's not a big big buck, Evy, but thank you honey. How big is it? Not very big.

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Chris Romano (49:22.102)

No? Dad dash out that deer? Okay.

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Chris Romano (49:34.426)

That's awesome. deer I showed you, one that's on my wall, that was my first archery buck.

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Steven Dauster (49:40.322)

That one be, that was your first, woo.

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Chris Romano (49:43.384)

Yeah, so, but it wasn't, but I had been hunting for like 10 years by the time I shot that. Like my, so first time ever going out. So backtrack on the story. So growing up, I grew up in a hunting family, but my grandfather passed away when I was really young. I was like eight years old when he passed away. So I never got a chance to hunt with him. So the first time I ever went out hunting, I went out shotgun hunting with my uncle for youth shotgun. I was.

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Steven Dauster (49:51.298)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (50:13.462)

I think I had turned 16 that year, was the last year I could hunt. He took me out and sat me my uncle's tree, or my grandfather's tree, and I shot a four pointer. First time ever out deer hunting, that to me was so special, because I never got a chance to hunt with my grandfather, but I got to shoot a deer from his tree, you know what I mean?

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Steven Dauster (50:21.678)

you

‍

Steven Dauster (50:32.876)

Because of that story, that might be the best trophy ever despite its size.

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Chris Romano (50:36.282)

100 % man. And then the next time I go out, I go out with the muzzleloader. First time out with the muzzleloader, I shoot a deer. So I'm like, okay. So I go out with the bow. And the first time I'm out with the bow, I miss at five yards, 45 yards. And then I missed about six or seven deer with the bow after that, before I got my first deer with

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Steven Dauster (50:58.794)

I must have whiffed on just that amount of doughs. Probably two. It took me... What's the word?

‍

It took me years to get on them and then it took me a couple years to hit them. And then took me another year or two to hit them good, knock on wood, 99 % of time.

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Chris Romano (51:15.546)

to get the shot down, yeah.

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Chris Romano (51:21.604)

Yeah. So I've been fortunate and I'm not the greatest shot on, let's backtrack. If I'm at the range, I'm a pretty damn good shot. If, when it comes to like shooting at deer, to be honest with you, I don't know if it was growing up, I didn't have good form or if I didn't know, I've never tuned an arrow. I never tuned a bow before in my life up until like three years ago. I didn't even know tuning a bow was a thing. So I used to miss, like when I missed, I missed. You know what I mean?

‍

So like, don't, I don't, like we were using, muzzy broadheads or thunderheads back then, didn't tune anything, just screwed them on and went, didn't even practice with them. So who the hell knows what was really happening then. But yeah, literally, I'm not even kidding. Like literally I had missed deer by three feet, but.

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Steven Dauster (51:59.724)

missing three feet off from your field points.

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Steven Dauster (52:05.39)

Hold on. I was there only three or four, I was there only probably four or five years ago.

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Chris Romano (52:09.306)

You know, but I was fortunate to wear up until last year last so not this past hunting season the one before that Every deer that I hit and drew blood on I took home So for almost I'm 33 now that was 30 I was 31 time So literally for almost for 15 16 years of hunting every deer I hit I brought home and then the next two deer and then the last two deer I shot before I killed the rifle this year

‍

I hit and didn't bring home. And it was like my entire world crumbled around me. And I know that sounds like so corny, but that first deer bro, she was at 10 yards, frontal shot, she was staring at me. And I literally, in the 10 seconds that I had to decide if I was gonna shoot, I went through this entire thought process. Okay, my bow is shooting 275 feet per second. Yeah, she's staring at me, but she's at five yards, frontal, her head's not down. There's no chance she's beating me. I'm taking this shot.

‍

and I take the shot and she fucking beats me. And it was like, yeah, I was in a stand. So what happened was I had, yeah, so I drew on her. I wanted to shoot a different doe, but she started walking towards my tree and I was like, screw it, I'll shoot her. But as I drew my bow, my cam was hitting the camera arm I had for my GoPro. So I took my bow at full draw and tried to move it out of the way.

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Steven Dauster (53:12.056)

Were you up in a stand? I mean, you took the frontal?

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Steven Dauster (53:31.147)

Chris Romano (53:35.738)

and she saw that movement and just snapped her head up at me. And I was like, do I take it? Yeah, I'm taking it. And it was, if I hadn't thought about it in that sense, I still think it would be eating me up inside till this day. But I made a conscious decision to take the shot and my arrow performed. My arrow is 26 inches. was the entire arrow went into her. I just didn't make the shot. So I had aimed dead center.

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Steven Dauster (54:00.814)

Where'd you hit her?

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Chris Romano (54:04.886)

of the chest about three quarters of the way up to the neck. So I was aiming in the right spot, but when she jumped the string, she turned left. And instead of hitting her in the center of the chest, I think it either hit shoulder, like the front of the shoulder, or went in just inside the shoulder where there's literally nothing. And it just like stuck in there. I called a dog and everything. Man, was so broken up. I actually, after that, I didn't hunt for a month straight. I couldn't bring myself to go on a tree.

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Steven Dauster (54:14.606)

I almost shriveled it.

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Steven Dauster (54:27.352)

Yeah.

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Chris Romano (54:35.054)

I couldn't do it. So, but it was a reality check. You know what I mean? Nobody's perfect. When we do this, we practice as much as we do because we want to know that we can make the shot. And at the end of the day, I made the shot I wanted to make. I took the shot, the arrow went where I aimed. It wasn't anything I did wrong. She just beat me. So now I have a higher appreciation for these animals, what their abilities are, what their capabilities are. And now honestly,

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Steven Dauster (54:36.824)

seeds.

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Chris Romano (55:05.092)

I'm gonna give them a little bit more credit next time when I take that shot. So now I will say this, I will still take a frontal. I think a frontal is, I don't think it's a terrible shot and I know people won't agree with me. I think the issue was she was looking at me.

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Steven Dauster (55:18.158)

I'm not gonna say I disagree with you. I just wouldn't trust myself to do it from a tree stand with the angles and everything Especially because where I hunt is mostly where I hunt Is all swamp some a lot of times in blinds and sitting in bushes So I'm much more akin to cutting on the ground with them if I have something at 10 yards with a frontal shot from my blind or on the ground sure with my

‍

lack of I'm saying I spent plenty of time tree stands but with my recent lack of Time spent tree stands. I don't think I do from tree stand But that but that's just me but that up behind me I drew back on him when he was about 10 12 yards for a frontal and It was really freaking cold that day. I touched my blind with my back arm and Ice and snow and whatever knocked off the blind hit the ground and he galloped

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Chris Romano (55:57.786)

Okay, yeah.

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Chris Romano (56:05.7)

Mm-hmm.

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Steven Dauster (56:18.734)

like two or three yards farther, but then gave me the perfect quartering away shot. So that was one of times where God was like, all right, you kind of screwed up, but you've been working so hard, I'll give you this one. I just cleared him out right behind the ribs, exited right behind his opposite shoulder, 10 yards dropped. I lost.

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Chris Romano (56:23.738)

Mmm.

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Chris Romano (56:31.158)

I'll give you this one.

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Steven Dauster (56:44.086)

When I, and I told my wife this, when I touch you or shout something, remind me of this rule I've given myself. If I do not see it dead on the ground, I sit in my blind or tree stand or hole or whatever for 30 minutes. When I first started hunting and first started hitting stuff, I pushed so many deer into the next day and county because I'm like, yeah, I smoked them. Go look for them. And then, and it's just a blood bath, but.

‍

that they're the ultimate survivors. get that extra adrenaline push and they'll just go. like whenever someone asks me for like advice or something like that, the first thing I tell someone when they first start hitting deer is don't go look for them right away unless you see them on their side dead. I know it's kind of off topic, but

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Chris Romano (57:14.778)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (57:30.575)

Right.

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No, I mean, that's a great point, especially...

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Steven Dauster (57:35.906)

That was my biggest mistake, learning how to do this.

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Chris Romano (57:39.128)

Yeah. And that's very common. And honestly, that's probably the main reason why I started recording my hunts. I will not hunt without a lighted knock now because I feel like it gives me a better idea of where the shot went when I took it. But when I shot that deer two years ago, the one I was telling you about, that was the first deer I had shot on camera. And I was able to take it. I tried to track the deer for a little bit. I didn't find any blood. was like, all right, I'm going to back out.

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Steven Dauster (57:58.488)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (58:09.038)

you know, pack up my stand or whatever. I called a dog and when the guy came, he said, I said, I have it on camera. He said, let me see it. So when we looked at it, he was able to analyze it and he goes, I think there's a good chance that you caught this deer good. Let's go shoot it. If I didn't have that film, I don't know what I would have done. You know what I mean? But being able to go back and watch it is just, is so huge. And that was again, the main reason I started recording my hunts. Not to, you know, post it or to make anything out of it.

‍

I actually started filming my hunts before I even had a YouTube channel. It was just something I wanted to do and it's just grown from there. Now, my thing is I have absolutely ridiculous ADD, like ridiculous. being like, yeah, probably, you know, but like having that camera gives me something to do at any time of the day. there's a squirrel, let me record. that's not a deer I'm gonna shoot, but I can spend the next 20 minutes filming them.

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Steven Dauster (58:53.314)

think that's why we got along so well, Chris.

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Chris Romano (59:06.372)

You know what mean? So it's like, just gives a whole nother layer of stuff to do, but it also gives another layer of, well, shit, now I gotta carry this and I got this weight and I gotta set this up, you know? So there's always a trade off. There's always a given and take, but honestly, I can't imagine going in the woods without my camera now. I couldn't.

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Steven Dauster (59:20.366)

Thank

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I feel like that goes back to how we start this whole conversation of just how awesome and human it is to be in the woods. You're not just out there trying to kill. It's... Wow, I've never seen a squirrel do that. Like, this is so funny. I see a turkey trying to stomp out a possum because they're fighting over my corn pile. Like, the wife busts my balls all the time. I'll be out hunting and...

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I'll be sending her pictures of funny stuff I see, like two squirrels fucking, just like all sorts of crazy stuff. She's like, are you even hunting? I'm like, yeah, this is the cool part. Like look at all this stuff. All these animals have no idea I'm here.

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Chris Romano (59:55.502)

Yeah.

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Yeah, this is hunting. Yeah. And it's like, I'll send my wife videos. She'll be like, you shoot something? No. And then I'll send her a video. goes, why did you shoot it? I was like, it's not a shooter. She goes, what do mean? It's a deer. I was like, you know, it's, and where I'm hunting is going to dictate the caliber of deer I'm hunting for. You know what I mean? Like if I'm hunting my property in New York, mind you, I have a lot of time, money, energy put into this place.

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Steven Dauster (01:00:19.703)

I want it.

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Chris Romano (01:00:29.38)

that I'm growing it for the future. So I have a certain caliber and I'm not going to break that. I passed up three different six pointers this year, because it's not what I wanna shoot. I had two deer that I saw on camera and I said, I'm either shooting one of these two, something that gets me fired up just as much as these two, or I'm not shooting anything at all. And now this is the second or third year in a row. The first year, my brother and I both shot the first bucks we saw. We were like, you know what? Let's just get it out of our system.

‍

It's our property, let's get the first deer down. Yeah, yeah. After that, I have been so selective. This doe that I, so the two doe that I shot at this year, the one that I told you I hit, couldn't find, and then the one I shot with the rifle, in the four years we've had the property, they're the only two deer I've ever shot at, or the only two doe I've shot at on our property. Cause I said years ago, we don't have enough doe. If we want the bucks, we need the doe.

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Steven Dauster (01:01:00.622)

something so special about the first buck on your property.

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Chris Romano (01:01:29.432)

And that's that. So it's so easy. Like when you go out on public land, right? And you see a small deer and you're like, do I shoot it? Do I not shoot it? Do I shoot it? Do I not shoot it? When I'm on my property, I go into those woods. I already know what I'm willing to shoot. And if I see something that's not that caliber, I'm just picking up my camera. And it's equally as enjoyable for me. I really do love it. I love it.

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Steven Dauster (01:01:30.178)

Yes?

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Steven Dauster (01:01:55.756)

These past two years were the first two years I was able to tell myself I'm not just shooting anything that's more than a spike. So this year I was very proud of myself. I had passed up on a handful of sixes. This year is the first year I had like target bucks like you were saying. Like I'm like, cool. This is like the TV shows. Maybe I have half an idea of what I'm doing. And I had many encounters.

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with this one buck that had G1s that were taller than his Thanks honey He had taller G1s than anywhere else. It's the weirdest thing just the biggest freaking dog killers and I just couldn't make it happen, but I'm really proud of myself because like I had multiple skinny sixes that two years ago. I would have smoked but three years ago me my least mate

‍

we were seeing pictures of dozens of does and nothing but maybe a button or a spike or something like that. And three years ago we said, all right, screw it. It's open season on does. We need to balance this out. Let's each shoot four or five. So we did that these past two years. And this year, although neither of us killed a good buck, we had more bucks. Granted a lot of the age structure wasn't really right. There was a lot of two year olds, but we had more bucks than we've ever seen. It was.

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Almost like between reading all the QDMA, now NDA, wood-erger, take a couple of those classes, and personal experience, combining those two things, oh, I finally learned something. Like, the science works. Like, it's great, we didn't get the kill buck, but we saw the results of doing the right thing. So like, like I said, like it's not just about killing.

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Chris Romano (01:03:40.826)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (01:03:52.984)

about taking care of the land, herd, and that was so freaking cool.

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Chris Romano (01:03:57.092)

Yeah. And my thing isn't like, so we just had Mitchell Shirk on our podcast. I don't think it was like three episodes ago. We were talking about food plotting and stuff. you know, I do the no-till system. And one of the big things that people say is, you know, the no-till is better for the soil. So we owe it to the land to do that. And Mitchell, when he was on here, was like, you know, let's face it, nobody's saving the world by doing no-till. And I was like, you're not, you're not wrong, but at the same rate.

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I know how shitty our soil is right now. And I know how much work I'm putting into it to try to get it to somewhere where I can make something of it. I feel like I owe it to my nieces, my nephews, my children to leave it for them better than I found it. So am I gonna save the world by doing no-till? No. Am I gonna save the world by managing my deer herd? No. But I am gonna pass it on to the next generation.

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Steven Dauster (01:04:39.905)

long-term investment.

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Chris Romano (01:04:55.574)

in a better state than I found it. And if we're not trying to at least set the next person up for success, I feel like we're really missing out on something. yeah, like we talk all the time, like you and I have talked about this, I've talked about this with other people, like hunters in the grand scheme of things are such a small group of individuals. And we get flak from everyone who is outside of our bubble.

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Steven Dauster (01:05:06.446)

Isn't that what it's all about? Who was that?

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Chris Romano (01:05:24.142)

And we spend so much time arguing, you shouldn't crossbow hunt. You shouldn't be able to bait. You shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do that. My way is right. Like, why can't we all just get along? Like, I'll be honest with you. I personally, I'll be honest. I have an issue with crossbows. Not that they shouldn't be allowed to be used, but they, or give us half a season of no crossbows and the second half of both season crossbows. You see what I'm saying?

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Steven Dauster (01:05:42.562)

have their own season.

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Steven Dauster (01:05:50.102)

I think that's... There's a couple states in the Midwest that do that. really? I didn't know that.

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Chris Romano (01:05:53.622)

New York does it. New York does it. Yeah, New York does it. You can't hunt with, unless you have a medical release, you can't hunt with a crossbow to the last week of the bow season. And then the rest of the year, you can hunt with a crossbow. But when somebody tells me, I shot my personal best with a crossbow, I don't say, well, your buck isn't as good as mine because you shot it with a crossbow. You know what I mean? So it's like, why can't we just get...

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Steven Dauster (01:06:05.518)

I didn't know that.

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Steven Dauster (01:06:12.11)

I

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Unless you snuck into my tree stand and shot that, then I'm happy for you.

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Chris Romano (01:06:20.002)

Right. It's like why can't we all just get along or at least say hey, that's not how I would have done it But man, that's fucking awesome. You know what I mean? Like I I just I just don't get it. I don't get

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Steven Dauster (01:06:29.902)

I feel like if I shot a deer with a crossbow, I wouldn't be disappointed in myself. But not anyone else. if someone else wants to go do it, it's like, awesome. Do you want some recipes? I have some good ones. Like, I'm not mad about it. Unless it was illegal. Like, that's different stuff.

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Chris Romano (01:06:36.981)

Hahaha!

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Chris Romano (01:06:43.524)

Yeah!

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Chris Romano (01:06:48.024)

Right. Yeah. we're coming up on, it looks like about an hour and five minutes here. I want to be mindful of your time. I know you got kids running around in the background. I got a couple just quick questions for you to end it off. First off, there anything that we haven't touched on? Anything you want to share from the last, you know, from your journey, your hunting journey that we haven't touched on?

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Steven Dauster (01:07:00.003)

Yeah.

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Steven Dauster (01:07:07.982)

I don't know man, nothing specific. I could talk about this for freaking hours. It's my favorite thing in the world. I'm the kid in candy store who got the camel. mean...

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Chris Romano (01:07:13.997)

Okay.

‍

Yeah? Okay. So, so then how about this? If there's anyone listening who wants to get into hunting or is in their early years of hunting, they don't really have anyone around them that hunts. They're just trying to figure it out on their own. What's the number one piece of advice that you would give them to try to help propel their success and maybe save them a season or two?

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Steven Dauster (01:07:43.2)

If you're hunting in Jersey, or probably Pennsylvania, New York too, it's not like the TV shows.

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because the Midwest is the Mecca of whitetail hunting. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's awesome. There's a reason TV shows there, because they have a hundred inch deer running all around. Just sit there and learn, learn how to read maps. Once I started paying for Onyx and downloaded it and learned how to read maps and what certain features of the terrain mean, that is when I learned like what's really going on.

‍

Learn how to read maps and be proficient with your weapon. Shoot, get into a tree stand in your backyard if you can, or in the off season if it's legal, take a tree stand out and shoot out of a tree stand. Standing on the ground, or sitting on the ground is not the same as sitting in your blind or standing in a tree stand and shooting. If you have shoot through screens on your blind, see how your arrow performs going through that. Maps and proficient with your weapon.

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I wish I would have really learned those two things off the bat, I wouldn't have been successful a lot quicker.

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Chris Romano (01:08:57.594)

And those are those are some great things because we all know you know you're sitting on the toilet You're going to the bathroom. You're reading it. You're reading a topo map. You're reading and you're e-scouting You're watching TV with the wife your husband significant other you're sitting there e-scouting You know so the more you do with that kind of stuff the more time you can spend in hunting without actually hunting I love that my next question Do you're hunting or turkey hunting if you could only do one for the rest of your life? Which one are you taking?

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Steven Dauster (01:09:19.074)

Mm-hmm.

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Steven Dauster (01:09:25.976)

Cat, no.

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Chris Romano (01:09:27.474)

No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.

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Steven Dauster (01:09:31.254)

I'm gonna say deer hunting only because turkey season is so short.

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Chris Romano (01:09:36.172)

Okay, I can get with that. And you can only shoot one turkey a season in Jersey.

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Steven Dauster (01:09:37.77)

If I can If I if turkey season if the turkey population then Okay cat

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Steven Dauster (01:09:52.436)

If it was okay for the flock for me to shoot five times a year and turkey season could be like four months or whatever like deer season then I would say turkey. Turkey hunting is more fun. Deer is so much more rewarding because there's so much more preseason work obviously you take home so much more meat but if I had it if I was going the electric chair and they said you have one day to hunt pick something it would be turkey.

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Chris Romano (01:10:22.424)

I got you. You would get along with my buddy, Kevin Creeley really well. I don't know if you heard, we had him on our podcast a couple of times. He's a huge turkey hunter. And the way he says it is, a deer hunt for meat, a turkey hunt for fun. And that's literally how he puts it. Sidebar, the last episode, maybe two episodes ago now that we've done, we did a turkey hunting for the absolute beginner. Like someone who wants to start turkey hunting, never stepped in Turkey Woods before.

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Where do you start? So that, you know, what's that? Yeah, so, you know, I wanna get into it. I've never done it before, you know, so hopefully moving forward.

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Steven Dauster (01:10:53.09)

I wasn't... I wasn't that one yet.

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Steven Dauster (01:10:59.374)

Thanks.

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They teach you a lot quicker than a white-tailed deer will teach you because they'll talk back to you and you'll see him and hear him more. Like, if you do something stupid, you might not know that you messed up and spooked a doe 200 yards away. If you got a tom on the hook in the spring, you might be able to see him below everything, especially out here, and you'll hear him turn around, which is even more defeating, too, because it's almost like an F-E-Q.

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Chris Romano (01:11:06.808)

Mm-hmm. I got you.

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Chris Romano (01:11:16.356)

Mm-hmm.

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Chris Romano (01:11:27.896)

yeah catch 22 firearm or bow and arrow

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Steven Dauster (01:11:37.717)

I love getting close to him. I love shooting my bow in the yard. I always joke the only way to get a redneck in the geometry is to give him a bow.

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Chris Romano (01:11:38.286)

for Turkey.

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Chris Romano (01:11:46.436)

You

‍

You know you're talking about math teacher, right? Yeah. That's funny. you, you sidebar, do you bow hunt for turkey too or do do shotgun for turkey?

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Steven Dauster (01:11:51.65)

Yeah!

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Steven Dauster (01:12:01.098)

I prefer to shotgun hunt them, being in New Jersey there's a lot of places where it's either illegal or not safe to shotgun hunt, so I will bow hunt them too.

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Chris Romano (01:12:09.986)

Okay, last question. What is your favorite meal to make with venison?

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Steven Dauster (01:12:18.016)

It's a tie between just good old fashioned salt and pepper smoked back straps. Or my wife makes this beautiful croissant ground venison Big Mac cheeseburger thing. I'll send you the recipe. It's, it's.

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Chris Romano (01:12:34.848)

Uh-huh.

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Steven Dauster (01:12:38.3)

It's perfect.

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Chris Romano (01:12:38.81)

So I'm gonna let you in on a little family secret. It's not really a family secret, but it is what it is. All right, marinate your meat overnight, whatever you wanna marinate it in. I prefer to marinate in balsamic vinegar. I feel like it really gets into the meat, poke some holes into the meat the night before you marinate it. It really lets it all get into it, right? But what you're gonna do is get a package of bacon, lattice the bacon on a baking sheet, right? So you have like a, know, it's all intertwined or whatever, like a basket.

‍

Put it in the oven for like 10, 15 minutes just to like half cook it. Take it out, let it cool. It should still be soft, but half cooked. your slab of meat on top of it. Backstrap works great, but a roast, like it's really hard to get a roast to come out good, cause they're so dry sometimes. Put a roast on it and then take the bacon and wrap the meat in the bacon. Okay. Now you got this meat wrapped in the bacon.

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put some toothpicks in it to keep the bacon intact and wrapped around it, throw it on your smoker and fucking forget about it.

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Steven Dauster (01:13:43.183)

it's like when you crotch a brisket in tinfoil, but with bacon. That's a idea.

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Chris Romano (01:13:46.01)

Dude, dude, dude. It is, my, it's like a treat because like, you know, I'm getting older. I probably shouldn't be eating an entire package of bacon at one time. You know I mean? But like when, when, when my wife comes home and she smells the bacon cooking in the oven, she knows what's up. You know what I mean? Like that's exactly, that's like, that's like a Saturday, Sunday meal. Like you start that shit at 10 o'clock in the morning and just let it sit all day. You know what I mean? Like it's.

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Steven Dauster (01:14:17.326)

Well, I think we got one more roast left and that might not be going in the crop up now.

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Chris Romano (01:14:17.454)

fantastic. So you, should definitely seriously give it a shot. If you don't do it with a rose, do it with like a piece of meat, but that lattice of the bacon just works incredible. The only thing that sucks is when you start to cut it, the bacon kind of falls apart, but then you can just kind of like have it as a side or like put it over the top and you know, anyway, Steve, want to, I want to thank you man for joining us. It's been really cool catching up. I really enjoyed getting back in touch with you. mean, it's kind of like a blast from the past, you know.

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Steven Dauster (01:14:33.176)

We do it today.

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Chris Romano (01:14:45.794)

We've been talking a lot of arrows. We're looking forward to going to tack together this year, which I'm really looking forward to. And hopefully I can get you to come up here to PA and show me the ropes with some turkey stuff. Cause driving through the woods up here, I literally, when I'm driving home from work, I see flocks of turkey and I marked them on my GPS. So I already have turkey pins of where turkey live around here. So I already have kind of like a head start. I think that would be so much fun. Hell yeah, you know, so.

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Steven Dauster (01:14:49.442)

Hell yeah.

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Steven Dauster (01:15:10.606)

I'm guessing the short one in the face is Spring Mare.

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Chris Romano (01:15:14.414)

We'll have our own little turkey camp going on here in PA and we'll take it from there. Again, I wanna thank you for joining us. If anyone wants to check you out, wants to follow you along your hunting journey, do you have any social media or anything that they can find you on?

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Steven Dauster (01:15:27.522)

Yeah, so let me bring it up. I'm just the Cecil, C-E-C-I-L dot dowser, my last name. Because I've had complaints from friends and family of posting about nothing but hunting, I recently made another Instagram with just where I can harass everyone about fishing and hunting all day every day. It's just Cecils in the woods, spaces between each word.

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Chris Romano (01:15:57.402)

So I gotta ask you this, did Cecil come from? Because your name is not Cecil.

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Steven Dauster (01:16:02.424)

Cecil Fielder because when we were towards the end of high school, started college, we would play pick up softball all time and the joke always was I would either strike out or hit a line drive and I was really fat at the time, just ramble around the bases. So my friends joked and called me Cecil Fielder.

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Chris Romano (01:16:17.246)

Hahaha! Stop it! What the dude from the Brewers?

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Steven Dauster (01:16:24.856)

No, that was Princefield and his son. Setsofield played for the Tigers and the Yankees when we were kids.

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Chris Romano (01:16:27.119)

No!

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Chris Romano (01:16:30.362)

Stop it, That's hilarious. All this time I was like, yo, is that his middle name? Like I had no idea. That's amazing. Well, again, man, I want to thank you for joining us, taking time out of your night. I know you got a lot going on today. We really appreciate it. For the listeners, yeah, of course. For the listeners, we really hope you got some value out of this. You know, maybe hearing the story of someone who came from a non-hunting family and has found a lot of success and has kind of made

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Steven Dauster (01:16:36.11)

That's why everyone think it's my middle name. But yep.

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Steven Dauster (01:16:46.777)

thank you for having me.

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Chris Romano (01:16:59.77)

a life surrounded around hunting. know, if, if you relate to that, mean, anything can happen, you know, if he can do it, anyone can do it. You know what I mean? So I ain't that the truth, you know, and that, you know, I'm, that might be the title of the show. It ain't too late to start, you know, so guys, if you found some value in this, as always, please scroll on down to the bottom of this, leave us a five star review. If you're on Apple podcasts, you can also leave a written review.

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Steven Dauster (01:17:07.626)

Number two, you do, what you want to do. Yes, sir.

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Steven Dauster (01:17:16.686)

There you go, baby.

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Chris Romano (01:17:27.342)

Let us know you have any questions, there's anything you want to talk to us about. And honestly, we're always looking for people to bring onto the show. So if you're interested in being a guest on our podcast, just let me know, reach out to me either on Instagram or in the comments down below and we'll get you on here. With that being said, I got nothing else for you today and until next week, success is just a commitment away. Have a good one.

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Chris Romano (01:17:54.798)

Boom.

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