Love your thoughts guys...thanks!

I ain't got one...     A few years back, I brined one , but don't recall the exact formulation of the brine.  It was something like Apple juice, brown sugar, salt...      It was fantastic.   But I tried to replicate it another time after that and the results were just simply nothing special.      The very first time I cooked at turkey on a old gas/wood smoker I had, it was great too...   in recent years, I just haven't been able to hit a home run again on a turkey.

I am going to make an assumption that you like the way your turkey comes out when you oven roast it?  If so, I would do the same process in the PG500 and I bet you and your guests will be please with the smoke flavor of the bird!

I am going to make an assumption that you like the way your turkey comes out when you oven roast it?  If so, I would do the same process in the PG500 and I bet you and your guests will be please with the smoke flavor of the bird!

Agree totally.

I find 12lb to 16lb organics (for any bird) tend to be the best and need no brining.

My experience with cooking it (no spatchcock and in zone 4) was that I had to start it upside down to get the bottom to heat up a little faster than the breast.  I suspect that this is because of the way that the heat in zone 4 behaves (top down in PG vs other pellet grills where heat is from bottom up).

I would do the boiling water trick and then use SPG for a seasoning.  Oil the outside of the bird with spray olive oil.  Cook at 375°.  I did this with a test breast last night and it turned out GREAT.  Crispy skin!

Here's the latest ratio (by weight) of SPG that I'm super pleased with.

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Sea salt 62.97%
Granulated Garlic (not powder) 26.68%
Fine Black Pepper 10.35%

My experience with cooking it (no spatchcock and in zone 4) was that I had to start it upside down to get the bottom to heat up a little faster than the breast.  I suspect that this is because of the way that the heat in zone 4 behaves (top down in PG vs other pellet grills where heat is from bottom up).

I did a 12# spatchcocked turkey today on my PG500.  Zone 4, 325 degrees.  I also put it up on about a 3" aluminum roasting pan to catch the drippings.  It was mostly done in the breast and thighs in 1 1/2 hours.   160 breast, 175-180 thighs.  BUT when I probed deeply with my thermapen, the breast was only 145-150 and the bottom side of the thighs were only 145-150.  My first thought is it is due to the top-down heat.  But other factors I have to consider are 1) the large pan blocking some airflow and 2) I only let the turkey acclimate towards room temperature out of the refrigerator for about 30 min.  Does anyone else have experiences like this ?  Until I come up with a better plan, I think I'll have to start the bird breast-side down for maybe 45 min. because I want to catch the drippings. 

PG500 at 325 - Brined 38 hours with clove/garlic/onion/orange.  Tented with foil... No injection.  160 breast/180 leg... Crispy skin and very juicy.  Guests were happy campers.