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[BigDave83]

After the review here I decided I was buying one of these either the 5 or 7 series. After looking Cabelas had a deal I couldn't pass up with sales and special discount day plus my Cabelas points I had I got the 7 delivered for 265 bucks,


Put it together yesterday and burned it off at 350 for about 45 minutes and then decided to toss on 14 chicken legs, left it at 350 and went for an hour, did have water in the pan, used some rub I make up. They came out great, the GF who usually only does bland boneless skinless breasts even liked them. Internal temps were 170-190.

[Bar-B-Lew]

anything not to like about this unit?

[ScottE]

Thanks. Looking forward to more cook reports, as I'm seriously considering picking one of these up in about 3 weeks. I'm a little bit hesitant on buying another Danson smoker due to the generally poor smoke generation and controller programming of my CS450. So far the low temp performance of the Copperhead looks promising.

[BigDave83]

anything not to like about this unit?

So far that was the first cook, have ribs on now, and I just cut up 10 pounds of eye for jerky, probably do it Tuesday or Wednesday, It sounds tinny, the door should have more than one latch as it is in the center it pulls against a rubber seal and there is a gap at the bottom and top side of the door. The maybe 2" hard plastic wheels kind of suck and will probably be replaced if I can find something bigger with the right bolt pattern or I may need to make some sort of adapter plate. The water pan is a pain but I guess you have that.

I don't have a Tapecue or anything like that to measure temps through out, I did watch the controller for a few cycles yesterday, set at 350 it would drop to 330 and then run up to 365 then drop back down to 330.

[BigDave83]

Second cook, BBR, said extra meaty, which they were compared to most we have gotten. put my rub in them and in at 225° at 4 hours I sauced the one rack and left go another 30 minutes, they probably could have used another 30-45 minutes but the bone still was mostly clean after eating. Put a gallon of water in the pan and it went through half of during the cook. Ribs were on the same rack in the close the center of the cooker not close the heat like I had the chicken.

I would bet with some careful placement one could get 3 rack to s cooking rack so that would be 18 racks of ribs in this thing.

Cooking set point was 225° it would drop to 215 and then go up to 245-250 then back down. Not sure what the temp was at the cooking grate, only went by the display.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Any difference in the cooker performance or flavor compared to what you used to cook the ribs on?

[BigDave83]

Any difference in the cooker performance or flavor compared to what you used to cook the ribs on?

Not really, not much different than the Rec Tec, but not as much of a smoke flavor compared to the GMG Davey Crockett, but that thing puffs smoke at 300. Same pellets. I did not spritz like I had in the past, but the surface still wss not dried out and hard, had a bark but easily cut through with a knife when cutting them up.

[Bentley]

So is this also a 5 rack?

[Bar-B-Lew]

So is this also a 5 rack?

It doesn't look much bigger than the 5 series to me from that pick.  I was actually surprised at how big the 5 series is.

[BigDave83]

Before buying I was looking at the manuals for both on the Pit Boss site. It listed the 7 series as being only 4" taller than the 5 I don't think the 4" and one rack is really worth the 200 extra in the prices I see.

This has 6 racks so far I am happy with it, my next cook will be jerky either wed. or thurs.

It is still a lot of cooker for one a one person home. I see the Rec Tec getting cleaned up and being put up for sale. Probably never get rid of the Davey Crockett, I love that little thing.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I would have bought the 7 if I was in your position with the gift cards, discounts, etc.

[BigDave83]

Jerky Day. Found eye of round for 2.69/# picked up 2 and after trimming and slicing I ended up with a few ounces shy of 10 pound. Using a jerky seasoning for Daves Butcher Supply, it said was for 12 pounds there was enough cure for 25 so I measured out 2 teaspoons and directions said to add 1/2 cup soy sauce per 4 pounds, not a huge fan of the soy sauce flavored so I did 1 and 1 with water and used the whole seasoning. Marinaded the meat 3.5 days mixing once a day.

 Laid it out on the racks had 5 of the 6 racks used, pieces were not all uniform some were hand size and some were strips, fired it up and put the racks in at 8 am at 150° rotated racks at 1 pm and then checked it again at 3:30 discovered user error in the way I put it on the racks apparently effected the airflow to the left side the rear mostly, so I rotated some pieces again and decided to bump temp to 175° hoping a bit more warmer air moving around helps it along.

Sampled a couple of small pieces, a lot of smoke there hopefully once out that will mellow some like cheese does. Will update when it finishes.

Not sure how to get the pictures going the right direction.

[BigDave83]

Started with just under 10# ended up with 5.75#

I had sliced some of this on the thicker side, looking to make something like the Jack Links Kippered Beef, so the thicker pieces are not completely dry. It is close to the texture I was looking for, Glad I only used half the soy sauce, as it is more than enough for me. I left it sit in the smoker over night, the smoke flavor was not as strong today as it was yesterday, it could also be I was not getting the actual smoke in the air which made it more pronounced.

This was in for 9.5 hours.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Some of that looks like mini pastrami...haha.  Nice work.

[Free Mr. Tony]

Great color on those ribs.