This is my first attempt at a complete cook report with a little review of my Shotgun Smoker. I purchased the smoker earlier this year. It seems to offer a lot for the price. Along with the smoker I ordered he CyberQ. It arrived well packaged and was in good shape out of the box. It is a cabinet smoker and has reverse flow assuming the pan is in place. More to come.
You can see the exhaust for the chamber in the back. The pan is removed so you can see the fire box below. I also attached two photos showing the fire box with the coal basket and ash pan removed followed by one photo with the ash pan in place.
DavidNorcross had inquired out these smokers earlier in January and SmokinBrian seemed to be the only member who had one. Here is my take on the unit. Seems to be a good bag for the buck. There are really two problems that could be addressed in future models assuming BBQGuru folks continue down this road. For what it is worth, they sell these units but they are not front and center on their site.
1. You must use a Guru fan or something similar to run this unit. There is no damper to provide air to the firebox other than the hole the fan attaches to.
2. The temperature probes must go through the door, then into the firebox. The lead wires are padded by the insulation gasket. While that seems to work just fine, they should have put a hole in the side so you could pass the temperature probe leads to the outside without going through the door. When they go through the door, they represent clutter that you have to deal with when you check on your cook. I'm worried I will pinch a lead.
Otherwise seems to be a good unit. There are two wheels in the back along with a handle. You can tilt the unit back on those wheels for movement. Retrospectively, they should put some casters in the front but not a big deal.
Once trimmed I had about a 12 lb packer. Dry-brined for about 15 hours with 6 tsp of Kosher salt. Got up at 3:00 A.M. and lit the coals. Put on the rub (6 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp granulated garlic). Set the Guru to 225F. Loaded the meat in at 3:57 A.M. Set the target temp at 195F. Went back to bed. Below is a photo of the meat before loading and my coal set with mesquite wood.
Now for the real fun. Unit ran just fine. Held a perfect temp for several hours, then the temp went up for some unknown reason. May have caught more smoke wood on fire (no big deal). Fan was not running. I could have closed the exhaust some to slow it down a little but since I considered this somewhat of an experiment, I left it alone. Meat hit the temp and I went out with my temp probe to inspect. Point was good but the flat was considerably cooler and not very tender. UncleFester discussed this phenomenon not long ago. I move the probe to the flat and continued on. Below you will see the probe in the point, then when I move it to the flat. The graph shows the temperature change when I opened the door and moved the probe. You will also note the smoke chamber even went higher. Guess it got another whiff of O2. Dutifully I didn't fiddle with it. Just watched. The meat hit the temp within another hour or so. I probed again and the flat was noticeably more tender. Pulled it, wrapped in foil, then held in faux cambro until later that evening. Probably 4 hours at least. Temp at serving was about 145F or so. Other photos show the probe in the point, then moved to the flat, the finished product just before cutting. Sliced and served with creamed spinach. All in all, I learned a lot and I think I could improve things significantly. Had lots of leftover that we will use in other dishes. Hopefully, this will be helpful to others.
Awesome. Thank you for the review. Seems as if they commit to continuing development they will have a very strong cooker. Looking forward to seeing your cooks!
About 1K more would have got me an equivalent sized Backwoods smoker. I couldn't justify that at this point in time. This should last a long time. My next purchase way down the road will be a offset stick burner.
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
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You can always drill into the side of the unit and run some high temp silicone grommets through for your probes. I have considered doing this with my KBQ.
As for the temp spike, sometimes more lump gets going at different times in the cook, sometimes wind or even humidity changes. For this reason, it is usually recommended that the dampers be open just a sliver. You want the fan to be the only means of air being forced into the fire box.You do want some draft so the air has somewhere to go, but you also want to make sure that high winds, rain etc do not effect the temps while you are away. Now this was recommended to me for kaamdos and that is the only thing I have run controllers on, but I would suspect it is applicable to any rig out there.
Again, great looking cook and awesome color on that briz!
I am sure our friend Max Good would love to see this as well. I know the Onyx has been replaced by this model so I am sure Max will be curious to hear your thoughts.
I here you regarding the damper. I wanted to close it down but I resisted for experimental purposes. Next time I'll tighten it up a good bit.
I have another mod in my oven. I ordered a custom cut baking stone. This can be used to replace the water pan , yet should provide significant help with temperature spikes. It is 3/4" thick. Ordered it from https://bakingstone.com.
Hi: Can you tell me what size stone you ordered and how it is working out? Also, does anyone have experience with drilling through a Shotgun Smoker to run probe wires? Tha would be some very helpful information.
Great write up! I like the fact that you left it alone and watched. I’ve learnt lots myself doing that. @Spinaker’s suggestions are good, drill a hole to get the wires in. And the brisket looks good!
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