In 2004 Don purchased a used Brinkmann Pitmaster Deluxe so he could start smoking some ribs and brisket at home. Bob had a Brinkmann Smoke n Grill that was used primarily as a grill for tailgating. He did smoke some briskets and chickens on it from time to time, but due to the effort needed to use it as a smoker, it wasn’t used much to smoke.  

In the summer of 2006, Bob purchased an original Oklahoma Joe’s offset from his neighbor. It needed a little work to clean up, but it was solid and functional. After smoking quite often on that during the winter of 2006/07, Bob decided to upgrade to a larger smoker that took less effort. In the spring, he purchased a Backwoods Party.  From the first cook with this Backwoods, smoking was entirely a different experience and tending the pit became less time consuming. After a couple of competitions Don found a used Backwoods Gator and sold his Brinkmann. 

While the Party and the Gator provided plenty of room for competition smoking, Bob fell into the bigger is better theory and purchased a used Backwoods Competitor after finding a buyer for the Party. She’s a beast. 

Believing different smokers have various pros, and as an attempt to benefit from that Don sold his Backwoods Gator and purchased a Louisiana County Whole Hog after the 2008 season. In June 2009 we added another Louisiana County smoker so Bob would have one at home.

Visit our photo gallery for pictures of our smokers and other equipment.  You’ll see we also owned a Weber Smokey Mountain - which was a great smoker but we didn’t have a use for it with our current equipment so it was sold.