Tell me what I did RIGHT

Smoked MANY turkeys over the years and seems like most taste great and look decent but this one turned out PERFECT for me, GREAT smoke rings as well

2 things i did different this year

1-Brined the birds(did 2 for Christmas)

2-put a drip pan on bottom rack of smoker, wife used that to make gravy

Normally my birds taste great and smoke them on 275 on preheated MES

The 2 birds I did this week turned out great BUT the last one "looked" much better

I am guessing the drip pan kind of made the heat/smoke more even instead of going straight up the middle, seems most all of the birds I do the skins seems to "crack" or something

This one did not, the drip pan was an idea by my wife so she could make gravy and I took the pan out after the bird had been on about 4 hours before I started spritzing with apple juice

Also instead of apple I used cherry chips

I did NOT used drip pan on first bird, did it for wife's boss, and it turned out like all the others I have done over the years but they LOVED it

Here is pic of my finished bird, wished I had taken pics of the cut to see smoke ring