First Smoke on my WSM

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silverhorn43

Newbie
Original poster
Feb 11, 2015
11
13
New Mexico
Was perusing Craigslist last Friday and found someone selling a 18.5" WSM for $135
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so I said why not?  Emailed him and picked it up Saturday morning. 

I had a pretty busy schedule Saturday as it was, so Sunday I cleaned her up and smoked a ham that afternoon for dinner.  Got Jeff's recipe a couple days before for his Double Smoked Ham, and figured that was pretty easy and inexpensive if I messed it up.  

OMG what a HUGE difference and pleasure smoking on this as opposed to my Brinkmann Smokin' Pit.  Took me about an hour or so to "figure it out" and stabilize my temps and then pretty much walked away.  Just out of habit from my Brinkmann, I'd walk out every 20-30 minutes just to check on it, but it was sitting rock solid at 240.  That was a pretty nice warm fuzzy, let me tell you.  The wife,  offspring and friends we had over were singing praises to me all night (or was it the WSM hmmmm, it was me, I'm sure of it!
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). 

So here is the picture trail of my first smoke with the WSM

Got it cleaned up (rather not be eating what the other guy cooked) and lined the water pan

Walked it back to the back where I do my smoking and got the charcoal ready (minion method of course).  Used a mix of Stubbs Briquettes and some Lump Coal I've been using, plus 4 sticks of Pecan.


I get it all put together, water in the pan, lid on tight and start cleaning up the area from the charcoal bags.  I walk back to check on my temps and realized I'd had a brain fart moment in all my excitement of getting my new toy and realized there was no thermometer on the WSM!!! 
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No worries, I'm pretty adaptable, so I stole one off my CoS Smokin' Pit, drilled a quick hole and



PRESTO!  I've got a thermometer!!!  Lined it up so 250 is TDC (suggestion I saw someone else on here recommend).  I'll run it like this for a couple more smokes and see if I can "deal with it" crooked!  LOL  It's nice seeing the needle straight up and down as a reference tho. 

I put the Ham on and let it go low n slow for 3 1/2 hours (10.3 lbs btw) and pulled it off at 145 IT and let it rest for about 15 minutes


2 hours


And done


I was so excited to eat I forgot to take a picture of it sliced open, but it was beautiful!! 

Overall, I had a wonderful experience with the WSM and see why a lot of you guys live and die by these. 

I have two mods on order as of this morning, 1) a replacement SS Door and 2) a gasket kit for the upper and lower body and door so I should have them by this weekend I hope.

I'll flip the door upside down and add the screws to help vent it as an additional mod.  Door I got with the WSM this weekend was pretty bent up and after about 20 minutes of messing with it, I got it close but sill not a good seal.

Thanks for your time on this long read...

Happy Smokin'!!!!
 
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Reactions: rmmurray and gary s
Nice and Nice   That smoker looks brand new  and that pork  Wow   great job   
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Gary
 
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