[flyingbassman5]

Originally Posted by Bob in St. Louis

Good conversation guys. A healthy debate. Love it!

Bassman, what STL comp were you in?

It was the Holy Smokers comp in Valley Park. Was my 1st one and did darn good with the ribs for my first time out.

Originally Posted by Lake Dogs

Hopefully we didnt say anything contrary to this. Great quality smokers dont make great quality BBQ; experience (aka. practice, practice, practice) does.

But, like Bandit said, it's about his 3 factors (I cannot see them here), but things like learning curve really play into it. I'm probably the goofus that mentioned competition first. My point wasnt that he could or should compete (or not), but that the smoker is good enough that some quality competitors use them with very good success. Not me, mind you, I prefer my heavy-as-hell Lang, but that wasn't what he was asking. I think I understand the guy, because 20 years ago I was there. I wish I'd purchased the WSM then... I'd have saved a lot of money wasted on mediocre equipment and meat ruined.

Going a little higher in money, look to the very versatile cookers like Acorn, Primo, BGE, Bubba Keg, etc. They're darned good smokers and darned good grills (and please understand that smoking and grilling are quite different).

Then, towards the upper end of those prices you begin to get into the prices of (IMHO) worthwhile offset smokers and some cabinet smokers.

And up, and up, and up.... :-)

Agreed. Competition or not, its a combination of cook plus cooker plus experience that equals great Q.. And to think my teachers in high school said I was bad at math!!