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I know, I know, it has been a while since we did the unboxing/unwrapping of the BDS and now we’re giving you the review. All we can say is thanks for being patient. BDS or Big Drum Smokers are made out of North Carolina by a fella named Rocky Richmond. These simple but well designed units are very efficient in grilling and cooking via the “low and slow” method. We opted to purchase the 2339-1 model. This translates to 23″ wide and 39″ tall with 1 cook surface. This surface has a 10″ clearance before your meat is touching the lid. The idea of this smoker is kind of similar to the weber smokey mountain model. As you’ll see in the pic below.

There are 3 holes, like the one on the right, strategically placed around the bottom with plugs that you can remove to increase the temp or plug up to maintain or decrease the temp.

This smoker has an inner ring on the bottom for you to place your charcoal and/or wood chips. Here we have humphrey’s charcoal mixed with some wood chips that Rocky sends complimentary with his smokers. Having this inner ring is efficient in that it keeps the coals closer together than most charcoal grills, therefore it burns longer.

As you can see that the grill has plenty room. You are looking at 3 St. Louis style ribs laying side by side with space in between.

We opted for the optional $49 Tel Tru thermometer shown here. We really recommend this monitor as the other one hold too close to the grill wall which may cause your temp read to be a little off. This one has a bolt separating the back of the dial and the side of the grill.

We couldn’t be more happier with the way that this smoker performed. Our test cook ribs were great compared to when we did them on the Weber Smokey mountain smoker.

Pros

Plenty of cook surface

Controlling temp with holes on the bottom seem to be spot on

Great support forum should you run into an issue with your product

Customer service was awesome

Cleaning is easy as you only have to tip it over on the other end to empty the ash

CONS

May be considered a little expensive

Cannot leave in the elements like a weber grill

Other Notes

The cons on this list can somewhat be offset as the more seasoned grillmaster would not have an issue with the price of a smoker that performs this well. Also a seasoned grillmaster will keep great care of it by putting it away in an enclosed area when done cooking. Huckshut highly recommends this grill and, because they work the same, we recommend any of the larger models. There are 2 to 3 larger models than ours and there is also a stainless steel option.