BPS drum vs Pellet cooker: Turkey battle

Mrs scooter and I always like to have a turkey dinner a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Sort of a prep for the big day. Went to Costco today and the turkeys are in, Foster Farms for $.99/lb. They also have organic for $2.99/lb.
Bought a 12lb'r (non organic) and decided to do a cooker face off, MAK vs BPS drum.

Note: I cut out the backbone and placed it with the neck onto the MAK before cooking the bird. When the backbone and neck were cooked I placed them into a pot with water and celery then boiled it down to a yummy turkey stock. Made a roux and added the turkey stock. After the bird halves were done and resting in the dripping pan I added some water to the drippings and loosened them up then strained it and added the dripping stock to the gravy. Sensational!

I split the bird right down the middle and seasoned each half exactly the same with garlic olive oil, Jalapeno Seasoned Salt, Desert Gold and Plowboys Yardbird (on the skin).


One half on the MAK with BM hickory pellets


The other on the SS drum with K blue bag briquets and a chunk of applewood


Halfway done flip over


Done and resting, MAK on the left, drum on the right


Appearance of the MAK skin


Appearance of the BPS drum skin


Appearance of the MAK skin


Appearance of the BPS drum skin


Plated with mashed taters and gravy, peas and cranberry sauce. MAK turkey on the left, drum on the right. Now for the results of taste and texture. Both my daughters thought the MAK produced the best tasting bird while Mrs scooter and I preferred the BPS drum turkey. The Jalapeno Season Salt with Desert Gold was a great combo on the bird! Looks like I'll be splitting my birds from now on to please the entire family! It's great to have multiple cooker options on the back deck.

beautiful Scooter!

Great side by side comparison. Appears everyone is a winner

Which cooker required the most attention during the cook and which cleaned up with the least amount of work?

After a showing lie that I will be over for thanksgiving. I can bring the dressing.

Turkey cooked on two different cookers. Judging by the way it looks I believe I'd need at least a second helping of each to come close to a decision!

Wow Scott, lookin Gu,ooo,oood! I guess I'll have to put my drum together, so I can compare.

........................................ ZEP

Daniel, you gotta try a drum! SoCal, the drum cruises as easy as the MAK. Get it to the right temp set the vents and it will cruise for hours. And the MAK takes a little longer to clean up than the drum but not much.

A couple of great looking birds Scoot! I'll take a plate of each thank you.

Thanks for the info Scooter. I hope my bird comes out looking as good as yours.

What temp did you both the smokers/grills set to? and how long did it take time wise?

I was looking at the clock out on my back deck which had stopped working some day previous (dead battery) so I mistakenly thought it was 2 hours later than it acutually was. Thought I had my back to the wall so started the cookers at 350+. On the drum that actually converts to about 380ish in the center (with heat diverter in place). Pretty sure the drum hit 430+ in the center for a period of time (which explains the dark skin, it's shouldn't be that dark).
After some time cooking I noticed on one of the clocks in the house that it was 2 hours earlier than I thought so lowered the cooker temps to about 325ish for the duration of the cook. If memory serves, I think it took 2.5 hours to cook. I didn't take any notes and I don't recall exactly what time I put them on but recall they finished around 8pm. Don't really take notes anymore but I should.
Both halves finished about 10 minutes apart. One was a little over 165 in the breast the other a little under 165.