Jerky Question

[Summertime77]

I am going to try my first attempt at making jerky in my Bradley. Just some simple ground beef jerky. I purchased the jerky gun from Hi Mountain Seasonings. The instructions says to smoke for 1.5hrs @ 180F. I am reading about some much longer smoking times on some of the posts.

Anyone have any guidance on smoking time/temps??

Thanks

[FLBentRider]

You probably don't want to apply more than 1.5 hours of smoke, but it won't be done in 1.5 hours.

More like 3-5 hours, depending on how much jerky you are doing.

I would rotate the racks top to bottom and front to back every hour, or the bottom rack and back half of the racks will be done sooner than the rest.

[RAF128]

As you get close to the end keep a close watch so it doesn't get too dry and brittle.   Should bend, not break

[OU812]

180 F is to hot for making jerky, should be more like 155 to 160 tops.

At 180 you are cooking it, with 155 you are more like dehydrating it.

Keep the vent wide open the whole time also dump the drip pan and put back empty after the smoke.