Nearly ruined 2 briskets at a comp in Tulsa by trusting the wrapped temp over the feel

Grant Singh · 2026-09-15T11:40:04.102781+00:00

So last month at a small comp outside Tulsa I had two briskets on the same drum, both running about 275 all night, and around the 8 hour mark my thermometer said the flats were sitting at 203 so I pulled them right then. Big mistake. The one I let rest for an hour was fine, but the other one I sliced after 30 minutes and the flat was dry as a bone while the point was still kind of tough. Turns out my probe was reading about 6 degrees high near the edge of the flat and I never checked it in boiling water that morning like I usually do. A pitmaster set up two spots down from me, older guy named Ray who has been doing this since the 90s, watched me slice and just said 'that one needed another 40 minutes, you can't rush the probe to tell you what your hand already knows.' I ended up placing 14th out of 31 in brisket, which honestly could have been top 10 if I had just probed the middle and felt for that soft butter texture instead of staring at a number. Now I check my probes in boiling water before every cook and I go by feel on the flat no matter what the readout says. Has anyone else had a probe drift on them mid cook, and do you toss it or just adjust your numbers?

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Nearly ruined 2 briskets at a comp in Tulsa by trusting the wrapped temp over the feel | BBQ Pitmasters - Librear