Old Country BBQ Pits Grills & Smokers

The Pecos is the entry point into all-welded offset smokers and the model that exposes the gap between a $430 box-store pit and a real one: 14-gauge steel with 11-gauge doors, welded rather than bolted, at 222 lbs on a 630 sq in grate. Old Country BBQ Pits is a Texas manufacturer that sells almost exclusively through Academy Sports + Outdoors, which is why the brand is under-covered relative to how well regarded it is.

The Wrangler steps the Pecos up from 14-gauge to 11-gauge steel with 3/16-inch doors, and adds a hot plate over the firebox for searing and pot work. Total grate area is 920 sq in across a main and an upper rack. At $750 it is the cheapest 11-gauge offset sold new in the US, and the thickness jump is the reason it runs noticeably steadier in wind and cold than the Pecos.

The Brazos is the pit that made Old Country's reputation: quarter-inch plate steel, all welded, 429 lbs, with a 5.5-inch grate-level smokestack that pulls smoke across the meat rather than over it. It is the cheapest quarter-inch offset sold new in the US by a wide margin, which is why it is the default recommendation for anyone who wants Texas-pit behaviour without a two-thousand-dollar custom build. The All-American trim is the current Academy configuration and includes the counterweighted door.