Smoking a Deer Ham on a Pellet Grill: The Setup

This is the one I would point a first-time smoker toward. The Pro 34 bundle ships with the full-length cover and an 18 lb bag of Signature Blend pellets, so you are not buying two more things the day it arrives. The 34-inch barrel gives you room for a whole hindquarter plus a rack of something else, and the bundle discount is the largest dollar savings on any grill in this batch.

The Ironwood 650 has WiFi, which sounds like a gimmick until you are eight hours into a low cook and it is raining. Being able to check grate temperature from the kitchen is the difference between a relaxed Saturday and standing in the yard every forty minutes. 650 square inches is plenty for one deer, and this is flagged as a limited time deal so the window is short.

Same WiFi controller as the 650, with 885 square inches instead. Worth the jump only if you regularly cook for a crowd or process more than one deer at a time. If you are smoking a single ham a few times a fall, the 650 is the smarter buy and you keep the difference.

The Pit Boss 150 is the camp and tailgate option, with 256 square inches of grate and a 7 lb hopper. It runs from 180°F up to 500°F, and that 180°F low setting is genuinely useful for putting a smoke pass on venison before you finish it hotter. It sits at bestseller rank #13, the strongest sales signal in this whole group, and it pairs well with the rest of a WVU tailgate cooking setup.

A smoke tube is the cheapest fix for the thin smoke complaint. This one is 12 inches of 304 stainless and rated for about five hours of billowing smoke per fill, and you get two in the pack. Fill it, light one end, set it on the grate next to the ham, and you get a heavier smoke ring on a cut that only spends a few hours in the cooker.

A 21-inch insulated resting bag with a wide mouth, and honestly the best value item in this post. Deer ham needs to rest, and a towel-and-cooler setup works but is a mess. This holds heat and moisture without the cooler smelling like a hindquarter for a week, and it costs less than a bag of pellets.

Camp Chef’s 14 x 16 cast iron, with a grill side and a non-stick griddle side. This is for the trimmings. The odd bits off a hindquarter that do not make it into the smoker cook fine on a hot griddle surface, and cast iron holds temperature better than the thin steel plates in most flat top accessory kits. It is heavy, so it is a leave-it-in-place piece rather than something you pack.

A replacement fire pot and hot rod ignitor kit for Traeger grills, with screws and a fuse included. Buying the spare before you need it is the whole point, because a dead ignitor means no cook that day. Check the fitment notes against your exact model before ordering, since Traeger has changed pot dimensions across generations.

The HDW152 grease bucket, which is the part everyone loses or crushes. A long low cook on a fatty piece of meat can fill one, and running without it means grease down the side of your grill and onto the patio. Cheap enough to keep a second one on the shelf.

Pit Boss makes this scraper specifically for pellet grill interiors, and it gets into the burn pot and the drip tray angles that a wire brush skates over. Ash buildup in the pot is the second most common reason a pellet grill will not hold temperature. Rank #30 in its category tells you plenty of people figured that out.

This is the deepest discount in the entire garden pool this week at 59% off, and it is the OEM Traeger cover rather than a knockoff. Read the fitment carefully, because the BAC504 is cut for the Pro 780 specifically and a cover that is slightly wrong flaps and wears through. If your grill sits somewhere exposed, our notes on covers that survive windy conditions are worth reading before you pick a size.

Three Pop-and-Lock hooks that clip onto the Traeger front rail. Small thing, but having tongs and a thermometer hanging on the grill instead of set on the lid saves a lot of aggravation during a long cook. Only useful if your grill has the P.A.L. rail, so check before you add it.