High-water mark
665.0516
career-best overall
92.4% of a perfect 720
Their best day on record: 665.0516 at East Helena Smoke Show — 92.4% of a perfect 720.
- Master
- Aug 5, 2023
Bird Dog BBQ
Bird Dog BBQ is a competition barbecue team with 6 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2018 and 2024. Their best overall finish is 14th of 18 at the East Helena Smoke Show (2024). They finished #770 in the 2024 Master Series Team of the Year standings.
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1481
Unranked — needs 5 rated contests, has 41 invitational or side-series contest not counted
Contests
6
in the data
First seen
May 18, 2018
latest Aug 9, 2024 · 6.2 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
0
0 podiums
Overall top-10s
0
0% of 6 contests
Avg finish
top 77%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
33%
contests with a top-10 call
Consistency
±86.89
spread of their Master overall scores (lower = steadier)
Strongest meat
Pork
avg 164.41 · weakest Chicken (155.51)
Road miles
3,307
across 6 mapped stops · furthest 999 mi
Schedule strength
60%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1576)
Purse competed for
$57K
listed at 4 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 4 state-championship entries
Master avg
601.20 / 720
4 Master contests · 0 GCs
Team of the Year (rank per category by season — the year links to the full board on kcbs.us)
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 ↗ | Master | #770 (176 pts) | #797 (186 pts) | #943 (141 pts) | #729 (221 pts) | #827 (166 pts) |
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to Bird Dog BBQ, each with one reason worth a look.
Bird Dog BBQ has 4 rated contests, short of the five a power ranking needs, so its rating is still close to the 1500 every team starts on and 133 rated teams sit within a point of it.
#4,126 of the rated field
- Contests
- 7
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1480
Careers of much the same size, 7 contests to 6, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#4,140 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1509
Level with Bird Dog BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#4,113 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1481
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 6, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#4,119 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1480
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 6, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#4,097 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1481
They were already cooking in 2013, 5 years before Bird Dog BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Compare careers#4,104 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1481
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 6, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careersBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 167.4172 | 135.3600 | 155.51 | top 75% |
| Pork Ribs | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 166.3088 | 151.4172 | 157.56 | top 81% |
| Pork | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 174.2628 | 150.8228 | 164.41 | top 54% |
| Brisket | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 161.6916 | 151.9200 | 158.24 | top 76% |
“Calls” = top-10 category finishes (getting called to the stage). Scores here are the final weighted totals KCBS publishes; per-criterion appearance/taste/tenderness marks aren’t in the public results feed.
By field size and state
By contest size
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 1 | 0 | top 78% |
| Medium (20–39) | 3 | 0 | top 77% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Helena Smoke Show | 2 | 14 | 0 | top 68% | Aug 9, 2024 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2024
2 contests
Contests a season
1.2
across 5 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
MT
2 of 6 contests · 5 states in all
Contests visited
4
1 of them more than once
Most-entered meat
Chicken
5 entries · 0 wins · 1 call
Opponents faced
147
finished ahead 50 times, behind 117
Longest layoff
4.1 yrs
Jun 21, 2019 → Aug 5, 2023
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20241 milestone
- Most recent contest East Helena Smoke Show
20235 milestones
- First call East Helena Smoke Show
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score665.0516 East Helena Smoke Show
- Career-best overall score665.0516 East Helena Smoke Show
- Career-best single call (Pork)174.2628 East Helena Smoke Show
- Peak power rating (1488) East Helena Smoke Show
20171 milestone
- First tracked contest Boats, Bands, & BBQ
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +0.7 | East Helena Smoke Show | Aug 5, 2023 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -13.2 | 23rd Annual Platte City BBQ Cook Off at Basswood Resort | May 18, 2018 |
| -5.6 | East Helena Smoke Show | Aug 9, 2024 |
| -1.5 | Smoke-N-Wings | Jun 28, 2024 |
Scores over time (% of a perfect score — tap a meat to add it)
Overall finish over time (top-% of field, lower is better)
Where they finish (overall)
Best vs average (by meat)
How entries end (by meat)
Season by season
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50% | top 75% | 90.8% | 89.4% |
| 2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 58% | 92.4% | 92.4% |
| 2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | — | 77.3% | 77.3% |
| 2018 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 100% | 62.8% | 62.8% |
| 2017 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | — | — | — |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 9, 2024 | East Helena Smoke Show 🏅 East Helena, MT | 14 / 18 (634.1484) | 9 (167.4172) | 17 (151.9656) | 11 (162.8456) | 15 (151.9200) |
| Jun 28, 2024 | Smoke-N-Wings 🏅 Blackfoot, ID | 20 / 28 (653.6916) | 24 (161.7256) | 24 (160.5488) | 14 (169.7256) | 21 (161.6916) |
| Aug 5, 2023 | East Helena Smoke Show 🏅 East Helena, MT | 14 / 24 (665.0516) | 16 (163.3828) | 13 (166.3088) | 4 (174.2628) | 17 (161.0972) |
| Jun 21, 2019 | Silicon Valley BBQ Championship 🏅 unrated Santa Clara, CA | 19 (278.1600) | 19 (135.3600) | — | — | — |
| May 18, 2018 | 23rd Annual Platte City BBQ Cook Off at Basswood Resort Platte City, MO | 37 / 37 (451.9200) | 36 (149.6800) | 33 (151.4172) | 33 (150.8228) | — |
| May 19, 2017 | Boats, Bands, & BBQ Pueblo, CO | — | — | — | — | — |
An unrated contest — an invitational, or a Competitor or Kosher Series board — is in the record but doesn’t move the power rating.