Gurgling, gargling oh my

[SortaGray]

I am new to the pipe. Toward the end of a smoke I heard this gurgling sound. Alarming! I dumped out the tobacco and checked the pipe but it appeared normal. Was this some king of weird anomaly with the pipe or the tabacco? Should I try to 'fix' it?

 

[SortaGray]

I found from May of 2016, related post:

So, I cleaned it out and drill bitted the tenon to no avail. It still gurgled on me the other night. Come to find out it may have been the weather bit more than anything. We got some rain today during church and the sun came out nicely afterword. Now it is smoking fantastically!

Come to think of it, it may have been a bit of prayer as well lol. Thanks gents for the ideas.

 

[RDPipes]

Gurgling can be cause by the pipe itself but, usually you'll find that it's operator error and covers several things.
Tobacco too wet, puffing to much and needing to slow down ones cadence and as you've read, weather.
Now, I think we've all puffed a little too much at one time or another depending on our surroundings and mood.
We just have to remind ourselves to take it easy and slow down. Your tobacco will taste much better also.
On another note, I would not take upon yourself to drill a pipe out for several reasons.
You can really screw it up if you're not knowledgeable about sizes of drafts and airways and using a drill motor to do it.
Also, it may not be the draft hole but, the chamber drilled too deep below the draft that is doing it which is basically unrepairable unless you want to fill the bottom of the chamber with pipe mud or the like.
Sometimes its as simple as counter sinking the tenon. So if one knows it's the pipe, they should send it to someone that knows there way around pipe repair and or the making of.

 

[Brewdude]

Cart offers good advice.

I can only add that gurgling for me seems to come down to moisture level (primarily), pack, cut, and smoking cadence. Yes the pipe itself might be suspect but if the former things are attended to then it should all but eliminate this.



Cheers,

RR

 

[Zeno Marx]

Some pipes just do this. I have a great stout billiard that gurgles no matter what tobacco, season, or pace I smoke. It's somewhere in the draw engineering.

 

[Fazby]

The occasional gurgle? No problem. Run a pipe cleaner through to remove the excess moisture.

 

[Stick]

The occasional gurgle?  No problem. Run a pipe cleaner through to remove the excess moisture.

This! It's inevitable from time to time, just like having to relight. Three things I always have to hand when smoking; zippo, tamper and pipe cleaner.

 

[Jevverrett]

The occasional gurgle?  No problem. Run a pipe cleaner through to remove the excess moisture.

This is true.

I'm guessing you're smoking a briar? The pipe I was whining about was a meer I've been trying to smoke the life out of for some time now. It's back to its normal, cheery self. I'm smoking it now with no issue. Entirely different animal though, meerschaums.

 

[SortaGray]

Hey, thanks for the info and insights. Because I am so new at this, I think I'll watch temp, moisture, and try to slow down. I am so new I haven't yet really found my "cadence" and I suspect i am trying to hard. Good advice to say away from tools and drills. That's certainly what my wife tells me. At least I am not concerned and know what may be going on is relatively normal.

Many thanks,
Michael