Smoking meats fully cured in brine might be a bit of a stretch for a self professed noob
soak in a brine solution overnight is usually a good start for wild game though, i have found. I have no experience making jerky or otherwise dehydrated food with a smoker. I used this process for years and ti works pretty well. I would not, however, do this with a prime cut of meat, but the shoulder, rump, even shanks come out pretty good. Tried it with a whole suckling pig, and it comes out amazing.
Mix 3/4 cup of salt (any salt, doesn't matter), 1/4 cup of sugar, and 4 cups of water to dissolve. Make as much of this as you need to FULLY submerge your meat. Stick it in the fridge for anywhere from 12-24 hours. This will get rid of some of the "gamey" taste that some people complain about.
Take your meat out of the brine and pat it dry with a towel. The (not so) secret to a good smoked roast, ribs, etc, is the dry rub. You'll have to add, subtract, substitute, and make your own recipe to your taste, but this is a decent start:
1/4 cup coarse salt
3 tbsp paprika
3 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbst onion powder
3 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp ground black or white pepper
1tbsp ground cayenne pepper
You can leave out the cayenne if you don't like it too spicy. Once this is all mixed together, you literally just grab handfuls of it and rub it into the meat. I like to use a decent coating of it (you might have to make 3-4 times the recipe for something large like a brisket or pork butt) as the crust that it forms helps keep the juices in. If you really want to, you could brown it in a large pan with HOT oil, but the crust can break up and flake off.
I just put it in the smoker, preheated to around 300 farenheit, until it starts to just look slightly cooked on the outside (half an hour to 45 minutes for a 10lb pork butt). Then, turn it down to about 175-200 and leave it for at least 3-4 times as long as you would if you were cooking it in the oven. Ribs I would do for about 4 or 5 hours, that pork butt would go in for at LEAST 8, and a whole brisket i would leave in for a full 12 hours. Yuo can get it done on higher heat if you want, but it'll be tough. Also, the fattier the cut of meat, the better! If i was doing say, a venison shoulder, i'd probably cover the top side with bacon or pork belly if it didn't have a substantial piece of fat still attached.
After this, the meat should be slmost falling apart. Like difficult to get out of the smoker falling apart. You can roughly chop it against the grain so the strings aren't too long. Throw it on a bun, or just on a plate, apply BBQ sauce, and enjoy!
Here's the BBQ sauce recipe i use. The recipe is rather large, so you might want to scale it down, put it in jars, or give some away. It's NOT a diet conscious or calorie wise sauce!!
3lbs chopped onions
1/2 lb peeled garlic cloves
1/2 lb butter NOT OIL
Cook on medium heat until the onions and garlic are starting to caramelize. Pour in a cup or red wine to deglaze the pot (get the brown stuck on sugars off of the bottom) then add:
One large can of ketchup
2 cups molasses
2 cups double strength brewed coffee
2 cup sugar
2 cup vinegar
2 cups dijon mustard
1 cups chili powder
1/2 cup coarse black pepper
mix well and simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for a couple of hours until it has reduced by about an inch in depth. Then, break out the hand mixer/immersion blender and buzz it until it is as smooth as you would like. At this point, you can gauge the thickness and either reduce more, or yuo could add a little more wine or water to loosen it up a bit if it's too thick. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can buzz the garlic and onions in a food processor until they're pretty much mush, before or after they're cooked.
