>>1666299First off, welcome.
Second, you’re probably packing way too much tobacco into your pipe. Don’t worry too much about it, we’ve all done it when we were starting out too.
Before you light your tobacco test your pipe’s draw lightly. If you sense any restriction at all, you’ve packed it too tightly. Dump it and refill again with less tobacco. What I did when I was starting out was to just fill my bowl up to the top with tobacco once and didn’t tamp at all. Just light it and tamp lightly once the tobacco seems to be going out. It won’t win you any long smoking competitions, but you also won’t have any problems with your tobacco being packed too tight. You’ll be able to focus on the experience, and that’s what you really want anyway.
