I'm really new to pipe smoking, started in April, and can echo some wisdom that's already here... and elsewhere.
Smoke SLOW. I had a lot of trouble with this. I think after three months of working at it that I've had some success recently.
If you get gurgle, or tongue bite, smoke SLOWER. Seriously! Or consider leaving the tobacco out to dry a bit before loading your pipe. Almost everything out there is too moist straight from the tin.
I agree with Doc above that getting the tongue into shape is part of the equation. I started out with very little bite, it seemed, but after a few weeks, there was definitely some discomfort, and I thought it was due to poor technique. Recently, I felt I turned the corner, and was finally smoking slow, but still experiencing a little bit of tongue bite with certain tobaccos, so I've taken a break. My tongue is probably at 85% at the moment, after four or five days off. I figure I'll give it another five days to a week or so, and then get back into it. I suspect once I start over with a good clean healthy tongue that's been exposed to a few months of pipe smoke, and using much better technique, I should have better results.
Finally, what are you smoking in? I find the combination of new pipe smoker and new briar pipe to be basically terrible. My best experiences early were with estate pipes (even if they weren't cleaned all that well, because I didn't know any better, at least they were broken in) or with Kirsten pipes. Now that I know a bit more of what I'm doing, and my first couple of new pipes have had five or ten bowls each through them, we get along a LOT better.
Learning to smoke a pipe is a journey... I fully expect that a year from now, I'll still be learning things that improve my smoking experience!
BTW Carter Hall is very easy to smoke, burns well, and great flavor. Love it. Prince Albert is good too but has less flavor and more nicotine and doesn't burn quite as well from my limited experience. I like both tobaccos. FWIW supposedly the version in the tub is superior to the pouch, as they use less PG for the tub version. (I've never tried the pouch, only the tub, so this is all second hand...) So if you're smoking the pouch version and like it, do yourself a favor and try a tub.
