Your temps where is bit higher than mine. I like 140-150 for jerky. Just so I am not cooking it and only drying it 
My son told me to use 170 for 3 hours. I used BACKWOODS ORIGINAL. The instructions on the package said "heat oven to 200"...glad I used 170. Also added one load hickory chips to the MES at the beginning. I don't think I'll do that again...let the marinade be the flavor.
Mine has a good texture that is chewy but not tough at all.
Oh, and NOW he wants to get into making a smokin' his own sausage and, of course, wants me to try it as well. I wish he lived close by so we could work together on it.
Jaxon they tell you 200F to make sure and kill any bacteria and so they don't get sued. If you use the pink salt included in the backwoods package and marinate properly this high temp is not needed IMHO. You can use a high temp like 350F for the first 15 minutes to bring the meat up to a food safe temp then drop it down to 150F for the rest of the time. The key is to get the meat up to 165F. This is one way to pasteurize the meat and make it shelf safe. Strips of meat I would not worry about as much as ground beef jerky. Especially if you did not grind the meat yourself.
When making jerky you are technically drying the meat and not really cooking it. I like to stay in the 150F range.
Air movement and venting is important when making jerky. If using a smoker or oven without convection then constant rack rotation is needed for even drying.
Also different pieces will finish at different times. So you will need to pull out pieces as they finish. So having uniform strips with the same thickness is good.
And you don't need a lot of smoke. The meat is thin, wet, and able to absorb a lot of smoke. A hour of smoke should be plenty in the first hour if drying. If using smoke the entire time you will get a bitter taste IMHO.
Also don't use a water pan. Lower humidity is what you want. You can add salt to that pan to whisk some moisture out of the air to aid in drying a little bit.
