Comp Pork Butt

Greeting everyone!

So I'm stuck and in a rut. For some reason I have lost the ability to cook a proper pork butt for competitions. Either they are coming out really tough and difficult to get any usable pieces or they are overcooked and it's difficult to get any usable pieces. Since last year I've been pulling the money muscle off when it hits about 160-170 and then wrapping the rest to finish. I'm using the same flavor profile that I've used since I started (when I had much better success). This past weekend we cooked them until the money muscle was done, and then wrapped them up to finish. They never hit about 185 but when we went for turn ins they crumbled and were very mushy.

I've thought about changing the flavor profile altogether but if I'm not cooking it right then it doesn't matter what I'm using for a rub and injection. UGH! I just don't know what to do at this point. I'm frustrated by it. Two years bad pork cost the team two or three GC's. Now I'm at the point where I don't want to compete anymore because I can't seem to get this area of my cook down and I'm tired of having a bad cook pull me down.

Any advice or pointers would be appreciated. Thank you.

All excellent advice. I am using the same cookers so thats ruled out. The only thing I've done is change from 8 or 9 pound butts from Wegmans to getting a 20lb twin pack from Rest. Depot.

I butterfly the butts when trimming, inject about 10 hrs before I start cooking them. Smoker runs at 250 and I use hickory amd cherry, cooking with the fat cap side down. I didn't wrap my butts before and started to after my struggles began. I am considering going back to a little smaller of a shoulder and forgetting the wrap.

Struggles started in 2013.

Thanks for the help. Sounds like everyone has a similar process just varying times. I'm going to do a practice butt in the next week or two in advance of my next comp. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.