pork butt / pulled pork (I'm a bit nervous)

220° dome will give you about 190° grate. It would be safer to go 250° dome.

Start checking the tenderness of the cuts at about 195° it should be ready anywhere from 195° to 200°.

I haven't used Picnic Shoulders for pulled pork before, here are some thoughts.

If you leave the skin & fat on you won't have much/any bark. Make sure you diamond cut the meat or no seasoning will get into the meat.

For pulled pork, I would take as much off the skin as possible and reduce the outer fat if needed. Then mustard and season.

Go to thirdeye's site and read his comments on pulled pork.

One thing is pork is pretty darn forgiving and is a great eat.

GG

Other quick thoughts.

I read dry mustard. I'm not sure if you meant as part of your rub or not, but I lather on the prepared yellow mustard before I apply my rub.

I think a dome temp of 250 will be a lot easier to maintain, and will ensure you're closer to your 15 hour mark.

I just reread, and if you have two small ones, plan your time on the weight of them individually. Not the total.

Lastly, just some food for thought. If you put the piggies on at midnight, or 1am, they would finish between 3pm and 4pm. You could wrap them in heavy duty foil, towels and place in a warmed cooler for up to 4 hours before you pulled the pork. They'll probably still be too hot to mess with. This would give you plenty of time on the front side of serving and you wouldn't run the risk of foregoing a resting period before you burned your hands while trying to pull them in a rush.

Of course, its just my opinion. They are forgiving, and you probably won't have leftovers.

go for 250 dome... the egg sorta "grooves" aty 250. 220 is a little low, frankly. my butts take nearly 2.5/3 hours a pound at 225

You might want to try and cut and remove the skin in one piece.Then apply your rub and seasonings on the shoulder then lay the skin back on.This will baste the meat as it cooks and you have the benefit of the rub being right on the meat. Have done this many times and it turns out well. You can also take a little of the bark from the skin and pulse it a few times in the food processor and mix it in with the pulled pork.Just don't put any pieces in that feel real hard.Once you handle it you will know what I mean.Good luck.

Holding the done meat in a cooler works well and is popular among the forum members.

I went to walmart and picked up 2 yards of fleece, like what one sees in a stadium blanket. When the meat is done on the egg. I pull and wrap in foil keeping the seam on top. Then I wrap in the fleece blanket and put it on the counter or in the oven (off of course). Remember and keep the seam of the foil upright so the juices won't leak into the blanket and on counter.

I have kept ribs and pork hot for 5 to 6 hours.

GG

As above, go with a 250 dome.

I've done picnics several times before, and will assume that they are both about 7.5 pounds each. 3 out of 4 times, the picnics I have done cooked really quickly, between 9 and 12 hours for 7 - 8 lb picnics. So be prepared to have a good "cooler" to store the finished meat till serving. Double wrapped in foil, then 2 towels, and with a couple quart jars of hot water, a picnic I "coolered" when it reached 200+ was still 160 5 hours later.

The first one I cooked, I scored the skin. The rub doesn't get to the meat very well, and the skin is pretty much inedible. The second time, I cut off the skin, but took off too much of the fat underneath. That almost was burned. Next time, I cut the skin off, rubbed the picnic, and laid the fat on for half the cook. The meat was moist, but the bark wasn't too good. Next time I was as careful as I could be, and just removed the skin. That was best.

Be sure to have a really sharp knife for removing the skin. It is very tough. I have a pretty good small "deba" style knife, but if you have a "skinner" hunting knife that would be good too.

Don't worry too much. The picnics are a very good cut of meat, and even if not pullable, are very tastey.