Pork butt skin

All of the pork butts I have ever purchased have not had skin on them. Maybe you are getting some non-commercially cut butts.

No matter. I would trim the skin off as the rub will really penetrate the skin. And keeping the skin really is not necessary to maintain moistness in the butt as the butt is already a fairly fatty piece of meat throughout it.

Try it with the skin trimmed off and possibly even some of the outside fat if there is too thick a layer. Let us know how you like it.

Thanks for the insight that is exactly what I did I will keep you posted.

the shoulders I get around here have skin on one side, the butts don't have any skin. When doing the shoulders with still skin on I don't bother to season the skin and smoke it skin side down; less bark but always turns out nice and moist.

I smoked a pork shoulder once and left the skin on. I cross cut the skin all the way through a half inch apart and rubbed as usual. The skin shrunk during the smoke as you would expect, allowing the wood to impart smoke flavor to meat. It also made for an interesting and unique presentation prior to pulling.

Leaving the skin on or off is a matter of choice. If smoking a pork shoulder or picnic ham, I remove it as it's basically inedible and rub doesn't penetrate.

Some folks may be hinting that it could be the picnic-the lower half of the shoulder.
Some folks will cut a large T around a full picnic,cook 3-4 hrs and remove from cooker.The skin may easily be removed and the meat seasoned.