Is pulled pork done at 165 or 180?

It is safe well before it will pull. At 165°F or even 180°F a butt is still tight, and you will shred it into chunks. This plan aims at about 203°F, then a bone that moves or a fork that twists easily.

Should I trust the bone or the thermometer?

Use both. The thermometer gets you to the neighborhood. The bone, on a bone-in butt, is the test: it should wiggle free with little force. A fork in a boneless roast should twist with almost no pressure. If the number is 203°F and the meat still fights, wait.

Does the rub change the done temperature?

No. The pork butt rub changes color and salt. The pull temperature stays in the same place. A sweet rib rub is a different cook and a different page.

Internal temp for pulled pork

The internal temp for pulled pork is about 203°F, and then you still check the meat. On a bone-in butt the blade should wiggle free, and on a boneless roast a fork should twist with little pressure. A lower number can be safe to eat and still refuse to pull into strands, because the connective tissue hasn't softened yet.

Why the strands wait

A pork butt has a lot of connective tissue and fat in a thick piece. It passes a basic safety temperature and stays chewy, which surprises people who stop at the first "safe" number. The texture people mean by pulled pork shows up in the low 200s, the same neighborhood as a brisket flat, because you're going to shred it and the strands need that extra heat. The pork butt smoking time calculator uses 203°F as the planning finish and then tells you to check the bone or the fork. If the cook hits that early, the timeline says hold it. Shredding the minute the alarm rings, when dinner is still two hours away, leaves the pork drying on the counter. An hour is set aside to rest and pull.

Pros

203°F is a clear target, so you are not shredding on hope.
The bone test catches a probe that was in a hot spot.

Cons

203°F against the bone is a false finish. The bone runs hotter than the meat around it.
A butt that probed tender and then sat unwrapped on the counter will dry out while you look for buns. Rest it covered.

How to read it

Probe the thickest meat, not the bone and not a pocket of fat. If you only have one leave-in, that is the hole. Choosing the probe is meat thermometers for smoking. When the number is in the low 200s, grab the bone with a towel. It should feel loose, not like a handle bolted in. If it is firm, close the lid. Twenty more minutes is cheaper than chopped pork you have to sauce to hide.

The stall near 150°F is not this moment. People wrap there, or panic there. It is pork butt stall. The hours to reach 203°F are how long to smoke pork butt. Season with the pork butt rub at the start. It will not change the temperature that pulls.

Brisket's cousin of this page is brisket internal temp. Same neighborhood, different test: a slice, not a shred. Do not use the rib bend as a pork-butt test. Ribs are a thinner cook and their page is still to come.