Wild Pig Shoulder Question

[Chomondely]

Wild Pig shoulder about 10lbs each. Hit a major stall at 171 and actually dropped 7 degrees. Seems to have hit another stall around 190. I waited even as I watched the temerpature fall. I know better than to rasie the temperature to get past the stall. I am using a Thermopen so I know my temperature is accurate.
I smoked for 4 hrs @ 210,  on heat @210 for a total of 7 hrs then removed  the shoulders, wrapped in foil and placed them in the oven at 225.
So far, they have been on heat since 9:00 pm last night or about 20 hrs. I have learned from you folks that the pig will be ready when ready but this seeems to be taking a bit longer than I thought.
Does the fact that this is wild pig make a difference?
There was a thick, 1.5 inch fat cap which I removed before smoking. Could there be more fat than in a store bought Piggy?
Would more fat slow the cooking process?
Thoughts?
Thanks for your consideration.

[UncleAl]

The last pork butt I did that size took all most 21 hours.  Like you said its ready when its ready they can be real stubborn.

[Habanero Smoker]

Though a wild pig may be leaner, less marbling (intramuscular fat), it may have more connective tissue. The thing to be more concerned about would be the amount of connective tissue that is in the shoulder, and that it has properly converted into gelatin. It is this conversion that will slow the cooking process down. During the height of this breakdown a lot of water is release, causing the internal temperature to stall, and as you notice, will also occasionally drop.

For tough cuts of meat it is not the fat that gives you the sense of moistness, but the break down of the connective tissue (collagen) into gelatin. The gelatin coats the muscle fibers giving you a sense of moistness.

[Saber 4]

Wild hog meat is a denser muscle than it's domestic cousin because it walks everywhere in it's 10-15 mile territory which would take longer to break down the connective tissue as stated above

[Chomondely]

Your comments make a lot of sense. A smaller pig earlier this year turned out much better. Perhaps I should put a limit of about 100 lbs for size. In the furture, I'll ask the pig to step on the scales prior to harvesting.