WSM running too hot... [update]

welp, after they got above 270 again I went ahead and did the same thing again, removed even more lit coals to the point where I definitely thought the temp would be lower- there were really no more large concentration of lit coals although some of the unlit might have had some under them.

Closed it back up- whaddya know- temp shoots right back up.  Well... hit 268 and has slowly crept back down to 262 so maybe I'll get lucky and eventually it will drop back down.  I know I'm still a noob, but I at least thought I'd had enough experiences now to know how it would react to various situations.  This one is really throwing me for a loop!  It's only about 1.5 hours into the cook on a 7 lb butt though, so hopefully I get things under control early enough... 

Thanks for the response, I'll give your methods a try some time.  I could definitely have some holes in my method, but the thing that was most crazy to me is that I use the same method every time and have never really had a problem with the temps getting away from me.  Once or twice I've started to rise faster than expected and got hotter than I wanted, but shutting down vents usually solved it.  This time it seemed like the smoker was still getting hotter at a good pace with all vents closed!  I could understand that if I thew in a whole bunch of lit, but... oh well I guess I can't argue with reality, haha.

Just to answer your question though, I do it a little bit different.  I've always used the 'coffee can' method, where there's a full ring around the outside and a hole on the inside.  One thing I did differently though was that I didn't start out with the can (I just use my chimney starter) in the middle and pour the coals around it this time, I poured an almost full ring and removed coals from the center.  That probably left me with a much smaller hole than I should have had and maybe got more coals started faster.  in that situation fewer number of lit coals probably would have been a better idea like you say.

Anyway I got it under control, the only drawbacks now are that I wasted fuel, and had to refil with more unlit 20 min or so ago since what I had left in there was getting spent.

Just an update still seeing some strange behavior

Doing a pork butt again for family bbq (last weekend was kind of a practice run).  Followed the above advice and that worked pretty well overall in the beginning.  Instead of 25 coals in the middle of a ring of unlit (hole in the middle), this time I made a ring with a gap and only put 10 lit touching one side of the gap.  Temp raised pretty slowly and was easy to control for the most part.  It was holding pretty good so I didn't want to mess with it too much, but very slowly creeping higher.  Around 240, I decided to shut down all vents and bring the temp down closer to 225 again... but with over an hour of fully closed vents, the temp went UP by 4 degrees.  Not really a big deal, the advice definitely helped me keep this cook under control a LOT better, but it just seems so strange to me that I could deprive the fire of oxygen for THAT long and the temp not only doesn't go down, but actually goes up??

Decided to shut the top vent by 50%, hopefully not for too long... Just wondering 1) does the temp raise with shut vents seem weird to anyone else?  No air leaks or anything.  2) Should I have any issues with creosote or bitter taste from closing the top vent just partially like that?  It appears to be working, temp is already down to 235; i'll probably open it soon.  But if it goes back up, I'm not sure whether leaving at 50% will be a problem for the taste.

I know 240 isn't bad, but i'm trying to time this so it will be done within 1-2 hours of our picnic tomorrow; don't want it to finish too quickly.  I know you can hold them up to 5-6 hours, but don't really want to hold that long...

Thanks

going on 3 hours now with bottom vents fully closed,only using top vent between 50-100% to push temp back down when it starts to rise...  Only other temp changes came when opening the lid to keep the water pan full, hoping that would also help.  Temp has been fully under control (between 225-240), but I've just never seen it like this before (outside of the last time, but I definitely didn't start too hot this time like I did then).
 

Thanks for the advice guys.  Only changes were the ones I mentioned (changed start up method to use the advice given earlier).  Also it's summer so it's a lot warmer than the last time I did pork butts which was winter.  I figured that was the reason I used to need to use 20+ lit to start, and now it was a better idea to use 10.  But other than that I'm pretty much sticking to the same program, no changes to my wsm or anything.  To answer the questions from before, using kingsford blue + water in pan.

It's not so much that this cook isn't successful compared to my past ones, just more that I never saw a situation before where I needed to run with all bottom vents totally shut for very long (when I did, the temp usually came right down as expected).  Seeing it rise or hold for 3+ hours with bottom vents shut seems crazy to me, especially since it seemed like the fire was under pretty good control when coming to temp.

Anyway eventually things did get back to normal, and I'm still chugging along.  One strange thing is that the meat temp (using maverick therm) was at about 192, then dropped to 190.  I opened the cooker to put the baked beans on, and changed the position of the probe to test a different part of the butt, and the temp is reading 180 now!  Tried another spot and saw the same.  Not sure if the mav is bugging out on me, or there really was that big of a temp difference/drop.  I saw the temp drop a few times during the cook by 2-3 degrees, but I figured that was just the meat breaking down etc.  12 degrees seems like a big difference though.  Well, I have 3 more hours before we plan to leave, so hopefully I can get it back up in the high 190's by then :)

Thanks again!

EDIT:

hmm ok tested with the thermapen and I guess it's right, few spots tested between high 170's up to mid 180's. 

no bone in my case.  I do need to start getting my butts somewhere they have bone-in though...  Creeping up on completion of hour 16 and @ 194 now, should be ready soon