What do you use to grind your game?

[huntnfish72]

I have a Hobart 4156 grinder with a 15hp 3 phase motor. Bought it for 300. And made a phae converter to get it runnin for 50. Ground 600 lbs the other day in 5 min or so. Could b faster but guy on end wit meat totes catching is slow ( lol). Got an ez-pak 100 lb stuffer. Can stuff 100 hamburger tubes in 12 min. Takes longer to clean it up than use it. Btw I welded wheel barrow wheels to grinder so I can move around in garage. Lol it is a beast but does good work quick and price was right

[Ivantherussian03]

After reading this thread.....I feel woefully under tooled. lol

[Nicholas]

We process 2 - 4 deer per year, usually. Our grinder cost all of $75 new and has a 1.5 inch throat. It grinds maybe a pound every 2 minutes so we spend about 30 minutes a deer on grinding. That is okay because we are particular about every stage of the processing and want good quality. Moreover, the grinder works as fast as the vacuum sealer! The one feature we have that is missing on similar grinders is a reverse switch and that has been useful a few times. We have run hundreds of pounds through this machine without any issues. For sausage stuffing we have a modern 5 pound cylinder stuffer that handles our limited needs.

[429421Cowboy]

One of the modern crank style stuffers is one of the next things on my list. Usually we stuff out of the grinder but it's dang fast with one of them, especially doing sausage. The old plunger style ones are a real pain!

[crawfobj]

#32 grinder from Northern tool, converted to electric power using an old table saw motor. Mounted the setup on a board with the motor on a hinged board with a screw to let me adjust belt tension. Took a little trial and error to find the right drive pulley to get the speed where I wanted it, but the results are impressive. It's tough to keep it fed. So it's a multiple deer or elk unit only.

I also have a small electric unit for small jobs that I found on close out cheap enough that I couldn't pass it up.

[cattleskinner]

At my place, I have a 3/4 hp LEM grinder, which is especially fast compared to the table top model I had been using the first few years of being married. I use a vertical hand crank stuffer from Cabelas that holds about 7 lbs in the can, which is more than enough for doing a deer or two at a time. Just as a side question, but how many times do you guys grind your burger. I always did it twice working in meat plants and still carry that over when cutting stuff up for my own use.

[reloader28]

We grind once unless its sausage. Then we usually grind twice.

[Ivantherussian03]

I have thought about buying a more expensive grinder from Cabelas, but the cheaper 60 dollar model is serving me well. I had it 15 years, and have ground up alot of moose meat over the years.

[.30 Rem]

Wife's kitchen aid works for me. Chopped venison, venison sausage, mmm.

[Lloyd Smale]

save your money till you can at least buy a 10lb stuffer and 15 would be better yet. Mine only holds 5lbs and I spend more time filling the thing then stuffing. I will fill two summer sauage casings or about 4 1 lb burg bags.

One of the modern crank style stuffers is one of the next things on my list. Usually we stuff out of the grinder but it's dang fast with one of them, especially doing sausage. The old plunger style ones are a real pain!

[reloader28]

We got lucky and the wife picked up a Cabelas 20lb stuffer for next to nothing last summer. Works great and fast, but if its a day when we're already grinding we just use the grinder to stuff instead of washing an extra tool.

[54bore]

I bought a like new Hobart model 4812 from a coworker of my wife's, i got a screaming good deal on it, I paid 300 bucks for it and it came with new plates, knives, even sausage stuffing tube set! This grinder is around 3,000 new if I remember right? I have ground deer and elk with it for 4 years now.

[woodsman777]

Last fall my little no name grinder gave up the ghost, literally black smoke and all.
In the process of researching an upgrade, the wife and I decided to buy one that should last us the rest of our lives.
So we bought a #32 1 1/2 HP Cabelas/Weston grinder, We ground an elk and 2 deer in under 10 minutes
I don't think there's much that would stop this grinder

[wildwilly501]

[We ground an elk and 2 deer in under 10 minutes] I know things get embellished on the internet but I'd have to see that.And I have one of those Cabelas grinders

[Hawgsquatch]

I use a kitchen-aid. Six deer, a cow elk, two domestic hogs, and several hundred pounds of flying carp......errr geese. It works for me..

[Pipefitter]

Somewhere in the garage I have my wife's grandparents grinder, complete with the pulley to run it off of the drive tire of a model A ford. The original belt is long gone, but I was told by my father in law that an entire cow could be ground into hamburger in about an hour and a half.

Now, when I want venison ground I take it to a local game processor who will do a 5 gallon bucket full for $5.00 while I wait.

[JWFilips]

Every deer I processed was put under the knife! Why grind game meat? Nothing of mine was wasted....Oh Yes I ground up the fat to process into suet for the birds ( I forgot about that)

[WebMonkey]

I grind for burgers, fresh sausage, cured sausage, bologna, hot dogs, snack sticks, etc.
I debone and separate the hams and make them into, well, ham. cured and smoked brown sugar ham.

backstrap and tenders are left alone but I gotta have a grinder!

only have a 5lb vertical stuffer but it's only used for 32mm and smaller casings.
summer sausage is spoon fed into the fibrous casing.

'monkey

[poacherjo]

I have done it at home with a manual grinder and an electric one but I have a butcher that I take mine to . At the end of the day he tosses mine into the grinder and packages it for 10 bucks! I give him 20 dollars and it saves me lots of time and cleanup

[David LaPell]

My grandmother's antique hand grinder, sure it takes a while, but the darn thing would crunch down bone if you got it stuck in there.