Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation grinder recommendations

looking to buy a grinder for our deer camp. probably need to grind 5 or 6 deer/year for burger and sausage. throw in 3 or 4 dozen geese/ducks.

any recommendations? is a 1/2 or 3/4HP grinder enough to handle this?

I don't know about the 1/2 hp. But I am very happy with my 3/4 hp cabella's grinder. No buyers remorse here. If making sausage, I would encourage getting a stuffer. That will be my next purchase. Regrinding to stuff is a pain and a slow process.

how much volume/qty do you do with your 3/4?

Not a factory built, but dad converted a hand crank #22 to belt drive with a 3/4 hp motor, it'll grind meat faster than the packaging dept (mom and sister) can take it away. We typically get 3-6 deer a year, for a while everything was being ground and it had no issues keeping up.

You should easily be able to do what you want with either of those grinders. I use my 1 HP Cabelas grinder for our version of Hunters for the Hungry and we run 5 or 6 deer thru it per grinding session and at least 20 - 30 deer and several hogs a year and it never slows down. I do know the 1/2 hp doesn't have a reverse switch, not sure about the 3/4 hp. If you do a half way decent job trimming the silver skin I doubt you would need the reverse switch, I've never had to use it on my 1 HP.

The larger the feed hole, the happier you'll be.

I have the 1.5hp from Cabelas and it is a beast! It will grind frozen meat and not slow down. I think you would be fine with the .75 or the 1hp. These guys also make good stuff.

http://www.lemproducts.com/

I do about 3 deer a year, would do more if the wife would let me . It would easily do several deer a year. There is no reverse switch, but I've never had the need to, and i have never removed silverskin. It blows right through it.

I have a Waring Pro and am very happy... it was between $100-150 and I did 80lbs of hog without a hitch... If I was going to do as much as you though, I would go larger and would agree, regrinding to stuff sucked a little but I think the comment on having a larger feed shoot would take that pain down by a large amount.... the pain for me was just getting the ground meat into the shoot more than anything....

T second grind sucks on the smaller ones. I finally went to a separate sausage stuffer.

thanks guys.

I bought this 1/2HP one from Northern Tool on recommendation of somebody at the Campfire and I believe you'd have to spend at least twice the price to get a better one.

Northern Tool Meat Grinder.

Prior to this, I looked at several different models available locally, some costing three times the price and endorsed by so called "celebrity chefs", and none had metal gears/drive train as this grinder does. (Do not buy a grinder with plastic gears or drive as they won't last!)

Click on the clink and the select the "Customer Reviews" and you'll see a lot of very happy customers...

I have that same model and it works great. miles

How fine of a cut do you guys get with those.

My brothers grinder makes a finer grind than mine.. I like his sausage a bit more due to texture.

Spot

We got the 1/2-horse Cabela's about 4 years ago and it does a great job. We do at least one moose or elk a year, along with several deer and pronghorn, and it just grinds 'em right up, pronto. We do trim the tougher silverskin off, but not the thinner stuff. We also sometimes double-grind, and make quite a bit of sausage.

has anyone tried the cuisinpro that is on ebay?

the price and power are great, but is it garbage, or a smoking deal?

i just bought a 1/3HP refurb from LEM. reading how much QTY you guys were doing with various size grinders i think i probably have that sized pretty well.

thanks for the info, wish me luck!

It comes with a couple of different size holes in the plates and I think they are standard sizes that may be replaced with other sizes than the ones that come with it. miles

I was a commercial meat cutter for over 20 yrs before switching trades 8 yrs ago. I bought a Cabelas 1hp this fall but was sceptical before using it.

I was NOT disapointed with it and would heartily recommend it to any sportsman or private meatcutter.

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