Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska I need a high quality meat grinder, recommendations?

I cut up my own animals and trim them extremely lean (I hate fat on wild game). My butcher now charges .75 per lb. to simply grind hamburger or sausage and vacuum seal it (twice what it was last year).

My daughter and I have 3 elk tags and two deer tags between us this year. We are definitely in need a good grinder.

I have used several grinders and they were all junk (hand crank and electric). They all plug up with sinew, make mush out of the meat (even when sharp) or just plane over heat. What do you guys recommend for under $500 or is there such a thing? Flinch

Biggest grinder LEM makes... 1.5 HP IIRC...

Lets just say that it EATS meat.... I'll probably never have to buy another.

And I forget for sure, but I think it takes us around an hour to grind 350 pounds of meat...

After having used cheaper and smaller units, what I can say for sure is I don't have to wait for this one to grind, it will grind it as fast as I can feed the meat to it.

Whatever, get the biggest and most powerful one can afford. Like motocycles, stereos, and trucks, I've never wished I had a smaller one. Sausage horns and coarse and fine grind plates are good things too. I have the largest one available through Cabelas and wish it was still a bit larger.

As a kid though I worked a butcher shop and was spoiled by the commercial units that could eat about 40 lbs a minute. One could get football sized chunks down the throat, and the tray would hold about 200 lbs of meat.

The cabelas one you have is almost certainly an LEM branded for Cabelas.

The ones Cabelas carries are great I've got the 3/4hp and it does fine for my big game needs. I stuffed 50lds of deer pep. this year without any help in 2 hours start to finish. I thought that was pretty good time...

I use my 1 HP Cabelas grinder for our version of Hunters for the Hungry and have been grinding at least 20 - 30 deer and several hogs a year for quite a few years. It grinds as fast as you can feed it and it never slows down. I really like the large feed hole. LEM makes fine stuff too

Supposedly, and I just bought the upgrade, the biggest LEM will now grind even more meat faster with a new auger design...

Maybe I"m wrong but I was pretty sure LEM and Cabelas were made by the same folks.

Go to Alaska Butcher Supply in Anchorage. Ask them about their Thunderbird grinders. I have had one for three years now and love it. It averages about 4 moose per year through it and no complaints yet.

see if you can find an old Hobart grinder....

Yup. Used Hobart equipment is available all the time. Also, I bought the meat grinder attachment for the commercial mixer we have. Works great.

Oops, i guess it wouldn't be very cost effective to fly to Anchorage to check them out. I'm sure you could find somebody that carries Thunderbird grinders. They are a little spendy but worth every penny in my opinion, if you do a large volume of meat.

and be prepared to hook it up to 220.

I bought a 1hp Cabelas last year. First through it was the grinds from a 600# caribou. It worked perfectly. No regrets.

*TIP* .... Grinding goes A LOT better with any grinder if the meat is VERY cold or even partially/slighty frozen and plate is tight to the blade. Remove all tendon and keep you pcs smaller.

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Check Ebay under meat grinders.I picked up these two items for under $200.00 and they have been two of the best purchases I've ever made.The grinder head is made just like the Hobart.Hobart is kinda the standard in the grinder world and many are copied and sized by the Hobart standard.The ones I have are #12 head and I wouldn't go any smaller for big jobs and grinding game meat.Dang thing will grind as fast as I can feed it and I usually spend more time cleaning than I do grinding.

Get yourself a Choprite #22 or #32, a pulley to replace the hand crank, and a 3/4 hp motor. I will assure you, it will grind all you want and then some, plus it has the advantage of still working if you have no electricity. I grind 100s of lbs of deer, nilgai, and pork every year. Be sure to add a guard or you may grind a finger as well!

May be a bit more than you need but you can't go wrong with a Hobart grinder like mine. It's got a 5.5 hp motor with a converter to make it single phase. Lose a bit of power with that converter but it still gets down in a big way. I can run 350 pounds of moose through it in 15 minutes.
I bought mine from Alaska Butcher Supply years ago.

Did that for probably 20 years. A total joke compared to the largest LEM. So much so that once we got the LEM I gave the otehr junk away with an apology.... of course it was way better than what they had too...

Hobart #12, 1/2hp grinder is a high quality $2000 grinder. A step down I would recommend Univex MG 8912 1hp grinder for $1050. These are the two commercial grinders I'd own. A step down from there is a real step! The Bass Pro LEM grinders and the Cabela's (Thunderbird) grinders are not in the same league. I burned up a Cabela's grinder. The club I belong to burned up one as well. Visit Cabela's and look in their bargain cave. I've seen their refurbished grinders stacked 8 feet high and that's no B.S. I probably make over a thousand pounds of sausage a year for the guys at the club. I cut up over 20 deer a year and make pork sausage for 3 club functions a year. We have the largest Cabela's grinder. It was about $800 and it's our second one in 5 or 6 years. It gets hot enough to burn you if you bump it, and someday, it'll quit too.

To give you an idea, the Hobart and Univex grinders weigh 100 pounds. The Cabela's 1/2 hp weighs 30. That should tell you something straight off.

Very nice grinder! I used Hobarts for over 20yrs as a commercial meatcutter. Best grinder out there. We had zero problems with ours.


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How do the band saw meat grinder combos work for you guys? I've been thinking about getting one of them. Granted I only cut up 3 or 4 deer a year.