New to Butchering

[Chet43]

Family wants to start doing their own meat, after the cost of paying a butcher for grandson’s deer this year. They want to start by grinding up most of the deer meat they get, then learn how to butcher an elk.

Any suggestions on a good grinder? Do they need to get something to stuff sausage too?

[pickardjw]

The MEAT! grinders and stuffers are pretty high quality. I have the 0.75 HP grinder and it's great. Works fine for sausage stuffing too, but a dedicated sausage stuffer is better if you have room for it.

MEAT! should be running a black friday deal later this month. I think I got mine 20% off.

[vandeman17]

I am far from an expert so I will let others chime in with more specific stuff but the one thing I will say is make sure to get a big enough grinder as far as capacity and horsepower. I started out with one that was sufficient but slow and once I upgraded to my current one, I wished I would have done it sooner. This is especially true when grinding multiple deer, an elk, whatever.

[fowl smacker]

I've got the Weston butcher series #12 grinder.  It's a beast.  I also use it to stuff pepperoni casings.  For that it's not perfect but I couldn't ask more out of it as a grinder.

[Farmer72]

We have an old Butcher Boy 1hp. It works awesome. I know you dont want to drop anything in there you dont want to get ground up. It grinds meat faster than we can feed it.

I would say dont go smaller than 1/2hp and probably go with 3/4hp or larger.

[Bullkllr]

My Cabelas commercial -grade unit has worked flawlessly for years. If the newer models are as good as the older ones, they're still a good deal.

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-commercial-grade-3-4hp-carnivore-meat-grinder

Maybe wait for a deal if you're not in a hurry.

[GASoline71]

I also have one of the older Cabela's grinders.  I think it's a 1/2hp and works great for what we have put it through.  We also use it as a sausage stuffer too.

Gary

[slavenoid]

You can get by with budget grinders if you have too, but I highly recommend a dedicated stuffer. Hakka Brothers is a pretty popular one and darn affordable. Good boning knives might be first priority if they have nothing.

[Smokepole]

LEM Big Bight grinder works great.

[jrebel]

Minimum 3/4 horsepower but go as big as you can afford.  1.5 hp cabelas carnivore will eat anything you feed it, as fast as you can feed it.   We grind a lot meat and I love the 1.5 ho grinder I have.   If you plan on stuffing sausages, get a separate vertical stuffer. 

[Rainier10]

I have had a cabelas commercial grade one HP grinder for 25 years now and ground 3-4 animals a year with no issues

[bustedoldman]

Minimum 3/4 horsepower but go as big as you can afford.  1.5 hp cabelas carnivore will eat anything you feed it, as fast as you can feed it.   We grind a lot meat and I love the 1.5 ho grinder I have.   If you plan on stuffing sausages, get a separate vertical stuffer.

I agree with this.........Also don't forget about a decent vacuum sealer.

[C-Money]

We began butchering our own game with a $ 200 Cabelas grinder. It worked wonderful for many seasons, until my beautiful bride put the blade on backwards, and it broke. Found a LEM on clearance at Walmart to replace the Cabelas. We've ran quite a few deer through the LEM, and its just as good as the Cabelas. My biggest tips would be to use the course plate first grind, dropping 3-4 chunks of deer, to one chunk of pork shoulder. Then take that course ground meat and run it through the medium plate. The burger is perfect this way. We have never gotten into stuffing sausage. Totally agree on buying a vacuum sealer. We put the burger in the game burger bags that are sold at Sportsmens or Cabelas. Processing your own game animals is truly the way to go!

[70sdiver]

Get at least a 1 hp and a 22 size head. The 22 size head you can cut your trim into bigger chunks for grinding.Also the blades and plates are resharpenable. Lot's of good grinders out there in 1 hp fpr 5-600.00 You can stuff everything on a 22 grinder from snack sticks to summer sausage.If your going to stuff pick up a floor foot feed on amazon there about 70 bucks for a good one thats you just plug your grinder into.