Meat Grinders for 1 Deer

[303tom]

Here is what I use, I can do a whole deer minus the tenderloin & a few round steaks in just a few hours.

http://www.amazon.com/Waring-Pro-MG100-Meat-Grinder/dp/B00008ZLHM

 

[McClarkus]

I had one of the smaller LEM's and it gave up on me. I sent it back and they very kindly replaced it with their next larger size and it has worked flawlessly ever since.

 

[enfuegoinc]

I'm looking to add a Deer season onto my Hunting scheduled, which right now is only one.

But I can't afford to pay the processor another time to get all my meat for it.

So I am thinking about just processing my own deer, I bone them out anyway.

It would be a one person, or at most, a two person operation for my own deer. Though I can see taking it on my party hunt, but not primarily.

But there are a lot of different meat grinders out there, and I don't want to spend my money on something that would be a dog to use and clean.

There seems to be a lot of brands and a lot of types. I need one to process one deer, and no more than 2 deer a year.

Primarily my concern would be the rate it grinds, and ease of clean up. I already own 2 hand crank grinders, but I have never used them, they are from my Grandpa.

I wouldn't object to using them though if I was able to clean them right, and they didn't take all day to process a medium deer. (Any tips on cleaning them would be appreciated, don't think there is rust at all)

Thanks a lot!

We always recommend a good electric grinder like a Deni or LEM.

 

[Elkins45]

I used to use a hand crank grinder that belonged to my grandmother. It's probably over 100 years old. It did the job OK once I learned to trim effectively and to get the meat almost frozen before running it through. You can't grind tendons and silverskin worth a darn unless you chop into fairly small chunks anyway, so just trim it out instead. It's about the same amount of work.

Big chunks of semi-warm meat = lots of time taking it apart and unclogging it. Small semi frozen chunks = maximum production efficiency.

I ended up buying an electric grinder during the early 90's that is still doing all I need it to do. It's a Rival brand and it was actually made in the USA, so that gives you some idea of how long ago that was!

 

[castingdonkey]

I had this same issue a couple years ago and spent a couple months reading forums and reviews. I ended up at sears buying a panasonic super grinder. It has metal gears, it's made in Japan(Not China), and it had all good reviews. After following the good advice above I found it had issues with the smaller cutting plates if you didn't start with the larger one. The breaker would pop but the breaker is also the switch for the motor so it was an easy fix. Other than that it is easy to clean and hasn't given me any real issues. I have ground around 150lbs of sausage so far and I'm not sure how much burger but probably about the same. So if your on a budget and want something that is around $100 the panasonic is great. Good luck.