AK Hunter

Buy the best one you can afford. You don't want it to break while you are in the middle of processing your deer. The middle of deer season is the worst time to buy a new grinder, I know from experience. I bought a cheap one from Harbor Fright & it broke on the 2nd handful of meat. It was about two years ago & I had to spend my hunting time to find a Lem #8 & paid way too much for it to get my deer processed.
Also use it first to be sure it works even if it is to only make some Ham salad.

wanderer08

Just passing by, but it easily gets clogged up if whatever you are grinding has a lot of fiber, sinew, connective tissue in it. Not only my experience, but my club members mentioned this problem as well.
I freeze my meat cubes (1/2 to 3/4 inches square) before hand yet still I've faced a similar problem. Like, it works ok for small batches but don't do well on the larger ones. Have to take some breaks to clean it up.
Just my two cents and my experience.

I switched to #22 Lem (3/4 hp) - it might be an overkill for home, but we got it for the hunting club since we might grind 100 to 150 lbs per day - and have no regrets ever since. It's big, it's loud, but it's more powerful than our previous unit and I consider this to be a nice purchase. I run a lot of meat through it: deer, hog, pork... Takes much less fuss to prepare meat for grinding and it can handle even old beef (we butchered a retired cow last year, and meat was really tough).
I was really impressed by the quality and speed, also it's much easier to find spare details in case smth went wrong - comparing to Cabela's.

Bocajnala

I have used the kitchen aid grinder for some small batches of stuff I'm making. Meatballs, etc. I would NOT want to use it as a primary grinder.

-Jake

Mr. Slim

Hobart is a good maker of grinders. sometimes when a grocery store shuts down or goes out of business you can sometimes buy one for a reasonable price.

Oldtimr

Here is a good company for meat processing equipment. https://www.meatprocessingproducts.c...t=JUNE242020AR

redgreen

LEM Big Bite. Solid stainless steel, and works awesome. Best that I have seen, short of commercial grinders. Love mine.

LaurenWelchat

Thanks for this thread and recommendations, I will definitely use it

root74

For domestic use i love my vintage hand crank meat grinder, i even carry this into work after I need to small batches of flawlessly floor meat/seafood.