natashaj

Hello,

I'm looking for meat grinders suggestions. I want to grind venison meat . I read about STX and LEM are good options for grinding meat with small bones. Whats your take on this?

Tufrthnails

I've never ground meat with any bones with an electric grinder, but I have ground 25ish deer and I have no idea how many pigs with my harbor freight meat grinder. It's not the best but it works and less then $40 is a heck of price for an electric grinder. I've had it for 8 seasons now.
I use an old metal hand grinder on fish for chum blocks.

Bocajnala

I can't think of any reason to grind bones.

I use about a $300 model that I got from gander mountain on sale one January. Have probably ground up about 30 deer, 2 elk, and 6 hogs with it .

No complaints. Can't think of the model number right now.

that harbor freight model sounds like it's working well for you, and at a low price too.
-Jake

archeryrob

A standard grinder will do just fine for deer. You'll want better if you plan to do sausage as its par-frozen and needs a stronger motor. If its just grinding deer to process the STX will do all you need. LEM makes some nice stuff, but its pricey.

tankerchief

I got the grinding attachment for my wife's Kitchen Aide and it works like a charm, both on venison and pork. I have a separate sausage stuffer; but for grinding meat the Kitchen Aide works perfectly.

flyinlowe

It depends on how often you plan to use it. I usually process 2 dear a year for myself. I might only grind 20-30 pounds of that meat. So I bought a someone cheap unit from Bass Pro, around $125.00, or something about 10 years ago. It has worked fine. If I was at a deer camp and grinding hundreds of pounds at a time I would obviously want a higher end model. I too see no reason to ever be grinding bones.......

Lifeguard

I went with the Cabela's 1HP Carnivore. It'll do anything that I'll ever ask of it. It makes what seems like a big job pretty quick and painless. If I can make a suggestion, look for something with a big neck. Not only will it grind meat faster, but you save time not having to cut all your meat into smaller pieces so it'll fit into your grinder.

Oldtimr

Why would you want to grind small bones in your meat? That just makes no sense at all. Add to it that deer do not have small bones. You do not intentionally grind meat with bones in it unless you like seeing your dentist. Actually, I smell a troll.

archeryrob

Most of the people grinding small bones are grinding chicken backs and fish for dogs on a raw diet. At least that is what I read online. You are going to need one hell of a grinder to crush deer ribs and leg bones and I am not sure what value they would really have. Breaking them and boiling them for bone stock is the best use for them if you want to go that far.

I just ordered the STX Turboforce II grinder to try out. It is only $200 on Amazon and I got a lot of good reviews on a smoking meat site. Most of the bad reviews are people putting it in the dish washer and letting it rust and discolor. They don't know how to take care of grinders. I has a slow setting I can use when making sausage with half frozen meat and a huge motor. I can't report on it for a while as "the boss" said she shall take control of it and I can have it 12/25.