Inexpensive grinder?

[Jdeck09]

I understand your perspective but a meat grinder is a buy once cry once type of item. I have this model from Cabelas. Its about 8 years old and going strong. I do 3-4 deer a year and it works great. Maybe split one with a hunting partner.

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

 

[Luckyrxc]

I fought with a ~$300 Cabelas grinder for years. It was terrible. It clogged, heated the attachements, the eat needed to be nearly frozen or it wouldn't move through the mechanism, the sinew would clog, and the tube was small in diameter, requiring small pieces of meat. It was not fun and I hated using it. Last year my wife had the brilliant suggestion that I share the cost of a big grinder with a friend who was dealing with the same situation. I sold my Cabelas grinder on CG or FBMP which covered my half of the new grinder. We purchased a LEM 22 Big Bite. It is incredible, a pleasure to use, eats everything you throw at it, and it is fast. My wife, son, and I ground 40 pounds of elk/beef last weekend. We started with very cold (verge of freezing) meat, but did not need to re-freeze it before putting it through the grinder a second time. We did temporarily store the meat in big soup pots which were sitting in ice in a 75 qt cooler. Grinding twice and packaging in food saver bags took the three of us about an hour. My recommendation is to find a friend to split the cost and go big.

 

[highcountrymuley]

I have been using a 1/4 hp Gander mountain grinder for years . Had no problem with an elk and a deer this mz season. I trim off silverskin and then grind it up for the dog after my burger grind . Sure spending more will make things faster but this thing at around $100 does the job too. Never had a problem with mushing up the meat or it being too slow.
Do u drive a monster truck ? If so u also should get the largest grinder u can find

 

[HairyScandinavian]

I'm sure you've got your answer in 4 pages but I'll throw in my experience on a cheap one. Pushing 20 years ago I bought the smallest LEM grinder made. I planned to kill it and upgrade when I had more money. I still have that damn thing but I finally just caved and bought a huge Meat branded grinder. The LEM went through hundreds of animals (three sons all hunters) and I never did anything with it. It was slow but it worked every time. This new Meat works great but I've already had to sharpen the blades because the last time I'm getting mushy meat. It did go through a couple hundred lbs of chicken quarters with bone making dog food very impressively so maybe I prematurely filled the blades.

TLDR: Baby LEM has gone close to 20 years and hundreds of animals.