Is .5 HP Grinder enough?

[INMT]

I’ve always processed my own animals except for grinding. Local shop does a great job and prices used to be so low I didn’t consider buying a grinder. They’ve gone up 180% in the last few years and I’m tired of paying.

MEAT is having a big sale on their .5 HP grinder. I have one of their vac sealers and it works great. Anyone use their grinders? Is .5 HP sufficient?

Thanks!

 

[Wild Bill]

I’ve always processed my own animals except for grinding. Local shop does a great job and prices used to be so low I didn’t consider buying a grinder. They’ve gone up 180% in the last few years and I’m tired of paying.

MEAT is having a big sale on their .5 HP grinder. I have one of their vac sealers and it works great. Anyone use their grinders? Is .5 HP sufficient?

Thanks!

If you're patient and don't try to overwork it, I'd say it's fine.
I have a 1/2 HP Cabela's Carnivore and it does leave me wanting more at times, but I get by pretty well.
Make sure your meat is frozen or dang near when you run it through and you should be good.

 

[HighDesertSage]

I’ve always processed my own animals except for grinding. Local shop does a great job and prices used to be so low I didn’t consider buying a grinder. They’ve gone up 180% in the last few years and I’m tired of paying.

MEAT is having a big sale on their .5 HP grinder. I have one of their vac sealers and it works great. Anyone use their grinders? Is .5 HP sufficient?

Thanks!

I think you’ll be disappointed

 

[mevertsen]

Go big or go home.

I have a 1.5 or 1.75 Cabelas. We butcher several pigs a year plus game.

 

[INMT]

I kinda figured I’d be hearing this. Thanks for the opinions. Looks like I’ll start saving now for a heavier duty one.

 

[Steiny77]

1/2 HP will do the trick if only doing one deer by yourself. Better than a hand crank, but it's a bit slow.
I'd step up a notch or two in size.

 

[INMT]

1/2 HP will do the trick if only doing one deer by yourself. Better than a hand crank, but it's a bit slow.
I'd step up a notch or two in size.

It’s usually 2-3 deer and an elk.

 

[thomas89]

It's enough.

I have that exact grinder and so far have done and 2.5 elk in 2022, and 3 antelope, an whitetail,and 2 elk in 2023. I honestly cannot feed it fast enough. I'd get a foot pedal to go with it as well.

I was just texting a buddy that sale as well, crazy good price, I'd buy that sucker again in a heartbeat!

Their customer service is top notch as well. Not 100% sure how, but started to have an issue with the auger housing, not sure if something wasn't tightened down or what, but they sent me a brand new auger, auger bushing, and housing ... all free of charge.

 

[Boarmaster]

Not in my opinion. 1 hp “minimum” for a good experience. A lot of things will work. But it takes some power to work good. Once I used a good powerful grinder I never wanted to use a grinder that would just get the job done. Small grinders work great for a few lbs of a special sausage or fresh ground beef but not great for processing.
Believe me I know you can process a deer with a lesser grinder. I started with Great Grandma O’Tooles #8 hand grinder in my 20s. Good grief I thought I would be on Social Security before I got those deer ground.

Next was the Mixer attachment experience at my buds house. Holy cow I almost had a mental breakdown trying to grind 40 lbs of venison of which we had to cut into tiny pieces. Thank the good Lord we had beer and chicks there.

Then another guy had a .5 horse dedicated grinder. Actually we thought that it worked pretty good. Another guy showed up with another deer and his brothers Lem 1 hp #22. We started using that LEM and then we understood how nice a great grind was to have. The next good sale LEM had I bought one. Never had a bad day processing since.

 

[INMT]

Not in my opinion. 1 hp “minimum” for a good experience. A lot of things will work. But it takes some power to work good. Once I used a good powerful grinder I never wanted to use a grinder that would just get the job done. Small grinders work great for a few lbs of a special sausage or fresh ground beef but not great for processing.
Believe me I know you can process a deer with a lesser grinder. I started with Great Grandma O’Tooles #8 hand grinder in my 20s. Good grief I thought I would be on Social Security before I got those deer ground.

Next was the Mixer attachment experience at my buds house. Holy cow I almost had a mental breakdown trying to grind 40 lbs of venison of which we had to cut into tiny pieces. Thank the good Lord we had beer and chicks there.

Then another guy had a .5 horse dedicated grinder. Actually we thought that it worked pretty good. Another guy showed up with another deer and his brothers Lem 1 hp #22. We started using that LEM and then we understood how nice a great grind was to have. The next good sale LEM had I bought one. Never had a bad day processing since.

Love the humor in the answer! I used a hand crank once. Never again.

I go back and forth for the price but feel i’d rather save a little and know I won’t be left wanting more.

 

[INMT]

It's enough.

I have that exact grinder and so far have done and 2.5 elk in 2022, and 3 antelope, an whitetail,and 2 elk in 2023. I honestly cannot feed it fast enough. I'd get a foot pedal to go with it as well.

I was just texting a buddy that sale as well, crazy good price, I'd buy that sucker again in a heartbeat!

Their customer service is top notch as well. Not 100% sure how, but started to have an issue with the auger housing, not sure if something wasn't tightened down or what, but they sent me a brand new auger, auger bushing, and housing ... all free of charge.

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You put up a good argument that .5 is enough. I knew I’d get conflicting opinions and have to go with my gut.

 

[Boarmaster]

Love the humor in the answer! I used a hand crank once. Never again.

I go back and forth for the price but feel i’d rather save a little and know I won’t be left wanting more.

I hear you. Grinders are expensive , even on sale. For myself they are the backbone of my processing equipment. I would definitely consider the MEAT equipment. I dont think they were around when I bought my equipment. They seem to have competitive prices and get good reviews.

 

[thomas89]

You put up a good argument that .5 is enough. I knew I’d get conflicting opinions and have to go with my gut.

Obviously a heavier duty one would work, but this sucker is already like 47# or something if I recall correctly. It's about all I'm wanting to pack/unpack during processing. Whatever you decide, a good grinder is definitely an overlooked tool in the home processor's arsenal.

 

[Tiohunter]

I have the .5 from cabelas, if all your doing is making ground meat it is fine. If you make snack sticks, summer sausage, ect I don't think it's enough. The problem I have is once you start adding the salts and binders and cures the meat gets sticky and is hard to feed. The high horse grinders have larger throats and will feed better.

 

[INMT]

I have the .5 from cabelas, if all your doing is making ground meat it is fine. If you make snack sticks, summer sausage, ect I don't think it's enough. The problem I have is once you start adding the salts and binders and cures the meat gets sticky and is hard to feed. The high horse grinders have larger throats and will feed better.

Thanks for that bit of info. I do plan on making summer sausage, sticks, etc.

 

[Dave N]

I have a 1/2 hp grinder and did my deer with it. I did 2-3 deer a year with it plus some pork for sausage and stuff. It is plenty big enough. I ran the meat through in fairly large pieces that would pull themselves through without having to use the plunger. It would take it just about as fast as I could feed it! The 2nd grind takes a lot longer to feed but that's just how it works. I processed my deer from large to small. Roasts, steaks, stew meat, and burger last. Even doing 2 at once I didn't have a huge amount to grind. If you do more burger than anything else it would still work fine, but if you have a group processing session doing several at a time all ready to go it might be better to have a little bigger one. Bigger just means faster. Mine has a cold wrap to keep the thing from heating up but if you have cold meat to start with it gets the job done pretty quickly once you have everything ready to go. If it's a deal, buy it. If you decide later that it's not big enough you can always upgrade. It sounds like you would be fine with it. Some people just want to be done in 5 minutes when a smaller one would take 8!

 

[mevertsen]

I also have a small electric and hand grinder. As well as kitchen aide attachment. As said above the small grinder is nice for small special batches. The big grinder head sits on the floor next to the table. It moves all of 5 feet each use. Lol. It weighs 60lbs just the power head. The rest is in a tote.

I can literally grind a deer in 10 minutes.

 

[MThuntr]

I did the 1/2HP for a long time. Works just fine and as others mentioned it could be slow but it's 1000x better than those dinky walmart ones or the kitchenaid attachments. I think if it's just a single animal then you'll do just fine especially if you have your ducks in a row. You can be cooling/freezing chunks while you process a bit and swap out.

IF, you start getting things like moose or multiple elk then do yourself a favor and get a 1.5HP or bigger and if you do sausage for the love of god get a sausage stuffer. IME, grinders make the texture off when stuffing vs a dedicated stuffer...and if buying a stuffer go big right away because a 5lb stuffer is misery.

 

[jt13]

My LEM Big Bite .75hp is plenty sufficient for us to handle the burger and sausage from 5-10 deer a year. Definitely wouldn't want to go smaller though.

 

[wolfpup]

I have a 1/2 hp and I get by. When I kill this one or get a wild hair I will 100% upgrade to larger hp and make sure I get the foot pedal. Always want more when I am processing doubles or triples, but only one animal at a time and the 1/2 is fine.