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Looking for a good meat grinder

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Pappy:
I have a big one from Cabela's 1 1/2 horse and it will grind anything you put in it, just depends on what a man wants to spend, I usually go over kill on most anything I buy,more horse power is always better. ;) I do a lot of deer so its is really nice,If you are only doing 1 or 2 deer a year the smaller ones should do just fine, as far as silver meat no matter what you get you will have to clean it out pretty regular,I always clean my meat well and get most of the silver[sinew] out before grinding so I don't have to clean mine out even when doing 3 or 4 deer at a time, also makes better burger, never seen one with the option to use by hand, may be one out there but I have never seen one.
 Pappy

WhistlingBadger:
I got one of the stainless KitchenAid ones for Christmas, but no opportunity to try it out as I got skunked this year.   :(   I've used an old grinder that I inherited from my parents a hundred years ago.  I don't remember the brand; it's made of plastic with blades and plates that rust if they are in the same room as water.  It gets the job done as long as I keep the blade sharp.  It sure is a pain to keep it clean though.  Little nooks and crannies everywhere; it takes a lot of time and care to keep it from becoming a germ factory.  And tends to REALLY jam up with gristle to the point that it's hard to take it apart.  Looking forward to using a more modern design.

I don't grind a whole lot of silver meat anymore.  It's too much work for a less-than-great product.  These days I make all those shanks and necks into delicious pot roast, and save the big shoulder cuts, brisket, and rib meat for burger and sausage.

bjrogg:
One other tip no matter what grinder you use. Cold meat almost partially frozen grinds much nicer than totally thawed meat.

Cleaning up is the biggest job of processing. Before and after.

I usually end up with several deer to grind. I don’t grind them individually. I cut up my grind meat into small enough chunks to go through the grinder. Then I vacuum pack them in big vacuum bags and freeze them until season is over.

Then I grind them up all at once. As soon as they thaw enough to break the chunks apart. Sometimes I even add ice cubes.

Bjrogg

Eric Krewson:
Back when I was a young man, I ground deer with a #10 hand grinder, that took a while to run a deer through, later I got a #32 hand grinder that was better but finally wised up and bought a grinder with a motor.

JW_Halverson:
Along with the tips that you should remove all sinew and connective tissue, as well as the one about semi frozen meat, here's a tip from a professional at Hobart: ONE plate = ONE knife, and only ONE side! if you use one knife on more than one plate then things begin to wear unevenly and you get small gaps between the plate and knife. It is precisely these gaps that cause the system to gum up with sinew material and clog.

I have some of those tiny Crown Royal velvet bags and I always put the matched sets together. When I install knife and plate, I make sure that the worn side of the plate goes against the knife. That way they have worn together and match perfectly. I've been using the same sets in my 3/4 horsepower Cabelas grinder for 12 years now and I never have to worry about it clogging.

In fact, I recently ran a batch of sinew scrap through the grinder before cooking it down to make hide glue. Ten lbs of elk, deer, and bison backstrap scraps in one end and out the other in under a minute!

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