I am wondering what grinders, dehydrators and vacuum sealers you have had a good experience with. I was very disappointed with the processor I used last year and I am looking for suggestions about home processing gear.

I have probably the cheapest cabelas electric grinder, A sausage stuffer, and a vacuum sealer 3ffarms gave me. Nothing fancy but have no problem processing a couple deer every year. Deer wrapped in Saran Wrap and freezer paper does just as fine as the vacuum sealer

Good info I was wondering about how much grinder I would need because I am not grinding more than 2-3 deer a year. Thank you

I have a grinder that is now 13 years old from Target. I registered for it for my wedding and it does about 3 deer a year on average. Works fined if meat is trimmed before putting it through. But when I get together to do 4+ deer at once I usually have a friend bring theirs that has a little more power. But doing a deer or two at once it has proved both effective and reliable. Having a sausage stuffer to put ground meat into bags is the biggest time saver IMO. Plus a good vacuum sealer.

Get a 1 HP grinder and cut the meat in 1" cubes (near frozen helps). Don't feed too much meat too fast. Get a regular vacuum sealer. And at some point get a hand crank cuber to tenderize the steaks before you vac seal and freeze.

I've been using a lem #12 for about 10 years now. I have the cubing attached for it and both work great.

I have a Cabela's Carnivore with the foot pedal and cube steak attachment. Tried to buy a Lem a few years back and they couldn't fill the order. Drove to Cabela's and got this one. I have been very pleased.

I process 5-7 deer a year and this unit will flat perform. Best other purchase is a freezer paper roll stand and a roll of GOOD freezer paper, like the Airloc commercial grade stuff, along with a tape dispenser.

I've got this same unit and a lem #8. The carnivore is worth every penny. It's a bad ass machine.

My father in law purchased an attachment that went on his kitchen aid mixer and we used it as a grinder but don’t know where he bought it from. He bought rest from LEM. Like a cuber for cube steak and vacuum sealer for packaging and etc. More work but seems to taste better when we process it yourself. Especially if you are able to age it, we quarter up and store in a spare fridge for a week then processed it. Lots of work but cheaper.

Hear me now and believe me later. Get the absolute biggest grinder you can afford if you are serious about it.

I process about 5 to 10 deer a year with a friend and much of that is made into breakfast sausage, sometimes over 100lbs at a time. That means multiple times through the grinder and that last grind through the fine plate can take it's time when the meat starts to warm up. Bigger grinders get it done faster and you end up with a better product. Also means less time staring down at a table, dealing with cold meat, cold hands, greasy fat all over.

This is very good advice. Makes that second gring lots easier.

Would prefer to grind and cube my own, beef fat has gotten hard to find around me in Pell City. Anyone had any luck locating any?

I have a cheap grinder, work great. I have a low end foodsaver vacuum sealer and it does slow me down a little when I hit the duty cycle on it and have to wait. thatll be the next thing I upgrade, but isnt a huge problem. the two things that are absolute absolute must have are a good boning knife or two (the victorinox 6" straight and 6" curved are my two favorite) and a LARGE cutting board. like, the biggest one you can find at walmart/cabelas. Its also really handy to have a few large stainless bowls around for separating/holding the different cuts of meat as you process. I would say that all in I have less than $200 in all my processing gear.

I bought a LEM #12 grinder with foot pedal. You can catch a hand operated cuber that will take 1x5 inch pieces of meat for around 120.00 if you watch for sales.
I use a food saver that I bought from Sams club about 12 years ago for less than 100.00.

Honestly, it’s probably a lot easier to just find a new processor. I did my first dozen or so by myself and it’s a pain in the ass. If you’ve got the time, more power to you, but by the time I bought all the supplies to process one and all the time I spent processing it, I don’t think twice about dropping one off at the processor now. Only thing I process on my own now is making some jerky

I ran across a grinder in clearance years ago at Wal mart. $35. I think near $100 or more was the price. Obviously I jumped. It handles 2-4 deer a year no problem. I inherited a commercial Grinder a few years ago. I think the cheap clearance grinder is better. It’s small and easy to operate and clean and it works fast and hard