What Sized Meat Grinder is Best

Richard C wrote in:

I’m thinking about getting a Weston Commercial Meat Grinder, but I’m not sure which size to get. I usually take home about 4-5 deer a season. Thanks in advance for your help!!


Hello Richard,

Purchasing the correct size grinder is a pretty important detail that shouldn't be overlooked. If you were only processing one or two deer a year you would be fine with one of the #8 Electric grinders from Weston. If you are processing 3 or 4 a year you will need to step up to one of the pro model units like the #8 1/2HP Stainless pro series grinders. 

When you start talking 4-5 deer a year you really need to look at a #12 or #22 grinder to handle the volume of meat and to save time. To explain this in a little finer detail we need to talk about gristle, fat and sinew. Wild game meat, especially whitetail deer has a lot of connective tissue that we end up calling gristle and sinew, this tough chewy tissue gets wrapped around the blade of the grinder and slows the grinder down and even prevents the meat from coming out the head of the grinder, bigger grinders with larger heads allow you to grind for a longer period of time before you need to stop, take the head apart, clean the blade and plate, then reassemble the head and start grinding again. So along with overall speed and grinding power you also have the gristle issue to deal with so with all the reasons pilled together you will need one of the larger pro grinders to handle the volume you're talking about.

I hope this helps with the decision and once again, thanks for the great question.

Brad Lockwood