What would you guys recommend for a manual grinder? A friend of mine has an expensive motorized one, but I do not think that I need one for processing 2-3 deer a year.

Tin coated cast iron, stainless steel? I would rather buy once, cry once.

Oh, and if it actually works well as a sausage stuffer, the better.

I bought whatever brand they sell at fleet farm. I ran a few deer through it; not many because I mostly used the one at my parents' place that's probably close to a century old. The design hasn't changed much. They worked OK, but I got a 1000 W electric one at Northern Tool for ~$90. Both the hand crank model and the electric came with steel grind plates. I bought medium and fine stainless grind plates; they rust less than steel. If you don't find them on closeout in the bargain cave, they may well cost as much as the hand crank grinder, but it still isn't much.

I'd get a stainless steel with a ball bearing. Some of them don't have a bearing(just a sleeve). With this you could crank by hand or someday down the road you can add a motor to it if you so desired. The stainless will last forever and it cleans easily IMO.

process one deer with a hand crank grinder and you'll be looking for an electric one.
You can get a basic electric grinder for 100-125 and i'm sure cheaper on ebay. The only time my hand grinder comes out is when i need to grind 2-3# of meat for a recipe or something.

Mine is tinned iron and i think i paid 40 bucks for it a long time ago.

A good manual grinder is not cheap.These days Pokert and Alpha are good ones if they are still made in PolandI'd stay away from the ones made in China.I have several really old ones that are great grinders made by Enterprise and Alexanderwerk.Those were made before electric ones.I have used them,but it takes a lot of time to grind if you are doing the work by yourself and if you stuff sausage by yourself,it's really a pain.I upgraded to a small commercial grinder years ago and would never go back to the manual grinder again.Either one takes about the same time to clean,you will get the grinding job done much faster and easier with the electric one and the electric one is like having another person helping you do the work.If you think about what a person spends on hunting gear these days,why cut yourself short on your game processing equipment.Investing in good knives and a good electric grinder is money well spent and believe me,you will be glad you did.

u better have kids...as a kid i had to hand grin a coulpe whole cows......go to sausage maker .com ....save your arms for lifting beer.

I have a love hate thing going on with mine. I love to hate it. Tinned iron...cheap...works...kinda...gets full of sinew and silverskin...haffta stop...clean it out...start over again every 5-6 pounds. I'm just too cheap to do better for only a couple doe a year.

250watt grinder on sale thur xmas at sportsmans warehouse 59.00

Has anybody tried the grinder on a Kitchen-Aid mixer?
We've used ours for some light duty stuff like ham and turkey salad, but never with a chunk of raw beef or venison.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/prod...Stand_Mixer_Raspberry_Ice&adtype=pla

Yup, it's work horse. Ground up a lot of elk, antelope and deer with it. It's great, flawless but a little slow

My Kitchen Aid mixer grinder attachment has ground plenty of venison and works great.

Lehmans in Ohio carries them.

When a youngster, my folks would buy one of those big logs of bologna about 4" dia and 18 inches long.Us kids had the job of cutting it up and grinding with a hand grinder to make ham sald.( yep, most ham salad is made with bologna) Darn if I would do that again.

Buy yourself one of those $100 electric grinders from Northern Tool. Mine has done about 15-20 elk and more than a few deer and elk. The sausage stuffer works great too.

You can double grind up a deer in about 1/2 hour with one which will take you a coupl ehours with a hand grinder.