I'm hoping to play around with making some bait this summer. I have a bunch of bever meat, fish carcasses, and whole pocket gophers.

My question is, will an average hand powered meat grinder grind up whole gophers, or will all the bones be too much for it? I'm not planning on doing any huge volume, and I don't mind putting in a little elbow grease. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a grinder that I want to beat up, and only use a little. Anyone have experience grinding mice, rats, gophers, or muskrats, or fish with bones in a hand grinder?

Mice go through fine. Tom

They will grind bones big as the ones in gophers.

~ADC~

You will have the most trouble with the fish. Not the bones, but the skin. It tends to wrap around the blades instead of cutting cleanly

when exerting that elbow grease ... careful how much ya throw to it ... those cast blades when bound by sinew, bone, skin will break ... trust me I speak from experience ... I've killed a small pile of grinders over the years

Most all grinders will grind mice with no trouble ... but you're better off using a semi large grinding plate and putting it through twice if need be ... I find semi frozen whatever is easier to work with

I still use hand grinders for mice, castor and deboned beaver ground hog etc. but have found it far more easier for my patience level to skin my ground hogs, beavers etc. ... gut ... wash and quater ... (i remove the skull & feet too) ... then have at'em with a hatchet ... chopping bone and meat into a small dice ... I don't leave any large pieces ... just my preference ... takes a lil time but works for me!

Seems to me there is a guy that comes to the Minn and Wis convention sometimes that sell grinders set up to use with an electric drill, that looks like the real ticket.

for pocket gopher on down a garage sale bought food processor works great,slightly frozen helps here also.

I put a pulley wheel on a hand grinder and hooked it up to a small motor...works great on mice and rats...Tom

There's mine. A have a smaller hand cranked one too that I used til I got this one.

...Of course I don't leave it hanging on the wall when I use it... (had to get that in before P. Skinny called me on it. lol)

Link to the grinder at Northern Tool...
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_47552_47552

~ADC~

P.Skinny....I wonder if thats gonna stick???

Thanks for the link ADC.

uh huh ... yeah right ... you use that thing hangin on the wall ... it's obvious ... look at the lower right hand corner of the picture ... looks like boot prints on that plywood to me

P Skinny ... stickin' like glue

wheres a good place to pick up a hand grinder for a decent price?

flea market ... yard sales

Don't forget ebay, auctions, and second hand stores there P. Skinny.

~ADC~

oh yeah ADC, thrift stores ... Goodwill & Salvation Army stores etc. all good places to find cheap grinders ... a lot of times they are even brand new in a twenty year old box

I have that same #32 grinder you have but only use that one for grinding deer, goose etc. (people eatin bait )

I have an electric grinder for the people food P. Skinny... and slicer, mixer, and vaccum sealer, and... just need a good cheap meat band saw, yea right! LOL

~ADC~

yeah, i've looked at them electric ones ... reckon i'll upgrade one day

I got a slicer too ... love it! mixer? hmmm does my big ol' wooden spoon count? vac sealer ... oh yeah, really like that

AGRI Supply has a cheap meat saw with a grinder built in ... think it's around $188.00 ... not a bad price if it's any good

Can we just call him "P" for short or maybe "PS"? I mean if we are going to go with a hip-hop nick name, might as go all the way....

-TJ