For those of you that proccess your own sticks, brats, etc… What are you using for stuffing? I’ve used my grinder the past few years with the attachment but, what a mess!! Trying to get the ground meat down the throat is a hassle, air bubbles in the casing, etc. I also have a LEI jerky cannon, but it’s also a mess/ hassle to get the ground meat into the cannon. Manual 3-5lb stuffer?? On avg. I’ll do 50-75lbs. of snack sticks a year.
BIRDDOG
We use the 10# cabela’s stuffer with the crank this thing works awesome it sure made a lot less work, it’s a little pricey but well worth the money.
You are right about the mess. This is my first year making my own baloney ,it is hard work stuffing it all down the grinder. Might look at a stuffer for next year. One of those meat mixers would be nice also. This year it was large bowl and wooden spoon. Its a workout. 
I can’t believe that you don’t like using the grinder for stuffing. Since we got the tubes and stuffing screen for our grinder, we haven’t used the stuffer for anything. The secret to using the grinder for stuffing is to pre-make the meat mixture into “balls” the size of the throat of your stuffer. We also have a foot-pedal switch so the guy doing the stuffing can control the grinder. Go through your wifes Tupperware and find a cup that just fits into the throat of the stuffer and use that for pushing the meat “balls” in. This process takes 2 people, but works great for us. We make about 200 lbs of product or more each year and have gone strictly to the grinder-stuffer. Hope this helps.
We use a grinder to make 3 pound summer sausage sticks ,we found it key to remove the knife and put in the stuffing star that way if you put high tempature cheese ,it stays whole.When it comes to stuffers we have used grandpa’s old ‘Choprite’ (castiron)or any vertical one.The trick we found with stuffers is the smaller the casing, like for snack sticks the more cold water we add to the meat so it passes through the stuffer into the casing without blowing the seal on the stuffer. 
Those 3-5 lb.stuffers look like they would do a fine job at a fair price.I got my 20 lb.vertical in the bargin cave at Cabela’s after sausage season.I have a one year old 20lb.stainless steel mixer I purchiced for $125.00 yours today for $75.00.We have seven of us that do our venison sausage together every year and every time we try something new.Happy meat making!GLASSMAN 
I use an antique stuffer that holds about 1.5 gals of meat. Buy the natual casings from the butcher, you also need to hang sausage over night so casings dry or they get slimey when you thaw them out.
Last year we made snack sticks using the Cabelas Jerky Blaster. Wasn’t really messy ONLY took forever. For some reason the casings (we bought the Teriyaki snack stick kit from Cabelas, too) did not fit right over the nozzle. I had to peel it off the casing roll and try to push it onto the nozzle. It would only hold enough for two or so sticks.
I called Cabelas and they said it should work fine, they sent new casings but they were the same size and I’m sure we’ll have the same trouble. So I’m not going to do that.
Anyway, has anyone else had this problem? or suggestions as to what we are doing wrong.
Thanks. Vickie
whew… I’m glad this thread isn’t what I thought when I read the title 
Quote:
I use an antique stuffer that holds about 1.5 gals of meat. Buy the natual casings from the butcher, you also need to hang sausage over night so casings dry or they get slimey when you thaw them out.
We too, have the old cast-iron antique stuffer. I think it holds about 10 or 15lbs.
The key to stuffing meat it to let the meat back up over the tube just a little bit. This keeps it tight in the casing and the slight pressure pushes out the air-bubbles.
I’ve never used a grinder, but to me, it would seem cumbersome and not “clean”. Too many air pockets and not consistent pressure to make a “good stuff”.
The right pressure on the casing will give you either a “good” sausage or not.
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