Bear down for team caddis

[whitlers]

I'm actually not sure about the HP of the grinder to be honest. I would have to do some digging in that regard. All I know is that it is a "mid grade" one from Cabela's we picked up on sale about 5 or 6 years ago.

So far it has been great. We have used it on 5 or 6 bears. Normally we just trim and clean up the meat, cut it into "ready for grinding chucks" and vacuum pack those until I realised ground meat actually fends of freezer burn for even longer, as it conforms to the bag so that it is even more air tight.

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Sadly I don't think we really got as much meat as I thought. By the time we had done the trimming, removed the fat, etc, vacuumed it all up, I felt like there was only around 40lbs at the most, maybe even less (we don't have any kind of scale in our home because I don't want to know how fat I get LOL) I think the scale of meat on bears can drastically differ... seems like you can shoot a 250lb bear and get almost 50% that in meat, but you shoot a bear that is around 150 lbs and you might only end up with 40-50lbs. That was the second smallest bear I have taken and I observed the ratio difference with the other as well.

I kept some fat trimming from this one, for the first time ever to see what I can do with it. Going to have to look into rendering fat. I know nothing about it.

This has been my experience as well. I shot one similar to the size of this one you just harvested and I think I ended up with around 30lbs of grind ready meat. I'm pretty picky on what I keep though. If I spent more time or had a better grinder I could probably get more. The scrap pile from bears is always bigger than I'd like. Maybe I'm just doing a horrible job or shooting too small of a bear haha.

[Salty]

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Nothing like a sharp blade. You likely know this caddis but for others asking the cooler the meat the easier the grinding. The fat is more solid and less prone to gumming up the cutter. And I've found the easiest by far is partly thawed. Even if the chunks are a bit frozen in the middle with our Cabelas 3/4 hp it gobbles it up like nothing and doesn't plug. Found that out by accident at some point in the past doing just what you are, freezing some to deal with later then being a bit impatient on thawing it again... eureka!

[Arctic Lake]

Thanks Caddis ! I was thinking you probably had a Cabelas grinder . I’m familiar with grinders as I worked for many,many, years in the meat industry . Most common names included Hobart , Biro, etc. I do not have a grinder yet but sometimes you can find 5he above mentioned names at auction .
Arctic Lake

I'm actually not sure about the HP of the grinder to be honest. I would have to do some digging in that regard. All I know is that it is a "mid grade" one from Cabela's we picked up on sale about 5 or 6 years ago.

So far it has been great. We have used it on 5 or 6 bears. Normally we just trim and clean up the meat, cut it into "ready for grinding chucks" and vacuum pack those until I realised ground meat actually fends of freezer burn for even longer, as it conforms to the bag so that it is even more air tight.

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Sadly I don't think we really got as much meat as I thought. By the time we had done the trimming, removed the fat, etc, vacuumed it all up, I felt like there was only around 40lbs at the most, maybe even less (we don't have any kind of scale in our home because I don't want to know how fat I get LOL) I think the scale of meat on bears can drastically differ... seems like you can shoot a 250lb bear and get almost 50% that in meat, but you shoot a bear that is around 150 lbs and you might only end up with 40-50lbs. That was the second smallest bear I have taken and I observed the ratio difference with the other as well.

I kept some fat trimming from this one, for the first time ever to see what I can do with it. Going to have to look into rendering fat. I know nothing about it.

[caddisguy]

Nothing like a sharp blade. You likely know this caddis but for others asking the cooler the meat the easier the grinding. The fat is more solid and less prone to gumming up the cutter. And I've found the easiest by far is partly thawed. Even if the chunks are a bit frozen in the middle with our Cabelas 3/4 hp it gobbles it up like nothing and doesn't plug. Found that out by accident at some point in the past doing just what you are, freezing some to deal with later then being a bit impatient on thawing it again... eureka!

Maybe that is what was gumming it up, as we normally grind stuff frozen or partially thawed... sometimes a few bags when first take meat home but this was the first time we tried to do a full bear, albeit it a smaller one at that. It was good through most of it, but started running into some trouble, perhaps due to more fat or silverskin, dull blade or both. I figure I'll order another blade anyway. I imagine they can't be too expensive. Those couple remaining bags of frozen chunks will be no match for a new blade LOL. Thanks for the tip on the frozen aspect. I've heard my wife make that observation in the past when she was grinding but I think it slipped our minds last night.

@Arctic Lake: I went and had a look at the model number. It's 54-0708 which is the "Cabela's Heavy Duty Grinder". It has a 400 Watt motor (so maybe 0.5HP?) I don't know how "heavy duty" it really is compared to commercial stuff. It's great for grinding up some meat once in a while or even grinding up a full deer or bear, but I can't imagine trying to get through a couple hundred pounds of something bigger. It might be up for the assignment, but I imagine there are grinders 10x "beefier" that would take care of that in short order versus many hours. I imagine you have a lot of info on that. One thing I'll say is that we have used a lot over the years and it has been very reliable.

[Arctic Lake]

Good to know Caddis. Thanks !
Arctic Lake

Maybe that is what was gumming it up, as we normally grind stuff frozen or partially thawed... sometimes a few bags when first take meat home but this was the first time we tried to do a full bear, albeit it a smaller one at that. It was good through most of it, but started running into some trouble, perhaps due to more fat or silverskin, dull blade or both. I figure I'll order another blade anyway. I imagine they can't be too expensive. Those couple remaining bags of frozen chunks will be no match for a new blade LOL. Thanks for the tip on the frozen aspect. I've heard my wife make that observation in the past when she was grinding but I think it slipped our minds last night.

@Arctic Lake: I went and had a look at the model number. It's 54-0708 which is the "Cabela's Heavy Duty Grinder". It has a 400 Watt motor (so maybe 0.5HP?) I don't know how "heavy duty" it really is compared to commercial stuff. It's great for grinding up some meat once in a while or even grinding up a full deer or bear, but I can't imagine trying to get through a couple hundred pounds of something bigger. It might be up for the assignment, but I imagine there are grinders 10x "beefier" that would take care of that in short order versus many hours. I imagine you have a lot of info on that. One thing I'll say is that we have used a lot over the years and it has been very reliable.

[wideopenthrottle]

Freezing your wattle bottles? For ice? We have been doing something similar. Crush ice / block ice... forget it. It always leaks and pools up in the bottom of the cooler. We buy the 4L water jugs (like milk jugs except 2x thick) ... we fill those up and freeze them. They last WAY longer and other than condensation don't lead to any water in the bottom of the cooler. No cost really either... we replace them once every 20 freezes or so, they start to crack eventually.

I have noticed that when freezing jugs if I leave an inch at the top and then give the jug a little squeeze as you seal the lid it doesn't stretch the plastic as bad and you can get more freezes out of your jug

[barongan]

great story, congrats

[Daisy]

Wow awesome shots on the trail cam! Thanks for sharing!

[whitespringer]

Awesome Caddisguy. Bear master!