PapaSop said in Summer sausage:

processhead
I also have the hand held 3/8 single use one. The whole idea of the auto speed was to , obviously, speed things up.

To be honest, I have never had to clip more than maybe a dozen casings. Speed, or a lack of it, was never an issue with my plain jane pliers.

If I was a commercial operator, I might be looking for a faster clipping solution.

I agree. The whole idea is to not have insert another ring into a hand held while sealing. Extra step.

processhead
I also have the hand held 3/8 single use one. The whole idea of the auto speed was to , obviously, speed things up.

To be honest, I have never had to clip more than maybe a dozen casings. Speed, or a lack of it, was never an issue with my plain jane pliers.

If I was a commercial operator, I might be looking for a faster clipping solution.

From what I could tell from those videos you were using the 3/8.

Side note. My original auto feed was an LEM that used 3/8 rings. Went to Scheels after the Walton’s 1/2 in didn’t work to get the 3/8 for the LEM, didn’t have them, all 1/2 in. What???

twilliams I have never used the old school pliers, only the auto-style and have never had an issue closing off a casing with those styles. We used to have a 3/8 in all of our processing videos https://youtu.be/dTv_Cg5feNw?t=334 for the older style and https://youtu.be/PYd-A3hfU14?t=150 sorry, i was looking for one where we got a close up shot of the newer ones but don’t seem to have it. These are all 1/2" and they seem to work fine for me. Now, if people want them we are willing to try to get the 3/8" though? Is it something that people would want?

I would describe my hog ring pliers, which I pictured earlier, as the old school variety. As I mentioned, they work well with 3/8 inch rings on summer sausage casings. I suspect this basic design doesn’t have enough leverage for them to work well with the 1/2 inch rings on the casings we are discussing.

processhead I agree on working alone, disagree when working with a partner. But like I said my hog rings don’t get tight, I need to look at the size to see if I am using the wrong ones, however there was only one size to choose from when I bought the pliers. Didn’t know there were different sizes available

What PapaSop said earlier was correct.
The small 3/8 inch hog rings get a good grip on summer sausage casings and meat bags. The large 1/2 inch ones are only good for ham-stockinettes and other bulky casings.
I haven’t had much success in getting the large ones to overlap for a tighter grip.
Not sure why Walton’s is not stocking the 3/8 inch ones. Jonathon ?

Question… do hog rings work much better than just tying the end with string? What is their advantage, speed?

I think hog rings also allow a tighter stuff than tying with string as well, particularly if you are working alone.

Question… do hog rings work much better than just tying the end with string? What is their advantage, speed?

Yes to both. Be advised though, the 3/8 ring works well for SS. The 1/2 ring not so much. You would have to double over the end.

Do you have another favorite use for ground venison, or would you say summer sausage is the “best use”? I tried some pork venison smoked brats, kinda a German brat/hunter sausage style, but didn’t have any caraway seed… I felt they were kind of blah, so trying to decide a better or best use for the deer!
Thx