Carolinasoutdoor member Grizzlybear has an excellent step by step tutorial on turning your venison or feral hog into sausage. This tutorial is one of the most detailed I've found on the web yet. Below you will find the first of a mini-section of post which indicate "How to" go about making your sausage.

THE EQUIPMENT

Scales-In order to get the right proporations of fat to meat it's necessary to weigh it out. I used bathroom scales for years and it works fine but you'll have to do larger batches (5-10 lbs min) because they don't have the precision to do smaller batches.

A note about math: (here's where you show your kids the importance of math class)

If you're making 10 lbs of finished sausage then how much venison do you use and how much fat for, say 20% fat content?

A: 10 lbs finished sausage x 20% = 2 lbs fat and 8 lbs venison

Another question...if you've got 10 lbs of venison and you want to mix 20% fat then how much finished product will you have?

A: 10 lbs. venison / (1 - 0.20) = 12.5 lbs finished product and you have to add 2.5 lbs fat.

Grinder-I use an attachment to my kitchenaid mixer. You can see the attachment looks like any other grinder. I've literally used this for probably 1000 lbs of meat and have done batches upwards of 250 lbs ground 3 times. This will handle it. I have decided however that it's a bit slow for big jobs and will get a dedicated grinder in the future.

Sausage Stuffer-You can see the attachment to the grinder in this pic. You replace the blade and the piece that has different size holes in the grinder with a plastic insert and an appropriately sized tube for the type of casing you use. Otherwise it's the same procedure as using the grinder.

Smoker-I have two smokers. This step is optional really. It's not used (by me anyway) as a method to preserve the meat. It can be done this way but it's a LOT of time. Instead I smoke the sausage to add flavor.

One smoker I have used the most is a 'Little Chief'. It's large enough for a medium sized turkey. It's electric with a pan in the bottom for wood chips. It does not have a temperature control though. The second I use is a torpedo smoker. This is larger but without the removable tray it's a little harder to use. It does have adjustable temp though.

I prefer electric because the temp is easier to maintain.

Jerky Shooter-This is your standard everyday jerky shooter. It 'shoots' ground venison (with no fat added) from a 'caulk gun' like device. It will shoot round tubes or flat strips. Both work fine. Alternately you could use a rolling pin to flatten out ground venison and just do it that way.

The tutorial in it's entirety can be found by visiting http://carolinasoutdoor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/6909/Venison_and_Feral_Pig_Sausage_.html#Post6909