carolyn - there are charts online for the different sizes. #8 is smaller than your #12, and #22 is larger. I know you probably found them by now.
We have a 22cf chest freezer that is almost always practically full with game and fish and are considering canning the next few deer, but haven't quite needed to yet. Chest freezers at my father's and brother's houses have alleviated that somewhat.
We do straight venison burger, usually a 3/32" plate, just one pass through a #12. We do a pretty good job of not including bloodshot meat or bone chips. This get saved in 1 lb white freezer paper blocks.
For burgers on the grill, I take a 1 lb pack of deer meat and add a dollop of bacon grease from the fridge, forming three patties. Add the usual salt pepper worchestire and grill on a vegetable tray to keep the patties from falling through the grates. Now that I wrote this, I think I may have to light the grill for dinner...
This year I bought a 3/4" plate and that makes some awesome chili meat. It also makes great supplemental dog food from the clean scrap.
Other than straight burger we do game sausage. It is italian sausage made from 2 parts venison/ 1 part pork tenderloin. That is about the cheapest thing we can buy, it still comes down below $2 on sale. That we freeze as 1 lb bulk as well. It is by far the best sausage I've ever had, and not greasy in the least. The recipe calls for 1:1 game and fatty pork, but that much pork is not needed. Sausage takes substantially more work since it calls for a 3/4" cube and overnight soak in marinade. I do at least 20lb batches, so the freezer smells strongly of spices for a good 2 weeks afterward.
Strangely, the times we have tried mixing beef and venison, it has not come out well. That said, I am not a fan of beef in general. Too much money and not good for you. Burgers on the grill is about all we use it for anymore.
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