These are the casings I am going to use this year on my venison summer sausage. It is recommended by my grandma. Her food is always so amazing. She makes all sorts of foods from scratch. I've tasted her summer sausage, so I trust her judgment.
Using a coarse ground pepper instead of a finely ground mix gives the summer sausage nice kicks of flavor.
McCormick Culinary Coarse Grind Black Pepper
Tools
We use the dehydrator for our smaller sausage sticks and jerky pieces. It has great heat distribution. A digital temp screen is nice as well. Our old one had no controls but the on button and it was kind of weird.
Magic Mill Food Dehydrator
Right now we use a 1lb jerky gun. It does a great job!