a fat ratio question.

[sancho]

I made a batch of wild hog sausage today. The smoke was on. The outside texture was on. The color was on. The internal texture was mealy. It was crumbling out of the casing. However, it was a bit greasy too. I added 25% back fat to the hog meat. The hog meat seemed to have a higher than usual fat content to it. That's why I stayed in the 20-25% range. It took unusally long to smoke too. I brought it to 154 IT and at 170 on the smoker that took 7.5 hours. The ambient temp today was close to 80. It usually does that in half the time. There weren't fat blisters on it either. Could it possibly have too much fat? Where did I go wrong?

[Papa Tom]

Sounds to me like too much heat for too long. When you want to smoke sausage you want to keep the temp low like 100°F or even less during the smoke period.
Then after you've reached the desired mahogany color raise the temp to cook bringing the temp up to but not exceed 170°F. For regular pork or beef I wouldn't take it that high maybe 160°F but for wild game (or poultry) I think it probably prudent to go to 170°F.

I know the method I describe here has the meat in the danger zone between 40°F and 140°F for a long time that is why the meat mix must contain curing salt.
I know that it is difficult to smoke sausage on a pit that is why you will see the sausage guys build cold smokers. Folks get a kick out of my cardboard box but it does the job just fine.
Bottom line I doubt very much that you had too much fat in the mix.

Edit I want to add something when you bring the sausage out of the heat you want to cool it rapidly I use a 5 gallon bucket of ice water but you can just spray it with a hose.

[ChileFarmer]

No expert, but I agree with Papa Tom. CF

[jmcrig]

I have to agree with PT. Sounds like the fat rendered out.