Has anyone used the collagen sheep casings for hard smoked sausage? My dad and I used the natural sheep casings for the first time earlier this year and they make awesome snack sticks. They are just so hard to thread onto the stuffer tube. I am wondering if the collagen casings thread better and if anyone has a preference over one or the other.

I also read that you can't hang the collagen casings. Is this true?

I don't care for the callogen casings at all. Hydrate your natural casings well, be sure you are using the correct diameter tube and put a few tablespoons of water inside the casings while you are threading them on.
I think the package says to rehydrate for 30 minutes, I'll leave them for up to a couple of hours. The water inside the casing will lubricate the inside while you're loading them on the tube.
I would think the callogen casings would burst if you tried hanging them, they are pretty delicate.

Dodger is right about soaking the heck out of them. You can also spray a little food-grade silicon on the tube to help.

collagen casings are not delicate at all IME and are made for hanging. I used both collagen and natural just a few months ago. Collagen was way easier to use and I kind of prefer them. The only thing is you have to make sure to set them to the meat or they can peel.

btw... I think it mentions about hanging in the video.

https://www.waltonsinc.com/casings-netting/collagen-sausage-casings

When I make snack sticks I have used both the collagen and natural sheep casings. I like the sheep casings the best, but in a pinch the collagen works good too. I use my grinder to stuff and I have a stuffing tube like the one below. With the little plastic auger it pushes much better than just using the big auger in the machine.

Stuffing kit

Thanks for all of the insight gents. I think we have decided to take another go at the sheep casings based on everything we have read. it seems like before we strung them on the tube last time we changed the water that they were soaking in to warmer water for the last few casings and they were easier to string on. His stuffer has the auger so the actual stuffing is not an issue, just threading the casings. We are going to give it another shot this coming Friday.