Monday, April 5, 2010

Shooting Gloves... I needz them

I mentioned how my finger tip hurts at shooting sessions before. If I ever went to a decent training class and shot more than 200 rounds I'll have wished I wore gloves to protect that finger and any other spot on my hands that would make itself known on high round count days.

I already have nomex flight gloves. And like them. Heck, I had to swim a mile wearing those gloves. And boots. And flight suit. And helmet.


But are flight gloves little more than a stop gap? There are gloves specific to shooting, but if I'm not competing, just training and hitting the range, do I need to for that much specialty?

The specialty gloves look like they provide some padding for the palm and some specific finger reinforcement on selected fingers. The really fancy gloves will be different, with a separate configuration for the shooting hand and the support hand. Neat!

But do I need them? Them fancier gloves? Do they give me anything else that regular flight gloves can't? If I take a course with a round count about 500 or 1000 should I reconsider and get the fancies? (I normally go barehanded with the 200 round count range sessions.)

[update: flight gloves are probably fine, but get spares cuz they wear out in the field.]

7 comments:

RJIII said...

I have some for riding my 4wheeler that are layered with gel to get rid of vibration. They work great on the range. I think I got them at Harbor Freight for under 10 bucks.

Huey said...

As of 2007 flight gloves were still being issued to ground troops over in the sandbox for 2 main reasons I think
1. Heat resistance
2. We already had a NSN for them

I found that they didn't hold up well to extended field use. I have also heard of folks using Mechanix brand gloves for shooting, I have a pair of the light/general use gloves and they would work well without setting you back much $$

Huey said...

heat...I meant fire/flame also(thermal protection from IEDs)

Tam said...

I know that by day two of the Awerbuck course last summer, I was sporting bandaids on the third and fourth fingers of my dominant hand because of the 20-lpi checkering on my heaters chewing up my tender hands.

It was too damn hot for gloves.

Mad Saint Jack said...

I have some Uncle Mike's shooting gloves. I only use them for shooting .44 Magnum. They do there job absorbing recoil but they are somewhat bulky.

Nutnfancy has a 40 minute long video review of several gloves (if you like that sort of thing).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJp37bPV3wA

JB Miller said...

I have neoprene shooting gloves. Remind me to show you the next time you're over.

Boat Guy said...

Shoot with what you're uusually gonna wear. I shoot my 4" Redhawk wearing cowhide work gloves 'cause that's what I'm wearing when I carry the Redhawk. I used to shoot wearing flight gloves as well 'cause that's what we wore when we were operating. Likewise the OR polypro/neoprene gloves in my jacket pocket. Flight gloves are the only gloves I would recommend for use 'cause if it comes to a scary time/fight and I have enough time to get kitted up, then flight gloves are what I want (lots of virtues and being flame/flash retardent is large among them)
For school, I just take moleskin to patch up the owies. If I'm not gonna wear gloves while I'm carrying I'm not gonna wear them in school.
I believe in protecting my hands but I'm not gonna wear something unusual just for school. We'll see if I'm singin the same tune after Bride and I get back from Thunder Ranch.