Maggie's Farm

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Monday, December 10. 2012

Glove sizing, plus shooting gloves

In the course of our basement water pipe flood this summer, I seem to have lost my couple of pairs of light shooting gloves. I like to shoot with gloves even when it isn't too cold. Most of the hunting I do tends to be in cold weather so I like to get used to the feel of gloves on a trigger.


And I have a very mild but uncomfortable case of Raynaud's.


Glovemakers vary in what they mean by L,M, S, etc. Here's a great way to determine your numerical glove size when ordering online. Leather, of course, tends to stretch a bit with use. (That image in the link might need to be reduced before printing)


Sierra Trading Post almost always has nice shooting gloves at a meaningful discount. Those are for cool - not frigid - weather. Not just for shooting either - good cool-weather all-purpose gloves.


The right gloves for hunting grouse in the snow or ducks in the sleet at 10 degrees F is another topic. The perfect gloves for those things do not exist, as best I have been able to determine. Heavy waterproof gloves, obviously, do not fit rapidly and easily inside a trigger guard, and if you are using a double-triggered old s/s, it's really a problem.


Ideas are welcome. I wonder what the Army uses in Afghanistan in the winter. Maybe things like this.


 

Posted by Bird Dog in Hunting, Fishing, Dogs, Guns, etc., Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:56 | Comments (23) | Trackbacks (0)

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Long-time 'lurker' here....howdy guys.

Have been shooting competition trap for a while (12-16rd/wk) and have always been happy with Footjoy golf gloves. Very comfortable and last a while. Another upside is that they're inexpensive. You'll have to purchase a left and right separately, of course - seems golfers only have one hand. Downside - the brilliant white is not camo-friendly. During winter-league I'll slip a pair of inexpensive fleece Columbia's over them....with the trigger-finger cut off.

Keep up the great work. Maggie and Theo my favs.

Cheers
Bill
#1 W. Stengel (Link) on 2009-11-17 14:26 (Reply)
BD - "The perfect gloves for those things do not exist, as best I have been able to determine."

That's because you left the word "electric" out of your Google search.

Happy (warm) hunting!
#2 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2009-11-17 15:06 (Reply)
BD, I've got a similar problem with the hands. I've got a delicate set of chicken claws that would be great for a gynecologist. But for an industrial instrument mechanic in the oil and gas industry in northern Canada, it's a problem in winter. At -40 deg. my hands are good for about 30 seconds before I have to warm them.

The main problem is having something thin enough, but that still insulates. I don't have any magic solution, but one of the things that help to extend my working time when I need dexterity is pretty cheap and low-tech. I use thin knit cotton glove liners as gloves. This kind:

http://www.watsongloves.com/item-0-603-Wat_Pak.htm

A six pack cost me CAD$6.00. You can get them at workwear stores. They're basically disposable once they get gunked up. I've tried washing them, but they get pretty threadbare. But for the price, who cares. They keep the chill off for a while, and help prevent your skin coming in direct contact with metal, which really sucks the heat out of your hands. You can also use them under thinner unlined leather gloves.

I've also noticed that if you keep your forearms and wrists well-insulated and warm, that really helps with the hands, too. Hope that helps.
#3 rg on 2009-11-17 17:31 (Reply)
I love silk or polypro glove liners under just about any activewear glove for winter activities. Cabelas has both, TourMaster also.
Misery is cold hands or feet! Same goes for socks BTW - liners are great! and you can change out your outer gloves/socks if they get wet/grubby; the liners usually dry right out while wearing. Polypro keeps body heat in even wet; silk is nice, but not as good wet.
#4 milabro on 2009-11-17 18:47 (Reply)
Decades ago when I hunted, I wore a mitten/glove hybrid. It was like a mitten except there was a glove finger for the index finger. Kept my hands warmer than gloves.
#5 feeblemind on 2009-11-17 19:48 (Reply)
I have seen picturesof what look like Army/Air Force issue nomex flight gloves being warn by the infantrymen. I know the fingers are not too bulky. but I don't know about the warming bit.
#6 TomR on 2009-11-17 23:34 (Reply)
The military issues several different types of cold weather hand gear. Back in the 80s when I went through cold weather training in the Marine Corps we were issued very large mittens that were completely useless for anything other than the most basic carrying and keeping your hands toasty. They were large enough that you could wear a thinner pair of gloves underneath, and they were designed so they could come off very easily.

Of course, if you have a setup like this you want to make sure the mittens are secured to your sleeve as you don't want to lose them.

I also have a vague memory of a well insulated mitten with a shooting finger that was uninsulated.

Yes, here:

http://store.colemans.com/cart/extreme-cold-weather-mittens-usaf-flyers-p-757.html

and

http://store.colemans.com/cart/gloves-cold-weather-us-gi-p-924.html
#7 William O. B'livion on 2009-11-18 01:43 (Reply)
Shooting grouse in the cold with a 12 gauge over and under was MISERY for the hands until I realized that surgical alteration of gloves was an ownership right.

Now I use a pair of thin liner gloves and a pair of heavy insulating gloves with parts cut away where they'd interfere with shooting. I cut away the right forefinger for trigger pulling and the tips and undersides of both thumbs for a tight hold on the stock. You get to decide what cuts are best for you!

Then get some kind of non slip tape and tape up the parts of the liner gloves that are exposed. Sure, you have to redo it once in a while, but it takes just a minute. I twirl plumbers tape around and around, works great for me and repels water, too. Duct tape makes a good no-slip patch on your coat, if you carry your gun broken over your shoulder.

Don't forget to roast your grouse with plenty of bacon. That is all.
#8 askmom on 2009-11-18 23:02 (Reply)
For duck hunting, there is no way around carrying at least two pair of gloves: neoprene for decoys and insulated for the blind. I suppose I had to be disappointed with 3 pair of purportedly "waterproof" insulated gloves until realizing there is no such thing.

HOWEVER, if it is not too windy and the temps are above 25 or so, you'd be surprised how comfortable a pair of plain cotton gloves in camo can be.
#9 LWS on 2010-10-03 15:22 (Reply)
I'd recommend cannons and shooting mittens.

Wodehouse on glove:

"Love" rhymes with "dove," "glove," "above," and "shove." It is true that poets who print their stuff instead of having it sung take a mean advantage by ringing in words like "prove" and "move"; but the lyricist is not allowed to do that. This is the wretched unfairness of the lyricist's lot. The language gets him both ways. It won't let him rhyme "love" with "move," and it won't let him rhyme "maternal" with "colonel." If he tries the first course, he is told that the rhyme, though all right for the eye, is wrong for the ear. If he tries the second course, they say that the rhyme, though more or less ninety-nine percent pure for the ear, falls short when tested by the eye. And, when he is driven back on one of the regular, guaranteed rhymes, he is taunted with triteness of phrase.

No lyricist wants to keep linking "love" with "skies above" and "turtle dove," but what can he do? You can't do a thing with "shove"; and "glove" is one of those aloof words which are not good mixers.
#10 rhhardin (Link) on 2010-10-03 17:35 (Reply)
There is a glove that fits the required profile. It is the RAF pilot's glove. I wore the RCAF version starting in the mid 60's and the follow on versions up until I retired in 89. There were two liners, summer and winter and I think that the powers that be will not chase me down if I reveal the following.
A flexible skin tight glove that allows one to manipulate all the tits and knobs in a fighter aircraft just by design must needs be a shooters joy. Yes indeedy, my friends I wore those gloves while hunting (not in any order) moose, caribou, elk, deer, antelope, one bison, bear, most species of North American waterfowl and upland game from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Montana. I still have two pairs that are treated with TLC like you wouldn't believe. Now here's the good and bad part; you can have a pair too but we're talking bucks. Go here and check them out. Pearl would be for Polar Bear and Snow Geese. I have a brown and a green pair because I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
http://shop.pilotwarehouse.co.uk/product528000023.html
#11 Capt. Craig on 2010-10-03 19:38 (Reply)
Back in my yute, when I lived in Northern climes, I had a pair of fingerless gloves that I wore under a pair of cotton jersey "work gloves" when I was in the field.

That worked as well as anything for me.

Now that I've moved to balmier climates, I don't need gloves to go out hunting, or shooting, other than a couple of times when the weather really swarmed on me.

The fingerless ones were all I needed, then.

Why I Moved South, Chapter CXLII. There is no comparison. Down here in Lower Arkansas, when the weather swarms on me, I wish I'd brought a lined jacket. And in a stand at 0530? Fingerless gloves are enough.

I do most all of my hunting (and range shooting) in a T-shirt, and maybe a light jacket, even in January.

Of course, July and August are usually "A Hundred-and-", but I can deal with that, too. That's why they make big Coolers!
#12 jefferson101 on 2010-10-03 20:11 (Reply)
I've always worn a doubled up pair of brown jersey gloves - the top glove with the index and middle finger tips cut off.

They work for me and I'm sensitive to cold in my hands for reasons I've mentioned in the past.

I've tried other gloves from thin split deer skin leather with different liners to those fancy thinsulate lined ones and nothing works (for me anyway) like the plain old jersey glove.
#13 Tom Francis on 2010-10-03 22:15 (Reply)
For those interested there's a good history of gloves at [url] www.goleathergloves.com[/url] it also has a useful glove sizing chart that you might find useful.
#14 Andy (Link) on 2011-02-22 14:47 (Reply)
When my husband and I were dating in 1990, about a month before Christmas he asked me to try on some shooting gloves. In my heart I just KNEW he was secretly trying to gauge my ring size so he could surprise me with an engagement ring on Dec. 25th. Christmas morning, he presented me (and himself as well) with a very nice shiny new bicycle. Although I held it together around him, I later went to my parents' home and cried my eyes out for 3 hours! Talk about counting your chickens before the eggs hatch!!!
#15 mizbish (Link) on 2012-12-10 17:05 (Reply)
I'm surprised no one has mentioned glittens. The glove-mitten hybrids with breakaway mitten parts. My favorites are heavy wool knit with fingerless gloves under the mitten. Combine these with cotton or synthetic liner gloves and you have functional dexterity in some pretty cold climes. I also like the USAF flying gloves for milder cold. I finally wore out my last issue pair a couple years ago and had to spring for some new. They're also about the best TIG welding gloves around.
#16 JoBo on 2012-12-10 19:13 (Reply)
Re: cold weather hunting. Forget the glove on your shooting/trigger hand. Just put a handwarmer packet or two in the appropriate pocket of your parka. Stuff your hand in the pocket and withdraw to shoot. Works in South Dakota.
#17 archer2010 on 2012-12-10 19:31 (Reply)
Benicar (angiotensin receptor blocker) works for Raynaud's. For the duck blind, I use hand warmer in camo muff ( similar to quarterback's muffs in NFL). While hunting pheasant in SD, I use wool military gloves over polypro gloves. Borderline bulky.
#18 Dave O on 2012-12-10 21:58 (Reply)
Have you tried the merino wool glove liners Sierra Traders has? Great for nighttime coyote hunting here in Maine (under shearling mitten). Swix also makes some great thin ski gloves that are very warm and great for shooting and skiing both. Sheepskin and wool best thing for Raynauds, IMO.
#19 teresa on 2012-12-10 22:44 (Reply)
Try Latex or nitrile under jersey work gloves. You can slip off the work gloves as needed, but the medical gloves will help when you need to take the shot. I learned this in highpower matches in bad weather-better than bare skin.
#20 Dub on 2012-12-11 10:17 (Reply)
At the risk of sounding like that old joke about having to walk to school and it wa suphill both ways...

As a kid we didn't have gloves and we used a pair of socks. we would even have snowball fights barehanded. To this day cold weather doesn't bother my hands. Interestingly we had one pair of kid sized boots in the family, a pair of Bean boots. I remember the year they no longer fit my older brother and I could wear them. They were awesum. My feet were warm for the first winter of my life. I wore them for two winters then outgrew them and back to regular shoes. This might explain why today I have 3 good pair of waterproof leather boots one pair of insulated waterproof hunting boots and one pair of Sorel boots.
#21 GoneWithTheWind on 2012-12-11 10:57 (Reply)
I've been shooting competition trap (ATA, league) for years, and regardless of rain, snow, desert sun, wind, will not use gloves or a jacket. Trap is a precision game, so I shoot in shirtsleeves because I don't like the changing fit of the gun or the feel of the trigger with different combinations of shirt/jacket/gloves.
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#23 Muhammad Bilawal on 2012-12-19 04:24 (Reply)

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