Tactical Thoughts

Do you live somewhere cold? In Indianastan right now it’s somewhere around 300 degrees below zero, which usually means AlGore is in town. All that aside though, the cold weather can play havoc with your carry gun. Sure, you might be able to get your gloved finger inside the trigger guard, but that’s only half the battle. The place where gloves can really mess things up is on the trigger reset.

This past weekend I was out at Eagle Creek pistol range in Indianapolis, freezing to death. With temps in the high 20s, I did 95% of my shooting with the gloves on. While shooting my 625, which had a generous trigger guard, I noticed that even on that platform the gloves caused issues with the reset. The fastest way to shoot a DA revolver is to come completely off the trigger and let the reset spring do its job without manual interference. When wearing gloves, even my thin Blackhawk winter gloves, they added just enough width to my index finger that I couldn’t bounce off the trigger as far as I’d like, and found myself short stroking the trigger a couple of times. I did not have the same problem with the Jetfire, as the much shorter resert on the pocket gun allowed me to get a clean reset every time.

That’s why it’s so important to practice with your carry gun in your regular clothing. If you wear gloves, you need to shoot with those gloves on. Fabric can mess up resets, interfere with the slide, and do a lot of surprising things that you don’t expect…unless you get out there and do some shooting.

8 Comments

  1. Noticed the same thing shooting in my gloves this past weekend. I first had the poblem while shooting last winter. I tried to be a little more mindful of it but failed to let the trigger reset a couple of times.

  2. Choice of glove is also important. I prefer to wear a wind blocker type glove, usually either a tightly woven fleece or neoprene material. It blocks the “bite” of the temperature and allows much more dexterity and “feeling” in the fingers. It also fits inside a trigger guard nicely. You can use the handwarmer pockets for additional insulation when your hands are not busy..

    I keep a pair of over gloves in my EDC pack as well in case I get stuck outside for a long period of time. Generally, situation awareness is key – if I’m out and about on a mission (the mall, the bank, etc. I just go with the wind blocker gloves.

  3. Practicing with your carry gun in regular clothing isn’t just gloves, but everything else too.

    So you’re carrying IWB 3 or 4 o’clock. But now you’ve got on a heavy coat, scarf, hat, gloves, a couple layers of clothing…. can you get to your gun? I’m not even talking about getting a fast draw in… just a draw at all!

  4. When I shoot my J frame with gloves, the gloves get caught between the frame and the trigger, preventing reset unless I pull my finger completely out of the guard. Needless to say it isn’t carried much in the winter.

  5. So you’re carrying IWB 3 or 4 o’clock. But now you’ve got on a heavy coat, scarf, hat, gloves, a couple layers of clothing…. can you get to your gun? I’m not even talking about getting a fast draw in… just a draw at all!

    That’s why a J-frame lives in the outside pocket of my winter coat…

  6. Certainly an option as well, to carry something else in some other way. But you only do that because you *know* you can’t get at your normal carry gun. There are people that don’t practice under anything other than perfect range conditions, so they just don’t know otherwise.

    Point is, however you choose to carry, make sure that you can do it given the circumstances. And if you can’t, change. So if IWB doesn’t work with the coat on, J-frame in the coat pocket can be a reasonable alternative. You’ve got to know your gear, what you can do, and what you can’t.

  7. Good point. I have found it impossible to draw reliably while wearing gloves and a closed-front cover garment with my IWB holster behind me. I’d occasionally grab the gun through the garment. Not cool at all. My solution was to cut the fingertips off the gloves to get my sense of touch back. This also prevented any part of the glove messing up the trigger.

  8. “My solution was to cut the fingertips off the gloves to get my sense of touch back.”

    Alex, maybe you should have just cut the tips of the left and right index fingers off. It might serve notice to criminals that you want to get to a trigger quickly. (Probably not, but it’s better than cutting all of the finger tips off.)

    That being said, I don’t wear gloves (even in the frigid cold of Rochester, NY) for just this reason. Besides, if my hands are in my pockets, they might be on pocket pistols.

    Out of curiosity, has anybody ever built the sliding rail sleeve holsters like Robert DeNiro’s character used in the, “you talkin’ to me?” scene from Taxi Driver?

Comments are closed.