Cold weather defensive training

You may have seen on your Facebook news feed that the majority of the midwest is currently colder than the surface of Mars. According to Siri, it’s -6 in Sioux Falls right now. Those are real degrees, not those fakey Celsius degrees mind you. What temps like that mean is that even if you’re just walking to your car from a parking lot, you’re wearing a heavy coat, a hat, and probably gloves.

The gloves are the area that causes the most problems for shooters, because even if you’re a smart cookie that carries an extra gun in your coat’s external pocket, there are plenty of guns that don’t have trigger guards large enough to accommodate even the smallest of leather gloves. So what’s a gun nut to do? You don’t want cold hands, but you still need to be able to run your gun if things go bad. The first option is to get a set of tactical gloves from a company like Oakley, or you could think outside the box for a second.

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Those are a pair of Wilson batting gloves that I’ve had for a few years. They’re not as warm as winter gloves, and obviously not very stylish, but they do provide adequate protection for my hands for minimal amounts of exposure. I wouldn’t want to try and survive in the wild for a long time, but for walking to my car or to and from the bank they’re perfect. The gloves provide enough grip that I won’t lose the gun, but they’re dexterous enough that I can actually perform all the gun’s manipulations without issue as well.

The big problem with these gloves is that they’re hideously ugly. If you want a cold weather option that doesn’t look like you’re right off the short bus, the Franklin Cold Weather Pro Batting Gloves look like relatively normal gloves. They’re black with just a simple white Franklin logo on the back, and have the advantage that you can use them to train and for EDC cold weather gloves.

When choosing the best gear for concealed carry, remember that you don’t always have to look inside the bucket that contains tactical gear only. There are plenty of sports out there that produce excellent gear for inclement weather, and have invested a lot more time and money in researching that gear than the shooting sports ever will.

5 Comments

  1. Old school flight gloves in black work well also, don’t look very tactical anymore, and are widely available.

  2. I like carpenter’s gloves or Mechanix for general winter use. The palms are usually suede (not genuine leather, though) and they are made for gripping and dexterity. They aren’t super cold weather gloves, nor are they waterproof, but for light use or middle temps, they’re quite nice.

  3. I like the premise you stated of looking to other sports for gear for a particular use. I hate the fact that when you make something a gun product it has to cost a bazillion dollars. Example: nylon bag with zippers, handles, pouches, rugged construction, available at lowes as a “tool bag” for ~$15. Same thing at a gun store is a “range bag” for ~$40. WHY? Because gun folk need a gun bag go to a gun store, when there are other options that are a better value are available if you look around. Good job using your head.

  4. There are many brands of shooting gloves that fit inside any trigger guard I’ve ever used. Hatch makes a wide variety of very nice gloves (a popular LE brand) and you can find many styles and brands that also work well at most large Outdoor Sporting goods stores. “Wolfman” mentioned Mechanix gloves, and yes you can find gloves that will work at Home Improvement stores too. Personally I prefer the Hatch/Safari Brand, very comfortable and come in a variety of fabrics and price points. My favorite is reinforced inside the thumb and index finger. At Cabela’s Sunday I picked up some nice gloves that are Windproof, Water Resistant, Lightly Insulated gauntlet length (with velcro), leather palm and all finger tips, except the thumb & index finger, which have the new high tech Data tips. I am a medium size hand and with the glove on, my finger fits fine inside the trigger guard of a P938 (they don’t get much smaller).

  5. Being a guy with small hands, good gloves used to be a major hunt. Then I starting looking somewhere else. I’ve found very nice, fairly thin and warm gloves over in the women’s section at department/clothing stores (I’ve had very good luck at Yonkers, for example). Brands have varied over the years, but a basic black or brown lambskin with cashmere lining is my preference, though the ones I have in my pocket at the moment are Thinsulate. Not the most water resistant, but I tend to loose them over the year so I usually don’t want to spend much on them.

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