TargetTalk

Comments from the frigid North...

The temperature in our range is often below 50 degrees F, and sometimes considerably colder in the depths of winter, despite an oil furnace roaring away. As a result we bend the rules a little. Since we can't produce a more hospitable shooting climate we allow shooters to wear their heavy coats and warm boots. But even at that, we still don't see anybody attempting to shoot with a glove, particularly with free pistol and air pistol because those guns are so well fitted that a glove would be counter-productive.

It's sometimes fun to listen in on conversations at our range. Often they go like this...
Shooter A: "Is it warm enough to shoot yet?"
Shooter B: "Can you still see your breath?"
Shooter A: "Yeah, but only a little."
Shooter B: "Good, that means that about 10 minutes ago it was warm enough to shoot. Let's get at it!"

I once saw some big shooting mits. Where the fingers folded out of the way but the gun was still gripped with the bare hand inside the mit.

I never shoot in gloves unless below freezing on clays. I believe a good feel for the gun is essential. My trigger hand only contacts the rifel by the trigger finger and the thumb. A glove would still be cumbersome.

IMHO havnt seen too many gloves that do not contact the wrist at some point hand warmers for the pistol hand being the exception since they are designed with the ISSF rules in mind. If an official makes a fuss about it before your match but allows it rest assured he will spend quite a few minutes behind you during your match gawking at you - think thats quite more discerning than any advantage a glove can give lol

Technically as mentioned above anything touching the wrist or contacting it when you take a grip on your pistol or you are on hold is not allowed. This includes a very loose friendship band my sister gave me for luck at our last National championships ... i could stick four whole fingers between it and my wrist - it was that loose, but i was made to take it off (cut it off actually my sister tied too many knots). So much for common sense prevailing, the only thing that sentimental band was supporting was itself ;-(

Richard mentioned shooting mits .. well we kinda call them hand warmers over here since the normal charcoal stick fuelled cases (which are actually hand warmers are kind of not allowed in our ranges and no one really uses them) but whatever you call them .. yes i have one its basically like a light thin oven glove which stops well short of the wrist, with the entire palm and inner finger area removed, mine has a thin bendable wire running around the outer frame in the finger area which allows you to bend and mould the mitten onto the outer portion of your hand after you grip the pistol.

nt