Using weight lifting gloves for handgun shooting?

Well, when I was shooting IHMSA with a M29 .44 Magnum and a Contender .30-30 I wore a handball glove with the trigger finger cut off.
It was a help in withstanding recoil.

I've used Mechanix gloves with the fingers cut off when doing extended sessions with my Airweights and Airlites.

bassjam said:

I've used Mechanix gloves with the fingers cut off when doing extended sessions with my Airweights and Airlites.

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yes this works good i use them for deer season to until it gets under 30f here in ny then go to my bunn gloves there fingers are cut out to bet with the mitten to cover them up.

I used them for years when shooting a Contender 10" in 44 magnum. 300 grainers were unpleasant without. That little bit of foam padding in the palm made all the difference. Only handgun I used them with. Everything else is quite tolerable.

jski said:

Weight gloves are much less expensive than Mechanix. Is there that much difference? You can get a really good pair of weight gloves for around $20.00.

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The Gold's Gym ones from walmart leached; I had quite a tan on my hands for a while.

There's an old military adage to the effect of "Train as you fight" (becasue you will fight as you have trained).

The way a person shoots with gloves will be different, in subtle but certain amounts, than without.

For some, that difference is telling.

Which means having to treat being gloved in the same way as weak-hand practice. And it you are shooting without a glove anyway . . . Now, that's an over-simplistic arguement, but one that will be used.

Climate will be another issue. Where it gets cold for a significant part of the year, training during glove/mitten weather only makes sense. However, down here around 30ºN latitude, wearing loves due to the weather is not very common. This week, here in DFW, the high temperatures are running 103º to a forecast 107º on Friday--which will not be good weather for gloves.

Now, for all that the above is worth (±2¢); I have used "plumber's gloves." These are water-resistant/wicking gloves with "grippy" bits on the grasping areas. Not much for padding, but good for gripping (just the ticket for really cranking a stubborn bit of PVC, or not dropping a set of slip-joints).

I use one on my shooting hand. I’m old and want to be comfortable. Shooting a hundred rounds of .45 through my 1911s or snappy little .380s is rough on my hands.

I am sure all cheap ones are cheap, but good gloves will be designed for the specific application. Padding, for example, is not all equal; so weightlifting pads are not the same as shooting pad material. If you need it because of injury or age, I'd try to find shooting gloves.

But for general use, I agree with CapnMac.

jski said:

Weight gloves are much less expensive than Mechanix. Is there that much difference? You can get a really good pair of weight gloves for around $20.00.

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Less expensive? I think regular Mechanix are around $15, and I picked up a 3 pack of Kobalt mechanic's gloves from Lowe's last fall for like $10.

I don't use the padded gloves though, I find just the one layer of synthetic leather is enough.

Back in our IHMSA days, my wife wore a left-handed batter's glove with the end of the trigger finger cut off. I don't know much about baseball, but my wife is right handed, and she wore the "left-handed" batter's glove on her right hand to protect it from the recoil of the Ruger 10.5" "Super Silhouette" 44 Magnum she shot.
The batter's glove had a slightly padded palm which helped cushion the recoil somewhat. And the leather glove also stopped the full-house 44 Magnum loads from wearing the skin off the side of my wife's thumb as the gun "rolled up" in her hand during recoil - at least 40 times in a row during every every match.
I don't remember what the batter's gloves cost - seems like it was five or six bucks apiece. And they wore out after a two or three matches, but that included hundreds of practice rounds fired between matches.
Also, even though the batter's gloves protected my wife's hand, they didn't do anything towards protecting her wrist. Now that I'm 70, and my wife is not that far behind, arthritis in her right wrist occasionally reminds my wife of her silhouette shooting days. Not that she'd take them back; she also has a shelf lined with trophies that remind her of her silhouette shooting days as well.

I'll reluctantly put on gloves when it gets very cold but don't like wearing them for shooting or anything else.

I wear a motocross glove on my right hand shooting my Ruger Blackhawk and Bisley with Elmer loads in .44 Mag. I leave the fingers in as the trigger bites in recoil.

"The way a person shoots with gloves will be different, in subtle but certain amounts, than without."

Words to live by, CapnMac. Thanks!