Handguard or gloves?

[Richard Flanders]

$10 mechanics gloves from Home Depot work just fine for hunting in cool temps and for all target shooting. The fingers fit nice and snug at the tips and allow you to handle shells and such. No need for expensive shooting gloves until it gets pretty cold. Browning makes a good thinsulate shooting glove that works very well for that. I do like hand guards too, especially for clays shooting. Forces you to hold your left hand well forward where it should be as per the Churchill method.

[Pa SxS]

Shooting in the cold is not the problem for me. Just about any insulated gloves work for me. I take the trigger hand glove off when it's time for me to shoot. The problem is in the hot weather that your leading hand can get burned on the barrels. I went to the Gripswell web site: http://www.gripswell.com/gs12.php
I got as far as the place to enter your credit card without any problem. Since I'm not ordering, I didn't continue. Don't know what would have happened if I entered the credit card info and completed the order.

Greg, I think I bought my gloves at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays years ago. https://www.lvsclays.com/pro-shop/apparel-accessories/ You may want to give them a call and see if they have the SxS gloves. Maybe they would ship them to you.

[Byron Teates]

I always shoot with a glove for the barrels... I have shot just about every weekend for the last eight years. I have gone thru numerous "shooting" gloves and have decided that the Cabelas leather shooting gloves will last about a year. Allen gloves about 10-12 weeks...Florida humidity and sweat tough on gloves.

[Drew Hause]

Timely thread. To be 118-120 tomorrow and I'll be checking the barrel temps of two new fangled fluid steel and one damascus shotgun with an infrared thermometer at the beginning, middle and end of a round of skeet out at Ben Avery in the morning.
I can say there is NO WAY one can hold the barrels at the end of a round during Hell Season in the desert without a handguard or gloves.
Results to follow...if I can still use my digits

[Wild Skies]

Originally Posted by Chuck Bishop

I went to the Gripswell web site: http://www.gripswell.com/gs12.php
I got as far as the place to enter your credit card without any problem. Since I'm not ordering, I didn't continue. Don't know what would have happened if I entered the credit card info and completed the order.

Greg, I think I bought my gloves at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays years ago. https://www.lvsclays.com/pro-shop/apparel-accessories/ You may want to give them a call and see if they have the SxS gloves. Maybe they would ship them to you.

Chuck, I don't understand why Gripswell's website is still operational, I see it was last updated in 2009 and their phone # has been disconnected.

I appreciate the link to Lehigh. I called them, but unfortunately they no longer have any of the Gripswell line of gloves left in inventory, nor has any other dealer that I've checked with. Too bad, as they are/were a top-of-the-line product.

[King Cobb]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

I am going to guess you never shot a round of trap on a very hot day, trap doubles or a short squad is even worse. The barrels will give you a 2nd degree burn in a second under those conditions.

I must hold the forend wrong or something. I don't really touch the barrels, the splinter just rests in my grip.

Last August i shot a full 4 rounds of skeet with my 3 frame, it was plenty warm that day.

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Bill Holcombe

I must hold the forend wrong or something. I don't really touch the barrels, the splinter just rests in my grip.

Last August i shot a full 4 rounds of skeet with my 3 frame, it was plenty warm that day.

The time between shots is far faster on a trap field than it is on a skeet field. There is no comparison between those two games for heating up the barrels.

[Mike Franzen]

If you're shooting in warm weather and the barrels aren't getting hot enough to burn you, then you have a long interval between shots. 5 stand really heats them up. I bought a pair of deer skin gloves from Orvis. The shooting finger was slit and would fold back and attach itself with a magnet. I didn't like the fold back option so I just kept my finger covered. The problem was when I would reach into my pouch for a shell the magnet would grab one too and end up throwing it on the ground. I ended up buying the same glove without the mags. They're very thin yet very tough. I recommmend them.

[King Cobb]

I don't have a gun to test this with, but I seriously don't believe my fingers touch the barrels when I shoot. My finger tips stay on the splinter. It doesn't surprise me that this might not be correct, I have been commented on before even with 870s and A5s that I don't really grab hold of the forearm.

I have shot trap and 5 stand and even crazy quail with parkers, but it has always been in the winter or early spring when we tend to shoot those.

[Autumn Daze]

Holding a gun by the splinter puts way too much strain on the forend lug under recoil. Place the gun loosely in your leading hand and wrap your fingers around the barrels. Hence the need for gloves for some