The Most Overlooked Piece of Equipment for a Winter Range Day
How many times have you looked forward to a day at the range only to have your dreams dashed by painfully low temperatures?
Like so many people, when the mercury plummets so does your desire to stand outside in freezing the cold.
So, how does a SWAT cop or anyone shooting outside keep their hands from going numb on a bitterly cold and windy day?
Shove them in your pockets and suck it up, right?
Wrong.
Three words; hand warming sleeve.
A Hand Warming Sleeve
For those that don’t know, a hand warming sleeve is a fabric sleeve that you stick your hands into to keep them warm.
The general design of the sleeve is very simple:
- An outer material to keep wind and rain out.
- An insulation material to keep the cold out and the warmth in.
- A soft liner, usually fleece, to rest your hands in.
Once you start looking at ‘tactical’ hand warming sleeves you will see that there are a variety of designs and features.
Bring the Heat
On ‘less cold’ days simply putting your hands in the sleeve will be enough to keep them warm.
On days that are brutally cold, strap your sleeve around your waist and throw in a chemical hand warmer or two (think Hot Hands) inside the sleeve.
Your hands will be roasty-toasty.
This heating method is so effective that some hand warmers have interior pockets to hold chemical heaters so the don’t fall out.
Most ‘tactical’ hand warming sleeves give you multiple carry/wearing options. The most common is a simple belt made of webbing with a Fastex type buckle.
The other method is uses elastic cords that are attached to web dominators. The dominators make it easy to attach your warmer to MOLLE or PALs webbing.
After using a sleeve this winter, I can tell you I was foolish not to have one sooner.
Still don’t think a hand warming sleeve with solve your winter range day woes?
Consider 2 facts:
- There is a reason that there are more than a few photos of US Service men overseas wearing the Eagle Industries Hand Warming Sleeve on operations.
- Several reputable manufactures of tactical equipment like TYR, Wild Things Clothing, First Spear, and Eagle Industries(just to name a few) produce hand warmers.
In the End
Get yourself a hand warming sleeve. It will keep you hands warm on the range (and operations if you’re smart).
Save the ‘suck it up’ attitude for a time when it is really needed. You will get much more out of a cold weather range day than you realize when you are no longer thinking about how cold and miserable you are because your fingers are numb.