E.C.W. Winter Ops Gloves By HellStorm

Defensive Concepts

.     I live and work in the Great Lakes region of the country. There are some advantages to

this. Spring and Summer are great, you can boat, fish, swim, go to the beach, hike the

woodland areas. Fall when the leaves change is a thing of beauty. Winter, ahh winter.

Snow and ice storms can make a beautiful natural scene. Did I mention it gets cold?

Damn cold, cold as the proverbial witch's.....hold that thought, there may be youngsters

reading. You get the idea.

    Keeping the ole body warm and functioning can be a challenge under these conditions.

I've never really had a problem with it for the most part. Spending time outside and

learning to layer clothing was something I learned at an early age. My hands were always

the problem though. They would get cold and stay that way. I tried gloves, mittens, a

cross between the two. None really worked the way I wanted. The gloves either didn't

keep my hands warm at all or were so stiff that I couldn't use my mitts anyway. Mittens

are, well mittens. My hands stayed warm but they were pretty much useless for doing any

kind of task that required anything more than a paw. The mittens with the flap that

exposes you fingers were ok but I could never find a pair that I felt I could really grip

things with.

    Last year I was browsing the catalog put out by Tactical and Survival Specialties Inc.

(TSSI). I spotted an ad for Hellstorm gloves. I called TSSI and spoke with one of their

reps. (Great company by the way, knowledgeable folks on the phone, really good service,

and a great line of products) He answered my questions. I ended up ordering a pair to try

out. I've had them about a year and used them through two winters.

    The gloves are basic black. The shell is a ripstop material, there is an elastic wrist to

keep the snow and wind out. A plastic snap link and some loops of material can serve to

keep the gloves attached to your gear. (It really sucks to loose them when you are a long

way from home ya know.) The fingers and palm have a rough out material sewn to them,

similar in appearance to skaters tape but tougher. More about that later. The inner liner is

a soft, black fleece. The insulation in the gloves is man made and it holds an amazing

amount of 'loft'. Tech point here folks. Loft is the amount of dead air an insulator can

hold. Some materials, like goose down, hold a good amount of loft when dry. Get it wet

and it, to use the technical term, is useless. Wool traps air wet or dry. The filling in these

gloves works well wet or dry.

    I've worn the gloves in cold, cold and wet, cold, wet and windy conditions. My hands

stayed warm. Even when the temperature dipped way below zero, not freezing, zero,

regardless of the physical activity involved. Lets face it if you're doing hard physical

work it's a lot easier to stay warm than if you're standing around somewhere.   

    Back to the material on the palms. It allows you to hold a grip and hold it well. I tried

this by hanging on a pullup bar both two and one handed. The gloves did not slip even

when hanging for several minutes.

    One other area I was concerned about was dexterity. The rep at TSSI had said that

weapons manipulations were not really an option with the gloves. I found them to be a

mixed bag. If you are wearing gloves and have to handle a weapon then be advised you

can do some things with practice. Others are going to be more difficult if not impossible.

Drawing a pistol may be a problem depending on the retention system of your holster.

Feeling the grip is not going to happen so you may not have your normal firing grip on a

speed draw. If you carry a single action auto (1911, Hi Power, etc.) you'll probably have

some difficulty accessing the trigger, double action revolver triggers may hang up in the

material on the finger when the trigger returns. Double action autos and Glocks don't

seem to have a problem in this area. Other possible problems are reloading and

malfunction clearing. Everything is going to have to be done with big, gross motor

movements. Racking the slide instead of using the slide stop to charge the piece for

example. I found that I could shoot, do tactical reloads and work the slide. If it required

some finer touch the gloves have to come off. This is something you have to train with.

It's like drawing when wearing winter clothing, things change some, ya know.

    My solution, for operations, is to have two sets of gloves. I have the Hellstorms if I'm

going to be outside for an extended period of time in a hide or on perimeter. If I'm going

inside and will only be out a short period of time I'll wear receiver's gloves.

    Bottom line is this folks. If you are looking for a good pair of cold weather gloves that

will keep your paws warm and still allow you to work you will not go wrong with the

ECW Winter Ops Gloves. They are available through TSSI and BlackHawk Industries.

When you call tell the folks you heard about them at Spike's Place.