Target Sports

MACWET SHOOTING GLOVES: GET A GRIP

Created on 14th May 2009

MARK CAMOCCIO gets his hands inside some high-tech MacWet shooting gloves

SHOOTING IS an equipment-based sport. The greater the quality of the equipment, the more enjoyable the sport becomes. I've shot in outdoor competitions over many years and have discovered a raft of accessories to aid the competitor, either by increasing comfort or boosting scores.

Take gloves, for example. I've only ever used the traditional woollen-fingered variety with exposed thumb and forefinger and a Velcro-fastened flap to transform them into mittens. This design usually works well, but once inclement weather descends they can become rather soggy and unpleasant - hardly conducive to high scoring! Add to this the folly of holding a sodden glove against a treasured gunstock for any period of time, and it becomes clear that there must be a better way.

With more rainy days forecast than ever before (last season was the wettest for years), finding a good glove has never been more important - and new kid on the block MacWet may just hold the key. MacWet offers two main specifications: the Aquatec summer glove and Climatec winter version. Both are made partly from Aquatec, a three-layer fabric similar to neoprene. This sophisticated fabric feels like suede to touch and has inherent wicking properties, keeping contact with moisture down to a minimum. The material itself is very precisely stitched, and the gloves appear very well-made. The gloves shown here are the summer long-cuff variety, also available on short-cuff. Colours are green, black, white, blue and brown.

Key feature

A key feature of these MacWet gloves is their near skin-tight application, so obviously the fit matters. When ordering the gloves an accurate measurement of the hand (taken from across the palm at the base of the fingers) is required, although there is some leeway: according to the handbook, soaking the gloves in warm water while on the hand can reduce them by half a size. Elasticated Velcro-fastening wrist straps see that they are held firmly in place, although this ‘second skin' feel means they are clearly going nowhere.

The company's marketing makes much of the gloves' maximum grip, and I can certainly vouch for their performance in this regard - they held firm even when I deliberately soaked the exterior.

As an airgun shooter I would find pellets difficult to handle in these gloves as they don't leave any fingers exposed. However, the material's sensitivity means that this task is possible and also affords fine trigger feel and control with the gloves in place. And with an added feature listed as ‘protection from heat from the barrel', it's clear that MacWet has produced these gloves with a variety of disciplines in mind. All in all, these gloves are comfortable, cosy, superbly made and highly effective.