Advice needed - Best Winter Gloves?

[Springroll]

Thank you for that post, kamaro. I head out to Farnham(wk 11) Jan 8th, and our Pl 2ic also gave us permission to use civvie gloves, since the issued ones suck for keeping dry and warm. You were out there at the same time as us....lol

A piece of advice for anyone going out for week 9 in Farnham after Xmas, bring some thin, warm civvie gloves for use at the range. You are spending alot of time not moving other than switching from prone to the other positions(kneeling, sitting and standing) and your hands will get soaked after a while. You may also want to buy those little packages of glove warmers. They are a life saver, or in this case a hand saver!

 

[Armymedic]

I used neoprene gloves for a while, and hated them for the very fact my hands would sweat. Eventually when you wear them it will get cold enough to get real unpleasant with wet clammy hands.

neoprene gloves + winter = frozen hands...Bad juju.

You may also want to buy those little packages of glove warmers. They are a life saver, or in this case a hand saver!

Those are expensive, bulky, prevent you from actually handling anything, and only used when you are WEAK or dying. If your hands are getting cold, you are not dressed properly...cold hands means your core is not warm enough or the gloves you are wearing are inadequate.

:tsktsk:

Gloves are like boots, as in every person will give you a different answer. The "perfect" answer is a series of handwear. The good old way is to wear a liner glove, with a leather glove overtop, and finally the Arctic mitt onto over that. That would keep your handswarm to minus freaking cold.

Peronally, I like to use Ropers gloves. You can get them lined (29.99) or without (19.99) from Marks work wear house or other work wear/western wear stores. The unlined gloves are just like the old cbt gloves...and with a poly pro liner work really well to about -15 (same as the lined). Columbia sells windproof gloves with leather palms and reinforced trigger finger (15.99 at LeBarons in Ottawa) which are inexpensive and worked well for me this fall.

One pair is never enough...when one pair gets wet-you get cold. You need 2 prs minimum. Spares are kept in a Ziploc in my kit. Clean and dry = warm.

 

[Springroll]

If your hands are getting cold, you are not dressed properly...cold hands means your core is not warm enough or the gloves you are wearing are inadequate.

The gloves I was using were the issued green inners with the leather outers. Part of the issue I found was that the gloves really didn't fit my hands(small lady hands) and with the leather outer on, I could not handle my weapon efficiently. I gave up and took the outer off, but with that came the freezing fingers.

I was told by one person to check out Mountain Equipment Co-op since cold is kind of their specialty. Has anyone seen anything there that is any good to -30?

 

[NCRCrow]

why are recruits buying their own kit..................


welcome back Springroll

 

[Hot Lips]

If I and MRM hadn't bought me kit for basic I would have froze and been soaked.
I couldn't get a second pair of boots for 6 weeks...


HL
I purchased socks, long underwear and gloves from MEC...just to name a few items.

 

[17thRecceSgt]

MEC has lots of good gloves but...will you be able to wear them is the question?  Some units are ok with the wearing non-issued kit.  Other's aren't.  I would find out before you go spend your own $$ only to find out you can't wear the kit.

Having said that, one thing we used to do was to mix/match our kit.  Hand-warmth was an issue, and the work around we did was to wear the cmbt glove liners inside the arctic mitt outter (with the arctic mitt inner removed of course).  Except in the coldest conditions, or when stationary for long periods (ie. an O.P. or sentry or likewise), this was a workable solution.  When required, you could remove the arctic mitt, and still have gloved fingers.  If you needed bare fingers, the gloves liners stayed in the arctic mitt, retaining more of the heat.  If you got warm?  Remove the arctic mitts, roll them up, and into the parka pocket or what have you.

Sealskinz are good gloves to keep you hands dry, although they have little insulation value.  Pair them up with good, thin liners, and under the said pair of arctic mitts?  Seems like it would work...

As HLs mentions in her post, Recruits aren't entitled to some of the kit that "everyone else" is.  And lots of people consider that kit to be sub-standard.  Like the CWW gloves.  I had to find them at the surplus store here, and ship them up.  Atleast then, she had kit that was "issued" and stood a better chance of being able to wear it. 

Back in the Sqn, most of us used the cmbt glove liners in the arctic mitt trick...and ya, we all had 4 pair of them (cmbt glove liners) cause once they got wet...you got cold.  Time to change  up.

 

[Armymedic]

The gloves I was using were the issued green inners with the leather outers. Part of the issue I found was that the gloves really didn't fit my hands(small lady hands) and with the leather outer on, I could not handle my weapon efficiently. I gave up and took the outer off, but with that came the freezing fingers.

Gloves, improper fitting or not, should not prevent you from handling your weapon effectively. Good excuse though. Being a relatively inexperienced soldier, you just need more practice.

So I guess in this 50/50 situation...you were 90% wrong.

 

[NCRCrow]

why are recruits buying their own gear?

why are they missing meals!!!

What is going on??????

 

[17thRecceSgt]

For reasons unknown to me, recruits in trng are not entitled to the same SI "trained" troops are.  Instead of the ICES/ICS jacket, they get the old old combat jackets...the cardboard one.  They get...CADPAT Bivy bags...but the old style combat gloves...I am sure there is a reason (not one I would agree is valid fwiw) that they don't...they just...don't.  I supplied HLs with...hmmm....proper fitting Mk IIIs, a decent combat jacket liner...CWW gloves...an old IPE bag...the new Temperate Glove (CADPAT leather type),  the "new" thermal headgear (neck gaitor and balaclava) and numerous other pieces of kit that is not on the SI for recruits.

Not eating?  There is time to eat, just not lots.  There is limited space to put lots of recruits thru.  From what I have heard (I have been asking around some) it seems to me that maybe the Marching NCOs are not supervising their troops closely enough.  Example, the recruit that takes 5 minutes to make a salad.  That recruit won't have 5 minutes when I am standing there.  >

Thats just my opinion, from some stuff I heard recently...being that I am to RFD there on 08 Jan, I have become alittle curious...most of the stuff I have heard is from recent students and a current BMQ instructor, Reg Frce Navy type.

"SI" means Scale of Issue, or..it used to I think.

 

[Kamaro]

I don't know where "not eating" came into this thread, but at St. Jean they're over capacity and the mess staff are like 6 to 1000. You have say, 35 minutes for lunch (which is decent) and then a 15-20 minute wait in line just to get to the line for food. They're crammin in the platoons (which is good) but not upping their ability to deal with them. For instance, not enough DEUs to go around, not enough c7a2s for every platoon to train on them, you get the idea.

Our staff were fairly good about dealing with the lunch lines.. we had enough time to eat- fast. I didn't mind.

Back to gloves! like others have said, have more than one pair, of liners at least. I had two pair cotton liners and there's nothing better than swapping a wet half-frozen pair for a dry set. Carry em with a change of socks in your butt-pack.

 

[aesop081]

I don't know where "not eating" came into this thread, but at St. Jean they're over capacity and the mess staff are like 6 to 1000. You have say, 35 minutes for lunch (which is decent) and then a 15-20 minute wait in line just to get to the line for food. They're crammin in the platoons (which is good) but not upping their ability to deal with them. For instance, not enough DEUs to go around, not enough c7a2s for every platoon to train on them, you get the idea.

:crybaby:

 

[the 48th regulator]

:crybaby:

:rofl:

Yup,

Here is a better idea, at breakfast time, grab lots and lots of hardboiled eggs then shove them in yer pockets where the gloves are.

Hand warmers, and a meal.

and that is the regulator's words of wisdom for the day...

dileas

tess

 

[Springroll]

MEC has lots of good gloves but...will you be able to wear them is the question?  Some units are ok with the wearing non-issued kit.  Other's aren't.  I would find out before you go spend your own $$ only to find out you can't wear the kit.

I only know what my platoon was told, and our Pl 2ic suggested we get our own pair to wear out in the field when we get back because of the poor quality of the gloves that were issued. He also told us that for sentry duties etc, that he will be requiring us to wear the arctic mitts, but for patrolling and such, we will be permitted to wear our own gloves.


Thanks for the welcome back HFXCrow

 

[the 48th regulator]

So much for my words of wisdom for today....

dileas

tess

 

[Trinity]

So much for my words of wisdom for today....

I like to pour Naptha on my hands to keep them warm.

It works.. really...  :

well.. maybe if you then light the naptha.

DO NOT.. spill naptha on your hands.  Not only is it
a poor hand lotion...  in cold weather you'll feel like
your hands are frostbitten in seconds.

Been there.. done that.  It's fun.

 

[the 48th regulator]

I like to pour Naptha on my hands to keep them warm.

It works.. really...   :

well.. maybe if you then light the naptha.

DO NOT.. spill naptha on your hands.  Not only is it
a poor hand lotion...  in cold weather you'll feel like
your hands are frostbitten in seconds.

Been there.. done that.  It's fun.

Jenkers,

that is brining back far away memories....

dileas

tess

 

[vonGarvin]

why are recruits buying their own gear?

why are they missing meals!!!

What is going on??????

I'll put in here something I wrote in another thread re meals:

My fave was my ISCC at the PPCLI Battle School back in 1990 (yes, I was an RCR then at the Patricia Battle School!  Talk about fun!)  Anyway, my favourite episode from that series occured during week 3 or 4.  We were doing crunchies or some other God Aweful stuff in the shacks, in arctic gear with the staff focussing on varoius contestants.  One fella was asked "Do you want to be here?", and answered "Yes!  Master Corporal!"  "Bulls--t!" and so on.  I felt the honour of being a contestant for a bit, yelling through my respirator that yes, indeed, I did want to be there.  A few wall sits and pushups later, another fella was asked "Do YOU want to be here?", and much to our surprise, answered "No, Master Corporal!"  "Fine.  Everybody kit up and on the road.  Except you, Bloggins".  Well, we went out to the road, got marched to dinner (for which we had exactly five minutes to be back out on the road, formed up, all accounted for).  Nobody noticed that Bloggins wasn't there.  We marched back to the shacks, and there was no trace of him.  His bed was folded up, his kit was gone and nobody asked The Question.

My Phase III had an interesting episode one day out at Dunn's Corner here in Gagetown.  We lined up for supper and were told that "...in fifteen minutes, everyone has eaten, this is all packed up, and you are at the LD, ready to advance."  I was the Weapons' Det Commander at the time (meaning I was near the end of the line), and I still had my steak (it was Thursday), another steak (after going back for seconds), two cigarettes and a bowel movement. Although nobody was voted out on that episode, it just proved to us slack and idle candidates, that yes, timings, even insane timings, can be met!

Given the proper motivation, most anything can be done.

For what it's worth, I did ISCC, BOTC parts I and II, Infantry Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV all with "issued" kit only.  I'm still alive to tell the tale.  Suck it up, buttercups.

And I failed to mention my basic machine gunner course, on firing point 4/5 in Gagetown, December 1989.  No gloves on (yeah, I know, stupid me).  How, pray tell, did I keep my fingers warm?  ARMPITS.  Where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I suggest you get a couple of pairs of these wool/ nylon mix Fox River gloves from MEC (only 10 bucks), or the equivalent. Top with the issued mitts for when it gets really cold. I've worn this type of glove at temperatures down to - 25 or so with no problems while handling weapons, skiing, climbing or snowshoeing. Some building supply stores carry this type of glove with the anti-contact nubs on them as well, and they're better for grip.

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441772939&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302698971&bmUID=1166857090033

 

[vonGarvin]

Personally, I'd suggest that you go through this very "basic" of training with the very 'basics".  You'll lose nary a limb or digit.  And, if nothing else, it will highlight to you the limitations of some of our "wonderful" kit.

 

[NCRCrow]

I remember getting "pop" privileges.

I think it sets a bad standard when recruits are encouraged to buy there own gear.


...........off to the Green and Gold