I tried to post this message before but it didn't post. I found these gloves at an estate sale and thought they were probably old military gloves of some kind. Anyone recognize them?
Thanks Jim. If they were issue, what would the gloves be used for? The closest thing I could find (with a thumb, finger, and palm) were called gunners gloves but the ones I found were made of leather.
Could those just be cold weather hunters gloves? Being it has a separate trigger finger in the glove would lead me to believe it is used for hunting. I know military gloves are made similar but I agree with BAR, they just don't look like they are made up to snuff for military use
Their common name would likely be trigger finger mitts. Not very useful, I was issued them for real and used them enough to know they were as bad as my dad had told me.
I don't think they are hunter's gloves. I'm a hunter and I wouldn't consider using these. The material appears to be either some kind of vinyl or maybe waterproofed canvas. They are very stiff, awkward, and uncomfortable gloves. I thought they might be military gloves of some sort because of the color and because they were with the other military stuff at the estate sale. Since we have both an Air Force base and an Army base here in Anchorage there is quite a bit of old military surplus gear around. Back in the mid 1970's the Army surplussed to the public a bunch of old snowshoes from back in the 1940's. Some were singles, missing the other snowshoe. Most of the snowshoes were painted so the soldier could tell quickly which 2 snowshoes were his. The bindings and rawhide webbing was damaged on most of the snowshoes but they were still usable. So I just assumed these gloves were old military surplus.
With no labelling on them they could be "special purpose" gloves for almost anything.
If you wish to buy "modern military surplus items" and don't want to end up with items that aren't look for a "Nato Stock Number" on the item in question. If an item has a NSN on it then you can be reasonably sure that there is a good chance it's military surplus.
While stationed in Anchorage as an Airborne Infantrymen, we were issued two types of cold weather mittens.
The Artic mitten had no fingers, just a thumb and was covered with fur on the backs to warm tour face. Used when it was f***** cold and not a big requirement for manual dexterity.
The trigger finger mitten, similar to what you’ve shown, had a separate finger for (the trigger) as well as the thumb. The trigger finger sleeve could be folded back and tucked into a strap to keep it out of the way and worn like regular mittens. The palms were covered with a supple leather to give a better grip on a weapon. We actually used the M16 trigger guard as it was designed, to fold down along the hand guard.
Most of us used a good lined 5 fingered glove for most everyday use. The Artic mittens were great when it got really cold and standing around (good training) was the the order of the day.
This was back in the mid to late 70s and we were still using the same equipment that was designed in the 40s. We hosted some Canadians once, but it was during the summer, so we didn’t get to see their cold weather gear.
PM
Originally Posted by longtimealaskan
