My uncle was a competitive high power rifle shooter in the 40's and 50's. I found this glove in his shooting stuff. Does anyone know if it has a shooting purpose? Would it be a collector item? Thanks
Used on the forward hand under the sling. To cushion the hand from the sling laying over the hand from the swivel to the upper arm. That's pretty old school. I don't recall old time Service Rifle shooters (ie Garand) using gloves/mitts until the M14. The first thought that occurred to me when I saw that was "Smallbore". ...but maybe Match Rifle (bolt gunners) might have used such a mitt too.
I don't know if this will help or not, but we used to have shooting mitts in the military, and I imagine most other militaries did as well. It doesn't look like anything that I have ever seen. The mitts featured a single trigger finger. I found a picture of a more modern mitten as well as an older pair. These are military, but years ago, a lot of equipment was adapted from or patterned after what the military was using.
I cannot say with certainty, but I think he might have got a pair of leather welding mittens and used them for shooting.