Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What gloves for frosty elk season morning?

What do you guys choose for gloves on frosty elk season mornings? Lightweight where you could shoot with them on, but still keep your hands warm?

Under Armour Liners using a hand muff. All season long. Early season no muff needed. Been doing this for the past 15 or so years

I don’t hunt elk though, just WV whitetails these days with the grandkid.

ETA: There are a couple of HotHand hand warmers inside the muff.

I use leather muffs as well. You can take one off in no time, if you have liners underneath, and have plenty of time to shoot. I have found nothing better to keep my hands warm during the third season in Colorado.

I have several suggestions.

First off, I use some sort of heat pack stuffed in a breast pocket. Lately, that's been a USB hand warmer, but I've also used chemical heat packs and lighter-fluid hand warmers. The trick here is to have this close to the heart and lungs. It adds extra heat so that your hands don't get cold. I introduced this to my son's pipe band years ago, and they all agreed it made playing in the cold much easier.

Secondly, I use Sportsmansguide.com mil-surp trigger mittens. I think what I bought are Belgian. However, all the northern European countries issue them. They are absolutely the warmest solution I've tried.

Third: I'm stealing a cue from my Kindergarten days. Grandma always knitted me mittens, and put them on a string. You ran the string down the inside of your coat, across the back. This kept the mittens from getting lost. I do the same with these shooting mitts using paracord.

Everybody will have a personal preference.

Hand Warmer Pocket
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OR With Fingers

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Scheels Version of Above


A lesser exspensive non-water resistant rag wool

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A lesser exspensive fleece version

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And for the yah-hoos that insist on posting from the deer stand

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Military surplus fire resistant pilots gloves with thin leather palms. They fit snug and the fabric reflects body heat.

Very old days I wear a pilots glove on my trigger hand and keep it in coat pocket. Opposite hand gets a thicker thinsulate glove

Hothands has these fleece glove mitts with full fingers. That helps a lot when it's not quite cold enough for the whole mitten or to protect your fingers when it's real cold and you have to pull off the mitten. They have a handwarmer pocket, too. Walmart and Amazon carry them, probably other places, too.

I have never used the newer versions,(which look pretty cool) just the old stand by, 3 finger mittens with wool liners, from the good ole army/navy surplus! Also, edit to add, one of my trusty, dark ,earthen colored silk scarves around my neck for the invariable runny nose!

I’ve got a small tote full of various gloves used over the years. Liner gloves and chemical hand warmers are always on hand with leather gloves or mittens for the outer layer depending on the temp. A lot of times I just wear the liner.
I’ve never tried the hand warmer and muff but that sounds like the way to go for an all day sit.
What helps keep me warm is a chemical hand warmer in each from pants pocket, seems to help keep my feet warmer.

I have a muff that belonged to my dad. He used it fishing. With a hand warmer inside, it's very warm for stand hunting or fishing but not much good for elk or muley hunting where you walk a lot.

Outdoor Research Gripper gloves have been just the right balance of warmth and dexterity for me.

Deer skin, sized to fit properly! I pretty much wear them at all times (good protection from scapes and abrasions) until it gets quite cool……low teens and cooler! memtb

Outdoor research grippers or plain old Mechanix gloves work well for me in WA. On super cold mornings I take my muff I use for goose hunting attached to the pack for use while sitting.

Whatever I have on hand.

Deerskin.

I've been using the rag wool version the akasparky posted in his pics for many years. They are relatively cheap so I keep a couple pair in my hunting bags and my pack for when I damage a set. They are warm enough for our weather around here in the winter, which seldom gets below the teens. With the leather patch on the palms they have great grip on the stock and quick to pull off the mitten end to expose shooting fingers.

My hands are quite sensitive to the cold. I've tried many gloves (even mittens....hate them), never found anything that really worked well enough, but found and have settled on heated gloves for those cold mornings with hours and hours of glassing on windy and exposed hillsides. They work pretty well. Don't remember the manufacturer, but they were made for motorcyclists originally as I recall, and they wound up making some for Cabelas, which is where I got them from.

Probably need to look into some more. I'm sure there's been a bit of innovation with heated gloves in the last 10 years or so since I bought those. As I recall, a single set of batteries was good for about 3 hours on a "medium" setting. Two sets of batteries would get me through the morning and evenings glassing without painful hands.

Of course if you're on a backpack or horseback hunt way out in the sticks, they won't work for you. But if you can make it back to camp each evening to charge the batteries, they could be the ticket.

I've been using my Nomex flight gloves for 50 years. If in deep snow or super cold conditions I will cover them with mittens.