Viper Gloves

Thatchreed’s Viper gloves are well worth a look, as they offer something for sports shooters. They’re of a military-style, but not all are so specialised not to be of use for us. It goes without saying that a glove suitable for a hunter is for protection and concealment, but it also needs to offer a deal of tactility too. All have some similar and different build characteristics, which can be adapted or not to the various situations and environs you’ll be operating in. So, here on test, are those models I see as most use to the general shooter/ hunter.

The Patrol is mainly manufactured from polyester/spandex with a microfibre palm. It’s lightweight, equally unrestricting, while the inner pad area of the index finger is sensitive and tactile, so gives a high level of trigger feel. The design also ensures they follow and hug the contours of your hand, so you maintain a confident hold on your rifle in all conditions. They also have a useful webbing loop/puller found on the inner top edge of either cuff.

Striking

The Recon is a striking looking model, due to it having an almost futuristic design. The main body consists of a polyester/spandex build, giving a close fitting feel which translates over to not hindering wearer dexterity. The outer of the micro fibre palm features reinforcing seen as two separate pads at the heel of the hand and a band of a textured ‘material’ is added forward of this at the base of the fingers. These combine to give extra protection and the latter affords good grip too. On the back, you can clearly see the ‘rubber impact protection’ for the fingers. They can be adjusted to fit ‘snug to the cuff’ with rubber/Velcro wrist fastening and the pad of the trigger finger has a slight ribbed textured finish to aid positive trigger contact.

The Elite and Venom give much more protection, especially at the knuckles. Clearly seen on the Elite is the ‘Carbon Fibre Knuckle Casing’ and for added comfort that have a Neoprene and inner fleece lining. They also feature textured grip panels, vented palms plus a Velcro wrist closure. The Venom are a polyester/ spandex build, have micro fibre palm with reinforcing and rubber finger impact protection. These have ‘Hard-shell’ knuckle protection, plus a rubber/Velcro wrist fastening plus glove puller.

Spec opps

There are two other types available (The SF and Special Ops Glove) which have a heavier build and broad, full, wrap-around wrist fastenings - so in that respect of use when moving objects or while on your way to a shooting position in inclement weather.