Paintball can be a physical sport and your hands may take a
beating out on the field, so this Paintball Gloves Buyer's Guide will help you find the right pair. No matter if you play speedball or woodsball, your
hands are exposed to hazards throughout the day. Your hands will get cut and
scratched crawling over rough ground during woodsball, and get full of thorns
and splinters that can get infected. Your palms will be covered with rub burns
and abrasions from diving on a speedball or artificial turf field. The fingers
and the back of the hand are some of the more tender areas to get hit by a
paintball, especially by a close range shot. This is why a good pair of
paintball gloves is worth every penny while playing!
Paintball gloves
serve to purposes. One, they protect your hands while playing. Two, they help
maintain a firm grip on your paintball gun. Paintball gloves are typically made
with a leather or tough synthetic palm and often have padding and Kevlar/
ballistic nylon reinforcement sewn in to protect the hand in falls, crawls and
dives. The backs of the gloves are usually designed with plastic, rubber, sewn
padding or compression-formed foam armor sections to act as armor from incoming
paintball hits and promote bounce. Rubber patches on the palm and fingers
improve the grip on your marker, even if your hands and gun get slippery with
paint splatter.
What is the best paintball glove? That depends on your
playing style and what you want to get out of your gloves. Different gloves
have different degrees of protection, gun handling and trigger control. Some
gloves are designed with more protection in mind while others are built lighter
for more mobility. The major paintball glove types are discussed below.
Fingerless gloves are a popular option, as they protect the
palm of your hands while leaving your fingers free to pull the trigger, press
buttons or other manual operations. An inexpensive fingerless glove with
plastic armor on the back are incredibly popular with beginner players for
their low cost and excellent impact absorption; you can barely feel if you get
hit! Other fingerless gloves are built with lighter weight padding on the back
to promote more freedom of movement.

Full finger gloves offer the most protection to the hands
and fingers. The downside is they can restrict finger movement. Some have full
plastic armor on the back of the hand and fingers for the ultimate in coverage,
while others are more streamlined for better dexterity. Players often will cut
off some or all of the tip for better “feel”.

Two finger gloves have been growing in popularity. Since so
many players were cutting off the two trigger fingers, it only made sense to
design a glove without them! These are especially popular with players using
high rate of fire tournament paintball markers, as the fingers are free to walk
the trigger.

The last type of paintball glove is the sleeve type. These
gloves evolved from speedballers who wanted to pad the palm and back of the
hand and yet have total unrestricted finger movement. The hand slips into it
and stays in place by a thumbhole and wrist strap, leaving the fingers
completely open.
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