Moleskin for shooting

by FOG, Sunday, January 01, 2012, 15:18 (4658 days ago)

I'd bet many if not most here know all about this, but it doesn't take up much space and it might help someone, so here goes.

I was corresponding with a seller on Gunbroker, and the sometimes need for skin grafts after shooting big-bore DA revolvers came up. You see, as we age our skin loses its elasticity so this problem will turn up sooner or later for most of us, hence the reason for this post.

What happens is this: The grip of the gun sort of grabs a patch of skin at some high-friction point bearing the recoil, such as at the base of the thumb. With a single-action, it might be more in the palm. In any case, said patch of skin is neatly removed during shooting, thus exposing the "sub-dermal" layer (not sure of the correct medical term here).

This can be quite painful. For many, it can also be rather slow-healing.

I was bemoaning this occurence to some non-shooting-but-very-much-into-hiking friends one day, and they steered me toward THE CURE in the form of self-adhesive moleskin.

Note that it only takes a small strip of moleskin to do the job (just enough to cover the 'hot spot') so it presents little if any interference with a "natural" grasp on the gun (much less than even thin, close-fitting gloves).

You can usually find moleskin in drugstores (not so much the supermarket anymore). It has all but replaced shooting gloves for me and more effectively solved the problem. I would highly recommend it.

Hope this helps.

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