Double Barrel Heat Shield

[Hell-Er High Water]

Does anyone have a source for the leather heat shields that slip over the barrels of a double barrel shotgun?

I shot a match this last weekend and a stage that calls for 12 shotgun rounds does indeed get the barrels a might warm when shooting BP.  I had to figure how to get the thing open on the last couple of reloads without burning my hands.

Thanks for any leads.

HHW

[sundance44`s]

Leather glove on the off hand .

[Dick Dastardly]

Or, for those really long shot series, an insulated leather glove for the off hand. . .

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I  have a red welders glove. . . Is that period correct?

DD-DLoS

[El Peludo]

I use a glove on my off hand, or both hands, if need be - works well when shooting both a shotgun, and a Henry (1860 - not one of them "new henry's").  Onliest problem with a glove on my strong hand, is that's the one I load my shootgun with, and handling the shells is a chancy thing - I just never practiced to do that.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

They are made by Galco. Several different outfits sell them, but they are made by Galco. You can Google the name galco to find them.

I bought one last year. It is a heavy piece of spring steel formed in a 'U' shape, wrapped in leather. They are very well made, but they are not cheap. The spring steel is very stiff, and does not yield much, so how far it slips onto your particular shotgun depends on how wide set your barrels are. My old Stevens has particularly wide set barrels, so the leather did not slide very far onto my barrels, stopping barely over the splinter fore end. Since the whole point was protecting my finger tips from touching the barrels, and since the leather heat shield did not do that, leaving most of the barrels directly over the splinter fore end still exposed, I sold it to a friend who had a shotgun it fit better on. I went back to my glove. If I forget my glove I put the fore end in the flat of my hand, fingers extended straight out. This keeps my finger tips off of the barrels. When I'm done with the stage I ask somebody I don't like very much to carry my shotgun to the unloading table.

[Hell-Er High Water]

Driftwood,

Thank you.  That is exactly what I am looking for.  You're right, a bit pricey, but much better than burnt fingers and hands.

Will get an order place in the very near future.

HHW

[hellgate]

Here's a simple enough solution that worked for my Stevens 311:
Get a piece of THIN leather cut into a rectangle about 6" square. (first make a paper pattern to wrap around the barrels and under the fore end as a pattern) Punch holes along two parallel sides and with a THIN shoelace, lace it UNDER the forestock in front of the latch that holds the forearm onto the barrel. I used .22LR empties to punch the holes. Lace the leather so the laces are covered by the forestock and it looks cosmetically clean. If you cover the wood (lace it over the forestock) you will be in violation of the external mods rule for enhancing the gripping ability of the wood. Don't ask me to explain it [OK, I WILL, the rule is to forbid gamers who were wrapping the forestocks of their '97s for a better grip so they made it illegal to wrap the wood but not the barrels] Just get real thin cheapo leather and it'll work fine to keep your hands functional rather than fried.

[Mason Stillwell]

I gots one of them Galco hand protectors. YE HA would not shoot BP shotgun with out it.\


Mason

[Howdy Doody]

HHW, since I know you pretty well. I would say you should get the Galco. You will love it. Snakebite uses one and it stays in place and actually looks good. Especially his, because it has that nice BP stains into the leather now and looks like it belongs there. I don't use one myself because I have enough forearm to keep my fingers off the barrels when I run into those 10 and 12 shot stages. I also make sure I aim well on those kinds of stages to keep from having to use even more shells.

[Wolfgang]

I got me one o them had guards from Cabelas. See it at :  DrBurkholter.com/cf9.html. Works good.  Good shootin', . . .