Black Hawk Hellstorm SOLAG Assault Glove

Introduction
The quality of Black
Hawk Industries products is legendary among the Airsoft
world, and in fact among the real military. This is re-enforced
by their life time guarantee, meaning that Black
Hawk themselves obviously have confidence in their own products.

Black Hawk say: “…The HellStorm™ S.O.L.A.G. (Special Operations Light Assault Glove) is perfect for tactical Law Enforcement or Military Ops. Made of advanced synthetic composite materials, it is breathable, quick drying and lightweight with amazing durability and dexterity. Designed with full wrist support, double back of hand adjustment system, multiple stitch layer design for enhanced gripping power. Ideal for land or water ops, and the current choice of real Operators. SPECIAL NOTE: This glove is a high performance tight fitting glove. We recommend that if you are considering a size Medium, that you refer to our “SIZE CHART” and print the PDF for correct sizing. We are getting a lot of Medium requests and we feel that Large is a better fit for most. HellStorm Sizing Chart, click PDF below and print it full size (100%) and follow instructions. NOTE: do not print image of screen and use as size chart, you must download PDF file and print that to be accurate. :) If you have questions, call Customer Service 800-694-5263 …” Black Hawk

Looks
Nice. All parts of the glove are a jet black. The back of
the hand is a combination of stuff which looks like suede and
nomex! There are two Velcro straps, one for adjusting the fit
around the wrist and another to adjust tightness on the back
of the hand. One problem with such a tight fitting glove is
that there is little room for error when choosing the glove
size, choose a size to small and they just wont fit. It is always
safer to opt on the side of caution and go for the size larger
than you think. The word ‘HELLSTORM’ is embroided across the
wrist velcro, which I suppose looks quite nice

Comfort
Again performs well. They’re quite soft and flexible, and allow
good hand movement. They can easily be worn for a long time
with ought causing you any problems, though I doubt gloves can
really! As they have a tight fit if you straiten your hand the
glove becomes tight and a little uncomfortable. In cold conditions,
aka my freezer the gloves seem to provide good insulation against
the cold

Weapon
Handling

Very,
very good. The gloves are padded on the palms to give extra
comfort when holding the gun. The fingers tips are a lot thinner
to allow improved trigger operation. With my AK47, M11 and a
friends MP5A4 in the photo the gloves did not interfere with
the general ‘operation’ of the gun. I’m able to open the mag
pool quite easily, though this is easier to do on the AK than
most.

Performance
Now the performance of an item such as a glove cannot be
analyzed as you would the performance of an AEG or GBB. What
you can rate a pair of gloves on however how quickly they dry,
their breath ability and hand protection

They
actually took ages to dry, even when slightly wet they seemed
top take an quite long to dry. I can’t figure out why they took
so long as their so thin.

Breath-ability
was good. The gloves didn’t seem to overheat my hands too much,
though as with most gloves your hands become a bit clammy after
wearing them for a while.

The
gloves offer little or no protection against bb shots, though
I suppose you wouldn’t really expect them to. The back hand
of the glove is very thin, so these are not the gloves to go
for if your after hand protection.

Potential
problems The gloves are a few months old now and there is
very little in the way of wear and tear. On both gloves maybe
2 or 3 stitches have come un-done, that’s individual loops not
the whole line of stitches. Each major joint seems to be sewn
with double stitching. The palms and other usual wear areas
show very little at all. I can see these lasting for a long
time

Conclusion
The glove is overall excellent, when using/handling your
gun you barely notice the fact that your wearing them their
that good, though still noticeable on your trigger finger. The
price is likely to put a lot of people off purchasing these
gloves, and I don’t blame you £40 is a lot to spend on
a pair of gloves. But you do get what you pay for in style;
tactical ability and Black
Hawk build quality. The time the gloves took to dry was
disappointing, especially as they are advertised as being quick
drying, though ‘in the field’ this is not a major factor for
me. They are arguably the best gloves on the market and they
deserve that title.

By
Paul Whelan
aka Paulo

External
Links:
BlackHawk
Airsoft
Armoury

Site
links: Sizing
chart (PDF)