Defeting flinch

An expensive way to get rid of flinching is put in a nice after market trigger and set it for 1lb or lighter depending your scenario. Hunting not so much, competition won't allow it but for personal range kinda stuff then good. Just relax your finger on the trigger when your ready and no flinching. If your worried about the recoil than practice with a .22 lr for a few rounds than get to the big gun. Your brain and muscle memory will be used to the .22 lr for the first bit. The best way to follow through is know your rifle. Most of them have a right hand twist so you can count on the rifle hopping to the right a bit. When i bench my .308(even though .308 doesn't kick) which is off a harris bipod and a sandbag i can followup pretty quickly onto a 110 yard target knowing my gun goes to the right a bit. The better the butt is in the shoulder the easier it is to follow through. Tighten up all "holes" and make sure there are no gaps between you and the rifle.I am right handed and my support hand elbow is practically under my trigger finger. I stay tight as possible to the rifle.I find this is a good way to keep the hop to a minimum.That is just my opinion from my experience. Definitely a light trigger helps. The longer the trigger pull the more time you start thinking. A 2.5 lb trigger pull is light but sometimes feels like it takes forever to break.

Here is a tip that is a little out there as well. It is more for sight picture but let me explain how it helps with flinching. When i use my safety eyewear at the range, i block out my non shooting eye with some tape on the glasses. The result is i can shoot with both eyes open. With both eyes open, your shooting eye will not fatigue. When you close your non shooting eye, the muscles that keep the eye closed start to weaken the muscles on the shooting eye. i am not going to go into physics of eye muscles here but try it right now. Stare at the wall with both eyes open and stare at the wall with one eye closed. Point proven. Eventually your open eye will want to close. Anyway. When you close one eye to shoot for a long period of time your shooting eyes muscles will begin to "flicker". When i mean long, it only takes about 20 seconds.Think about your flinch, i bet your eyes start to "flicker" right before you pull the trigger in anticipation of the recoil just like if somebody all of a sudden pretended to throw a punch at you. Mix that with your flinch and you got a problem. Keeping both eyes open will relax your eyes so you can concentrate on your target, trigger control and breathing for the followup. It worked for me. Take some dark tape and cover up the non shooting eye on your glasses. I always shoot with both eyes open. Sometimes i will acquire the target with both eyes open and right before i pull the trigger i will close the non shooting eye just to get that fine fine detail. Remember the eye can only focus on something so long. Hope that helps.
 
I'm sure this is not the best method but when target shooting I pull the trigger very slowly so the shot takes me by surpise and therefore no flinch.
 
I found a lighter trigger pull in conjunction with some of te other practice techniques helps alot. I just installed a 5oz trigger in my rig.
 
I coach and also have been fortunate to have been coached by a world/olympic class coach, and some of the techniques mentioned above work, and some don't work very quickly.

Here is a great tip. Don't BLINK....

Shooting air rifle offhand, my groups were starting to open up slightly, couldn't figure out why until the coach watched me. Turns out I was blinking during the shot which was causing me to flinch ever so slightly. Concentrated on not blinking, and it worked wonders.

This was with a target CO2 air rifle with a very light trigger, so no recoil and no heavy trigger pull. So much for theory that shooting a light calibre, light trigger, or dry firing will rid of a finch. Yes it might have "gone away" by itself, after many months of practice, but 5 minutes with a very experienced coach put me on the right track instantly.

BTW, this was in addition to all the other proper techniques, such as breathing, posture, trigger control, grip, etc.
 
Dogleg said:
I'll take the opposite approach. Shoot something really big to reset what your idea of recoil is. When you find out what won't kill you, things like a .300 actually start to be a lot of fun. A box of 12 gauge 3" puts a few shots out a deer rifle into perspective, and African style recoil makes everything else seem tame or even fun.

If you already have a flinch, it won't make it any worse if this technique doesn't work.
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Sage advice. I used to think that standard calibre rifles kicked a bit, until I started shooting a .338 WM. Then I used to think that kicked until I started shooting a .375 H&H. Now the only rifle I shoot that can wear me down is a .450/400 Nitro Express. Each time I started playing with a heavier cartridge, the ones just below it became much easier to shoot well.

The only problem this leaves me with is that each time I want to learn how to shoot one rifle, I need to buy another :rolleyes:
 
SandRoad said:
I coach and also have been fortunate to have been coached by a world/olympic class coach, and some of the techniques mentioned above work, and some don't work very quickly.

Here is a great tip. Don't BLINK....

Shooting air rifle offhand, my groups were starting to open up slightly, couldn't figure out why until the coach watched me. Turns out I was blinking during the shot which was causing me to flinch ever so slightly. Concentrated on not blinking, and it worked wonders.

This was with a target CO2 air rifle with a very light trigger, so no recoil and no heavy trigger pull. So much for theory that shooting a light calibre, light trigger, or dry firing will rid of a finch. Yes it might have "gone away" by itself, after many months of practice, but 5 minutes with a very experienced coach put me on the right track instantly.

BTW, this was in addition to all the other proper techniques, such as breathing, posture, trigger control, grip, etc.
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Im glad someone elce could agree and say the same.
 
blueskies said:
I'm sure this is not the best method but when target shooting I pull the trigger very slowly so the shot takes me by surpise and therefore no flinch.
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we all have had someone at some point say " you should be taken by surprise"

The reality is thats pure garbage. We actually call that bad control of your weapon. You must be able to send a round at the very moment you want.
 
legi0n said:
what's the technique for follow-through on a heavy recoiler?
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follow-through is the same for all cals.



When you pull the trigger the natural thing your finger wants to do is bounce back off the trigger. You dont want this to happen. Your finger should not be squeezing the trigger after but just holding it in place. As well after you fire you want to put the crosshairs back on target. This will help you get the right body poshion. if its hard every time to get the crosshairs on than adjust your self.

Your concentration sould be focused on the target, not people watching you shoot or your last shot that you just pulled. only on whats happening right now.
 
Having a rifle properly fitted to you will also help cut recoil and put your body in a more natural position. Your shooting position should always put supported by bone and not muscled into position. Having all the control surfaces of the rifle in the right spot for your body is a major start. Having to muscle the firearm on target will cause an automatic flinch as you concentrate on the sight pisture and releasing the shot, losing the focus on muscleing the rifle at the same time.

Also using plugs and muffs in conjunction helps me with braked rifles, it is not the recoil but also the muzzle blast that can cause flinching.
 
AKD said:
follow-through is the same for all cals.



When you pull the trigger the natural thing your finger wants to do is bounce back off the trigger. You dont want this to happen. Your finger should not be squeezing the trigger after but just holding it in place. As well after you fire you want to put the crosshairs back on target. This will help you get the right body poshion. if its hard every time to get the crosshairs on than adjust your self.

Your concentration sould be focused on the target, not people watching you shoot or your last shot that you just pulled. only on whats happening right now.
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I disagree. Recoil has nothing to do with trigger pull.
Heavy recoil lifts the muzzle (and sights) so fast there's no way one could follow the muzzle-blaze. Also called follow-through.
I shoot pretty accurately (read sub MOA) but after each shot I lose the target completely.
I wish I could be back on target in no time but it just doesn't happen.
I remember having the same problem 25 years ago (in the military).
 
legi0n said:
I disagree. Recoil has nothing to do with trigger pull.
Heavy recoil lifts the muzzle (and sights) so fast there's no way one could follow the muzzle-blaze. Also called follow-through.
I shoot pretty accurately (read sub MOA) but after each shot I lose the target completely.
I wish I could be back on target in no time but it just doesn't happen.
I remember having the same problem 25 years ago (in the military).
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If we were talking about recoil.... but were not. Follow through is your body after the shot.

You can have a Mack truck of recoil or a .177 pellet gun and proper fallow through is still the exact same.

People flinch of course when shooting a big cal the first time, its funny and happens to all of us. Avid shooters can also develop a flinch for no reason over time and that's what this thread was most directed at.

I shoot often as well.
Here is a target from this wensday @ 300yards. 0.18 moa group.
IMG_0394.jpg


ps. im military as well and far from any wog trade.
 
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