How to help someone that is recoil/noise shy?

Cleftwynd

Cleftwynd

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I have had quite a few people over shooting as I have a nice distance field for playing with rifles. Many of them I noticed, all in fact, flinch everytime. As in I see some of them close their eyes and jerk wildly when they pull the trigger, even when they forgot to release the safety. One such fellow seemed absolutely scared of his 250 Savage!

My question is, what advice do I give them, and what regimen would you recommend to help them overcome this? I find it hard to help them get good grouping, or diagnose why their groups are so large when they flinch so bad. One fellow wanted me to help with a scope he thought was bad, shot great for me though!

All it really took me was concentration, and realizing the scope was not going to give me a dummy scar, after some practice I can shoot about anything made without flinching. How do I help others with this?
 
When the wife starting shooting I simply loaded up a bunch of light loads, starting her off a the lowest possible loads to get her some confidence.
After about half an hour at the range gradually increasing the load she was shooting full commercial loads without a flinch.
 
Teach them fundamentals on a smaller caliber, and tell them to get a scope with more eye relief. that extra 1-2cm distance from the scope helps with confidence on a rifle that has some recoil.
 
Decidamps and headphones to kill the noise.
Small chamberings until they get use to the proceedure.
Not sure if filming them and letting them view themselves
would help.
 
I like the idea of filming them, I had one fellow use the rest and very very slowly keep adding pressure to the trigger, when it fired it suprised him. He did manage an X though that way.

These are people with their own rifles, I am not going to develop light loads for them, and they dont always have something smaller to shoot. So I usually dig out one of my target 22's and let them plink with that. They love the 1/2" 100 groups it makes once they settle down after realizing it doesnt kick or make a big bang. However once they go back to the centerfire, it's jerk the trigger time!
 
Let them shoot a .338 Lapua Mag for a few rounds. After that, everything will feel like a .22LR

This is how I cured my flinch. For handguns, I use my .44Mag 629. It works great.
 
Make sure they have proper ear protection to start with... plugs & muffs for centrefire, plugs alone are fine for rimfire.

There's an old trick of handing them the rifle and not telling them if it's loaded or not... so they never know if it's a dry fire or a live round for any given shot.

If they have their own rifles then dry fire, dry fire, dry fire. But it must be with a purpose. Pick a spot on the wall, or out in a field and pay attention to where the sights/cross hairs are when the striker falls. It's the best way to develop trigger control and improve your shooting.

I would also suggest getting away from the bench... it's the least comfortable way to shoot. Make up a set of shooting sticks and let them shoot standing or sitting.
 
Practice. My wife doesn't flinch, one of my best friends does when I take him to the range...he won't even shoot my 300 Win Mag anymore because he's scared of it. No worries though...I got him on the SKS and he was loving it! :D One day he'll get over his fear, I think the more you do it, the better you feel.
 
The more you shoot, the less you'll flinch.. It's all in the practice.

And I've always told people that I've let shoot my guns to:
"Just hold on to the gun, and slowly squeeze the trigger while keeping the sights on target. Let it surprise you!".

As long as they have a solid grip on the firearm, letting it surprise them will keep the flinch to an absolute zero because they won't remember when/where the sear releases. ;)
 
Let them shoot a .338 Lapua Mag for a few rounds. After that, everything will feel like a .22LR
Click to expand...

That is NOT the way to teach someone to shoot.

The key is to learn to shoot before you try to handle recoil while you shoot. There is no substitute for learning on a gun that induces no fear, and then practicing until you can shoot it well while using proper technique. Proper technique is essential to shooting a heavy recoiling gun well, so proper technique should be the first goal. Once that is established, you can move gradually up the recoil scale so the shooters can see that the proper technique makes recoil manageable.

Start with a .22RF (with hearing protection) and teach them well. When they ask for something bigger, move up through a .22 center fire shooting lots of rounds preserving technique, to maybe a .243, and then onto one of the .30-06 cased cartridges, and then I would expect they will be just fine on their own. If while you are watching, they flinch in any way, move back down and re-establish the good shooting form. Never let them shoot anything bigger until they can shoot smaller stuff properly. Emphasize shooting properly all the time, and they will be thinking about that rather than anticipating recoil.

Never, ever, not once, should you try to "impress them" by letting them shoot something that might (especially if they do not yet have good technique) actually hurt them. Never.
 
From Chuck Hawks: "Anticipating the shot is a major culprit when it comes to flinching. Instead of pulling a rifle trigger back suddenly, you gradually add pressure at the same rate to the trigger, with the sights correctly aligned, until the rifle fires. This keeps the rifle pointed steadily at your target and helps to avoid flinching. This kind of trigger release is called a "surprise break.""
 
Putting the stock of the gun on the very side of your pec, not on your shoulder in front of your shoulder bone. You head will move with your body, on the shoulder your shoulder will move back and your head will stay put more...scope eye and shoulder bruising. So many people that never shoot always think to put a gun on their shoulder exactly in front of the bone.....ouch.
 
Learn how to shoot with something that doesn't kick, useing good ear protection.

After that there is sometimes a lot to be gained by shooting something that really kicks. A box of 12 gauge gooseloads, or a heavy rifle will quickly put .270/30-06 level rifles into perspective. When your mind learns what won't kill you, lesser recoil hardly registers.
 
My friend was flinching on my 300WM..
I started to let him shoot 22LR for awhile, then 308 stand up, sitting, prone. moved to 30-06 with same stand up, sitting then prone for bit and got him to never close his eyes.
Now he does not flinch on 300WM. Getting him used to lighter cliber and slowly working his way up was working for me.
 
Load up their rifle with a mix of live and dummy rounds. When they go to pull the trigger on a dummy, they will see their flinch loud and clear.
 
Just knowing they are flinching doesn't always teach them not too...I was taught to "accept" recoil by firing a round with my eyes closed and truly feeling it, which made me realize it's not going to kill me. It was a weird method, but it worked for me...

I don't recommend this for everyone, as it is not a smart idea to have a shooter pull the trigger without watching the target/backstop and having the ability to "abort" if something is wrong, but I was in an area where nothing could get in the line of fire in that short period of time between closing my eyes and touching off the round.
 
rral22 said:
That is NOT the way to teach someone to shoot.
Click to expand...

Who said anything about teaching someone to shoot. I was strictly addressing recoil & flinching. Huge recoil makes big recoil feel like low recoil. I used to have a problem with 9mm. I knew how to shoot but the anticipation of the kick caused a flinch that affected my accuracy. I got a 629, shot a couple of dozen rounds of .44Mag out of it and then went back to the 9mm. Guess what happened???
 
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