How'd you get that nasty flinch?

I've shot my 8.5lbs 338 lm with 300gr bergers at 2750fps without the brake on because I was curious how much the brake actually helped. Not a pleasant experience and the brake works great. My buddies 458 lot is much less bothersome but the worst rifle I ever shot for recoil was a 300 ultra with 208gr amax at 3170fps and a ####ty hard recoil pad, summer and wearing a t-shirt. Very fast sharp painful jab in the shoulder.
 
I had a bad flinching experience doing a shoot with the local rangers. Not even an heavy caliber or anything....

I had never shot a Lee Enfield rifle, but was invited to a day of shooting with them. Most of the shooting was prone. Well, I was used to shooting more American style, crept up on the stock, rather than more European style, head more straight up. Anyways, I kept getting hit right in the mouth by the damn LE, every shot I made. I was stubborn however, and refused to stop shooting. After a couple of hours, and about 50 rounds fired, I was spitting blood heavily, and had badly cut up the inside of my lips on my teeth, and they were pretty swollen on the outside too. Pretty sure my front teeth were getting loose too. My groups went from about 3" @ 100 yds to about 2 feet, and I was very obviously flinching.

Well, after the shoot was over, I drove home, got my .22, and forced myself to shoot it for over 50 rds, until I had worked out the flinch. Luckily that seemed to do the trick.
 
15 rounds of .375 Ruger from a 7.6lbs Savage Alaskan with an 18" barrel.

The bruises lasted 2 weeks, but a box of 9mm slow fire at 25 yds was all it took to get rid of that flinch though.
 
My first nasty was an old redone military mauser in 30-06. Fairly short barrel. I had never shot an 06 before. I took an offhand shot at a deer using the open sights and promptly got my upper hand in the face (what a stupid shaped stock that was). Just about knocked me off my feet too. Same effect as someone punching me in the face. Didn't get the deer either.
The next nasty was another very light 06 that I had made from a nice Husky light weight. Had a Douglas pencil barrel on it, almost 24". I shot the new (at the time) Hornady light magnums out of it and the recoil and muzzle jump was just nasty. Took a lot of discipline to shoot that one but it absolutely loved that ammo. It was one of the most accurate rifles I have owned. I won't be shooting any of the big boomers anytime soon.
 
I got a bunch of guns from my grandfather, I was 21 when I shot my first gun. He delivered them to me after I got my licence. Excited to try them out I went to the gun shop and bought a few boxes of assorted ammo for a few and headed to a friend's farm. We set up a target and I grab the gun that I like the most, a winchester model 70. At this point I've never shot a gun, hardly ever even heard a gun shot before and don't know anything about the fact that there is recoil, or that it gets worse with big cartridges for that matter. So I take the model 70, which happens to be a 300 win mag, aim at the target and squeeze the trigger. At that moment I realized what the term "shell shocked" referred to. In an instant my ears were ringing and I couldn't hear a thing, my face hurt and my arm felt like it had been hit by a car. The recoil pad on this gun was dried out and hard as a rock, the scope was crappy and had very little eye relief, it had hit me just above the eye, just bruising not cutting it. All my friends were there so obviously I had to pretend I liked it, although I felt like I never wanted to shoot a gun again. Now the gun has a pachmeyer pad, lengthened stock to fit better and a nice scope and I find it fine to shoot, but boy did it ever rock my socks off when I had no idea what was coming my way when I squeezed that trigger the first time :)
 
I would have to say i developed my flinch from a 7mm rem mag. it's just not a comfortable recoil. more of a hard punch in the shoulder. I've since moved up to a .338wm and its an impossible gun to bench shoot. I can't take it to the range (also people a the range hate it because to the percussion and noise) but i can shoot it any day of the week during hunting season. I'm really loving my .223 rem right now, lets me shoot a lot and work on my fundamentals which will translate over to my .338wm
 
Normally I only shoot rifles. But one day I was invited to a 'Christmas Turkey Shoot':
apparently its a competition amongst excellent skeet-shooters with 12 gauge shotguns.
Of course I didn't do very well, but perhaps for their unending amusement,
they invited me to stand up and try again, and again, etc etc.
Yes it was fun, but ... ohhh ... the next morning .. my shoulder !!!
 
30-06 is about the top of the line for me! Sure I shoot bigger at times, but I don't like it alot! I'm not a fan of recoil, so-sir-e, not at all! For hunting I like the good mild get the job done cartridges! 257 Roberts, 7x57, 260, 7mm-08 and 308, they all get the job done for me with pleasure doing it!
 
-Savage- said:
Normally I only shoot rifles. But one day I was invited to a 'Christmas Turkey Shoot':
apparently its a competition amongst excellent skeet-shooters with 12 gauge shotguns.
Of course I didn't do very well, but perhaps for their unending amusement,
they invited me to stand up and try again, and again, etc etc.
Yes it was fun, but ... ohhh ... the next morning .. my shoulder !!!
Click to expand...

really? try a 20 ga, you'll be fine and back in action in no time and out and off hunting chickens with a smile on your face! I think you only need a little more experience and practices. Good luck, bro........
 
Well I'm going to throw a wrench into the works here and say I actually like recoil, bring it on, the more the better. I have shot a sub 1" group off bags with my iron sighted 470NE, 2 lefts and 2 rights with 500 gns @ 2160 fps @ 50 mtrs. I have owned and shot extensively a 450 Ackley, 500 gns @ 2550 fps, several 458s, 3 416 Rigbys, a 416 Taylor, 45-110 Sharps, many 375 H&Hs, 375 Wby, 50 BMG, 9.3X300 WM....286 Parts @ 2967 fps, 340 Wby. I have shot but not owned many even bigger rifles like 500/465, 577 and 500 NE a 378 Wby and 460 Wby, a couple 500 wildcats based on a 577 rimless case, a 505 Gibbs, 8 bore Rodda and the best/worst of all was a 4 bore double cartridge rifle. I have never experienced any negative side effects other than headache from shooting these guns and I just had my eyes completely checked and there is absolutely no damage to them. The key is to learn how to shoot heavies and they will never bruise you or hurt you, it is a learned skill and rifle fit is tantamount. I'm lucky where the most common dimensions fit me to a tee.
Boomer shoots big ugly recoiling SOBs all the time and he isn't the least bit afraid of them, and he likes them short barreled and light. Of course you have to meet Boomer and then you'd understand.......LOL, no offence Mike.
Shooting the heavies is an aquired art, but it makes shooting the tinys so easy after it is ridiculous.
 
Got my flinch firing my 700 in 30-06, over 100 rounds in one day a few years back. Tried to train it away with .22LR but I don't flinch with it. I can hit a pop can at 100 from a rest but first round in the 30-06 I'm back to fighting the flinch. Dry firing doesnt seem to help either, my brain knows when the gun is loaded or not.
 
Camaroguy said:
Got my flinch firing my 700 in 30-06, over 100 rounds in one day a few years back. Tried to train it away with .22LR but I don't flinch with it. I can hit a pop can at 100 from a rest but first round in the 30-06 I'm back to fighting the flinch. Dry firing doesnt seem to help either, my brain knows when the gun is loaded or not.
Click to expand...

Have someone else load the rifle for you after dry firing for a while. Its a great way to catch flinch when practicing. Add a muzzle break, don't worry about resale issues. They are not as negative on a rifle as they used to be. A rifle is virtually worthless if it cannot be shot accurately. Maybe trading in calibers is a good answer too. A .243 shot accurately is more deadly than a 30-06 that doesn't hit the target any day! Hope these help you somewhat, I feel the pain of the flinch issues, but all above are thing I had to do to overcome it, now I am pleased with my shooting regardless of caliber selection
 
I got a flinch from shooting my 535 with 3.5" turkey loads. Even my face hurts after a patterning session. I've even held off taking my Turkey license test because of it. At least shooting the Mosin doesn't bother me at all now lol.
 
duncansuds said:
Have someone else load the rifle for you after dry firing for a while. Its a great way to catch flinch when practicing. Add a muzzle break, don't worry about resale issues. They are not as negative on a rifle as they used to be. A rifle is virtually worthless if it cannot be shot accurately. Maybe trading in calibers is a good answer too. A .243 shot accurately is more deadly than a 30-06 that doesn't hit the target any day! Hope these help you somewhat, I feel the pain of the flinch issues, but all above are thing I had to do to overcome it, now I am pleased with my shooting regardless of caliber selection
Click to expand...
Having a friend load it might help. I have some dummy cartridges I made. Not too keen on getting a muzzle break for a 30-06. Though I suppose it doesn't matter what people think as long as I hit the target. I'm planning on getting a 700 in .223 to help train the flinch away (and be easier on the wallet for reloading).
 
Camaroguy said:
Having a friend load it might help. I have some dummy cartridges I made. Not too keen on getting a muzzle break for a 30-06. Though I suppose it doesn't matter what people think as long as I hit the target. I'm planning on getting a 700 in .223 to help train the flinch away (and be easier on the wallet for reloading).
Click to expand...

That's a step in the right direction! Hope you are successful in doing this, the .223 will be a lot of fun!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom