Are you kidding? A person who shoots 6" groups at 100 yards from the bench, with all the time in the world, is not proficient enough to hunt, unless the shots will be no more than 50 yards. It is not a recipe for cleanly taking down big game - it is a recipe for wounded game.
I think I am developing an awful flinch!
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Are you kidding? A person who shoots 6" groups at 100 yards from the bench, with all the time in the world, is not proficient enough to hunt, unless the shots will be no more than 50 yards. It is not a recipe for cleanly taking down big game - it is a recipe for wounded game.
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Double-muffed ear protection.
As an idea, my Savage is a .308 with their P.A.D. (an over-glorified piece of soft foam for a recoil pad), and a muzzle brake. I find that it's a heavy, yet smooth, "push" against the shoulder, provided I'm not venturing with bullet weights over 165 grains'ish. On the other hand, my Beretta CX4 carbine kicks sharp jabs, because it has a heavy, solid bolt, with a piece of hard plastic for an adjuster sizing thing. Now, the .308 is heavier in the recoil department, but I find it more comfortable to shoot.
As an idea, my Savage is a .308 with their P.A.D. (an over-glorified piece of soft foam for a recoil pad), and a muzzle brake. I find that it's a heavy, yet smooth, "push" against the shoulder, provided I'm not venturing with bullet weights over 165 grains'ish. On the other hand, my Beretta CX4 carbine kicks sharp jabs, because it has a heavy, solid bolt, with a piece of hard plastic for an adjuster sizing thing. Now, the .308 is heavier in the recoil department, but I find it more comfortable to shoot.
If you are relaxed before you pull the trigger you will not have enough time to flinch. You need to trust your set up, this comes with thinking about exactly how much you are into the stock and how much you need to be. Once you know your hold is good, then you can trust firing the shot won't hurt you. Then you can relax. IMO, shooting a rimfire to stop a flinch usually makes things worse unless we're talking about children or people scared to shoot a certain rifle.
Even with a small caliber cartridge? Try a .243Win, .257 Roberts, .250 Savage or .25-06 and you may be pleasantly suprised.
Fear is the reason people flinch. Usually it is the fear of pain. A rimfire helps you focus on the mechanics of shooting: squeezing the trigger, breathing etc without the fear of what will happen when the rifle fires.
The other point is that the rifle should fit you properly. Are you very tall? Do you have short arms? What is the proper length of pull for your stature? Is the scope too far forward, meaning you need to stretch to get a proper site picture? Those too are important factors.
Yes....vodka smells less than other distilled spirits.....but it still smells. Your better off to drink Bourbon or Scotch, then people will know your a drunkard, if you drink Vodka and they don't smell it they will just assume your a clumsy dim-wit with slurred speech.
Excellent advice already covered in this thread, I had a flinch and cured it by reducing my hunting caliber (.375 down to .300WM), practicing with a spent cartridge, and using trigger control to become pleasantly surprised when the rifle fires.
I flinch on every shot, I fire... at the range.
Any time anybody else fires a shot, at the range... I flinch.
What I mean by that, is I involuntarily close my eyes (almost every time), when I am target shooting. I find it really ####ing hard to quit. But I 'follow through' on the shot. I do not yank the rifle or anything like that; I stay right on the target and can generally shoot pretty decent groups.
Sometimes flinching gets real bad and guys actually pull away from the recoil, at the shot. That sounds like what you are doing.
If that is what you are doing, the thing I would suggest is firing a helluva a lot of .22lr, .17HMR or something like that.
You have to really concentrate on watching the target, as you fire the rifle. I find if you are trying to see the impact, of the bullet on a rock or something, then I do not 'blink' the eyeballs...
When I shoot at game. I do not flinch... go figure... I see the animal and bullet, every time.
Any time anybody else fires a shot, at the range... I flinch.
What I mean by that, is I involuntarily close my eyes (almost every time), when I am target shooting. I find it really ####ing hard to quit. But I 'follow through' on the shot. I do not yank the rifle or anything like that; I stay right on the target and can generally shoot pretty decent groups.
Sometimes flinching gets real bad and guys actually pull away from the recoil, at the shot. That sounds like what you are doing.
If that is what you are doing, the thing I would suggest is firing a helluva a lot of .22lr, .17HMR or something like that.
You have to really concentrate on watching the target, as you fire the rifle. I find if you are trying to see the impact, of the bullet on a rock or something, then I do not 'blink' the eyeballs...
When I shoot at game. I do not flinch... go figure... I see the animal and bullet, every time.
When I got my Savage (in .30-06), I took it out to the range with a couple boxes of 150 grain. Sat down, got my bench set up, loaded the rifle, got on target, and took a shot...
And I was amazed by the recoil. I'd fired an SKS and a couple other firearms prior, but this was my first gun, and the first one with such a big cartridge. The first shot was ok, but it hurt... the second shot was worse, as I started expecting the recoil. It just got worse over the course of 30 rounds. Why I subjected myself to that, I don't know. Before I took it out to the range again, I got a Limbsaver and put that on. I was a bit sketchy at their claims of "50% reduced recoil!", so my first shot with it on I was anticipating the pain... and it never came. It was like being whacked in the shoulder with a pillow, rather than several pounds of wood and steel reacting to a projectile with a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps.
Right now, I've got no issue with flinching due to pain, although noise is another issue. I use the Limbsaver and shoot 150 grain bullets... I find that I can shoot 150's all day without an issue, but after my shoulder starts hurting after just a few 180's. As has been mentioned by other people, the weight of the stock makes a huge difference... I've got a wooden stock on mine, so it's pretty heavy. I was offered a couple shots on someone else's .30-06 with a synthetic stock, and I was surprised at how much it hurt. The action was fantastic, and the gun felt really good, but after shooting one round (even with a recoil pad) I couldn't do any more... I was using my own ammunition too.
Try using 150's, or even 125 grain reduce recoil loads. Get a good recoil pad. If you've got a synthetic stock, try out a rifle with a wooden stock, or vis versa. If you've got a synthetic stock, and find you prefer the weight of a wooden one, then trade stocks with someone or fill yours with lead shot. Most importantly, I would suggest you get a proper feel for your rifle before you start worrying about your groupings. As you get used to it, your shooting will get better, and the more you like your rifle, the more you'll practice. If worse comes to worst, either buy another smaller caliber, or try to find someone to trade with you.
And I was amazed by the recoil. I'd fired an SKS and a couple other firearms prior, but this was my first gun, and the first one with such a big cartridge. The first shot was ok, but it hurt... the second shot was worse, as I started expecting the recoil. It just got worse over the course of 30 rounds. Why I subjected myself to that, I don't know. Before I took it out to the range again, I got a Limbsaver and put that on. I was a bit sketchy at their claims of "50% reduced recoil!", so my first shot with it on I was anticipating the pain... and it never came. It was like being whacked in the shoulder with a pillow, rather than several pounds of wood and steel reacting to a projectile with a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps.
Right now, I've got no issue with flinching due to pain, although noise is another issue. I use the Limbsaver and shoot 150 grain bullets... I find that I can shoot 150's all day without an issue, but after my shoulder starts hurting after just a few 180's. As has been mentioned by other people, the weight of the stock makes a huge difference... I've got a wooden stock on mine, so it's pretty heavy. I was offered a couple shots on someone else's .30-06 with a synthetic stock, and I was surprised at how much it hurt. The action was fantastic, and the gun felt really good, but after shooting one round (even with a recoil pad) I couldn't do any more... I was using my own ammunition too.
Try using 150's, or even 125 grain reduce recoil loads. Get a good recoil pad. If you've got a synthetic stock, try out a rifle with a wooden stock, or vis versa. If you've got a synthetic stock, and find you prefer the weight of a wooden one, then trade stocks with someone or fill yours with lead shot. Most importantly, I would suggest you get a proper feel for your rifle before you start worrying about your groupings. As you get used to it, your shooting will get better, and the more you like your rifle, the more you'll practice. If worse comes to worst, either buy another smaller caliber, or try to find someone to trade with you.
I actually flinch/anticapate less with a rifle than a pistol. None with my .22 rifle, but everything up to that it happens, sometimes i "fool myself" by pretending to pull the trigger, the flinch happens and then I quickly regroup and fire the shot before the flinch builds up again.
1- Install a good quality recoil pad
2-Use good ear muff hearing protection
3-Important get a good set of thin mechanics gloves or dirtbike gloves and go to the range and shoot, the gloves mask the pull of the trigger dramatically and i have found once surprised by harsh recoil you will flinch, usually once the surprise of almost no recoil hits the brain flinch goes away.
2-Use good ear muff hearing protection
3-Important get a good set of thin mechanics gloves or dirtbike gloves and go to the range and shoot, the gloves mask the pull of the trigger dramatically and i have found once surprised by harsh recoil you will flinch, usually once the surprise of almost no recoil hits the brain flinch goes away.
I think you got lots of good advice here. For what its worth, I can shoot my 10 gauge all day comfortably. But some days off the bench rest I have flinched shooting my 243 (free recoiling). Shooting off a bench rest can be a bit of an adjustment for some of us. 
BTW, have you adjusted the trigger on that stevens. They can be very heavy and may not be helping your groups. I could almost support mine on the trigger without it going off when I got it.
BTW, have you adjusted the trigger on that stevens. They can be very heavy and may not be helping your groups. I could almost support mine on the trigger without it going off when I got it.
Yeah, I did set it to the minimum. I found the trigger pull is lighter, but it is still too heavy for my liking.
I was in the same boat with my new Remmy CDL in 300 Win Mag, but luckily it came with the X-Pro trigger and R3 recoil pad (both of which I am thankful for). I was shooting anywhere from 1.5 to 4 inch groups and developed a bit of a flinch as well. A couple of the things that worked for me were:
1) using front and rear rests/bags (on the advise from a friend that grew up shooting off benches)
2) focusing on something to try and remove the anticipation - I repeat "fire, fire, fire" in my head while squeezing the trigger until the rifle fires and have found it to work well.
Not sure if these will help you or not, but I thought I'd share what worked for me.
Before I would quit after 10 or 15 shots because I was feeling the recoil more and more and my groups would open up. Just today at the Range I employed these 2 ideas and shot over 30 rounds, got my groups to about 1.25" consistantly, and had some fun; the only reason I quit was I was runing out of ammo.
1) using front and rear rests/bags (on the advise from a friend that grew up shooting off benches)
2) focusing on something to try and remove the anticipation - I repeat "fire, fire, fire" in my head while squeezing the trigger until the rifle fires and have found it to work well.
Not sure if these will help you or not, but I thought I'd share what worked for me.
Before I would quit after 10 or 15 shots because I was feeling the recoil more and more and my groups would open up. Just today at the Range I employed these 2 ideas and shot over 30 rounds, got my groups to about 1.25" consistantly, and had some fun; the only reason I quit was I was runing out of ammo.
You are using the wrong rimfire in that case. My Mossberg 140K is a decent facsimile of a lightweight centerfire, moreso off a rest.
The point of rimfire is to perfect your breathing, trigger control and follow through WITHOUT fear. Once you have learned to concentrate on the shot without worrying about recoil, then you can work on the centerfire stuff and learn to concentrate on the shot while ignoring the recoil that is coming.
Mark
I think you're on the right track with your points in the OP.
I had a Savage 116 about 10 years ago, which had the same stock and trigger as today's Stevens 200.
Get the trigger worked by a competent individual, and replace that recoil pad. I'm quite certain the pad is milled from defective bowling balls.
The only other thing I can suggest is that you elevate your whole platform; bags, rifle and self.
If you're hunched way over on the rifle, your shoulder is going to absorb more of the recoil than if you are seated more upright.
I had a Savage 116 about 10 years ago, which had the same stock and trigger as today's Stevens 200.
Get the trigger worked by a competent individual, and replace that recoil pad. I'm quite certain the pad is milled from defective bowling balls.
The only other thing I can suggest is that you elevate your whole platform; bags, rifle and self.
If you're hunched way over on the rifle, your shoulder is going to absorb more of the recoil than if you are seated more upright.
