flinch?

[paulvallandigham]

Another great method of learning to shoot without a flinch, J.D. Thank you for that. I Practiced mounting my shotgun to my shoulder properly for a month to get past some sloppy gun handling techniques, and to learn how to mount the gun to my face and shoulder at the same time. I did this every night at home, after work, doing 10 repetitions per set, and trying to do 10 sets a night. I really didn't start feeling comfortable doing it until after the first full week. By the end of the second week, I was about 95% correct. At the end of the month, I was more like 99.99% correct in mounting the gun. It saw my scores climb quickly and stay up.

Thanks again for sharing that technique. Its pretty good.

 

[J.D.]

Fast or slow, the lock time doesn't have anything to do with a conditioned flinch. A good shooter can shoot pinwheel "x"s off hand, with loooong hangfires.

Only training can eliminate a flinch. IMHO, without some sort of self imposed training to eliminate that flinch, you are just whistling into the wind.

Thanks Paul, that regimen was strongly suggested to me by a mentor who encouraged excellence. His encouragement paid off in spades.

I understand that few people can or will dedicate the time and effort to learn to shoot well. Those who do will be rewarded with a sense of accomplishment few will ever realize.

 

[Emet Huntsman]

second that J.D. :thumbsup:

 

[Tom Compton]

Perfect practice makes perfect.

I have double set triggers and like to set up an aiming spot for dry firing off hand during commercials. The wood replacement for rifles with single non set triggers will work as well. No matter how good the shooter when shooting off hand, the rifle and therefore the sights will come off target a little bit with the action of the lock. Follow through is improved by minimum and consistant movement and by putting the sights back on the target.

The secret is not to see how many dry fires you can do in an evening but that THIS ONE is perfect.

Cheers,
TC

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Another way to test if you flinch is to have someone load or not load your gun. Let him hand you his or your gun and not knowing which way it is will allow you to tell when pulling the trigger.

Bingo. :v That is a tried and proven way, it will either help break the flinching habit, or convert one permanently to percussion. :grin:

 

[asabai]

Great topic. I've got a flinch, and it is time I get it under control. I'll start practicing with some of these methods from home.

Thanks

 

[Tom Compton]

Ever notice how some folks seem to get their gun down almost as fast as it goes off?

 

[mark starr]

You know when I first started shooting a flintlock I was the flinch master.I asked and was told about follow through. Try a pice of wood and dry fire. Do you know what I ended up doing ? I shot that flintlock like it was a 22. As far as I was concerned it was the only gun I owned. Shot rabbits, tin cans, plinking ect.. It was the only gun I would hunt with.During elk and deer and speed goat season it was my only gun. I got a few laughs from the folks with there 7 mm ultramags.But so what. and now no more flinch I've filled all my tags for 3 years running and I trust that gun as much as my trusty 22 I guess what I am saying is just keep shooting soon the flash won't matter a hang fire here and there won't matter. and the flinch will dissappear. :thumbsup:

 

[jtmattison]

I wouldn't say I flinch. I do however have to retrain myself to remain steady when shooting a flinter after shooting percussion a lot. It takes a few shots for me to settle down sometimes. When I plan to hunt with a flinter I try to get to the range and shoot it a bunch right before the hunt to prepare myself.

HD

 

[rabjr]

Sure I flinch on every shot. So go at it that most of the shots go in the same spot. :grin:

 

[BadHorse]

Another way to test if you flinch is to have someone load or not load your gun. Let him hand you his or your gun and not knowing which way it is will allow you to tell when pulling the trigger.

i used to flinch badly, and a buddy of mine cured me of it using this method. with in 15 shots i identified the problem and corrected what i was doing, and VIOLA! no more flinch.

karwelis

 

[Zoar]

The very simple step of "planning to hold for 5 seconds AFTER the shot is fired" had an amazing impact on keeping me from flinching or JERKING.

It truly is a valuable tool.

Last weekend an aquaintance came over to shoot my 4 bore blunderbuss. I told him it was loaded way down to 70 grains of powder and 1/2 oz of shot. It is the load I started my girlfriend on to shoot in this gun.

I wanted both of them to have it SO easy they would really like the gun. There is virtually no recoil at that load level.

Well, I forgot to get all the bore butter out of the touch hole, so sure enough it was a Spfffffff, pan and no shot fire. But boy did it reveal how much he jerked the gun when he pulled the trigger!!! I will never hunt with this guy. I do not know how he could ever hit anything with that much JERK.

Indeed shooting a dud or an empty gun reveals alot about what a person actually does in those nano-seconds when they pull the trigger.

Planning to hold perfectly still for five seconds AFTER the shot was the best piece of advise I ever followed.

 

[thebees]

I think everyone will flinch once in a while. The best way to cure it is to practise. A lot. That's one beauty of the double set triggers. You can practise everything without loading the rifle. Ten or 15 minutes of drawing a bead and tripping the tigger several times a week should help both trigger control and flinching.

 

[454roundball]

I have a question for you experts. Since a trap shooter tends to shoot a great deal (its not uncommon for me to go through 300 shells in a practice session) and I was taught to "slap" the trigger, while at this level of practice I have become a fair trap shooter, the trigger slap has crept into my rifle technique, whether it is my flintlock or my 30-06. I find myself having to utterly concentrate on squeezing when I shoot a rifle. Any ideas on how to get two sets of muscle memory?

 

[Tom Compton]

When I was trying to do all, I elected to get away from the shotgun trigger slap and work on follow thru and squeeze. Shotgun score suffered less than the rifle/pistol scores did when doing the slap. Finally dropped the shotgun competition and just hunted with them.

TC

 

[paulvallandigham]

Try INDEXING your trigger finger on the trigger guard, and then ROLL the finger into the trigger, when shooting the rifle or pistol.

This involved different muscles and a different technique, but that allows the brain to learn the different techniques and keep them separate.

I learned this technique from a small bore rifle shooter, and found it was a good way to change my " trap shooting " slap to something that would allow accurate shooting with my rifle.

I still "slap " the trigger when Trap shooting. I don't seem to have any problem doing both techniques, and I believe its because I DON'T index my finger on the trigger guard when trapshooting.

With revolvers and pistols, I have always used the careful squeeze technique taught for years, and simply "Hurry up the squeeze" for rapid fire shooting matches. Using a two hand hold- mostly the older Weaver technique- during combat matches helps to deal with any sight movement during speed shoots. I see some shooters in the CAS matches using similar techniques with their BP revolvers.

 

[454roundball]

Well, I am headed to the range today in preparation for muzzleloading season. I will give the roll technique a try, since I dont intend to quit trap shooting :wink: Thanks to both of you.