Flinching?

[Ohio Rusty]

Try a smaller target at a closer range so you are concentrating on the center of something only an inch or so big. That kind of focusing makes you forget all about flinching. Slow lock time also causes flinching as you were expecting the gun to go off at a certain time in your firing sequence, then it goes off a nano second later catching you by surprise. Between the time the lock falls and when the gun fires there should be virtually no delay. Make sure you aren't overfilling the pan causing the pan to burn lots of powder longer before it can get to the main charge and set it off. Also make sure the tough hole isn't too small causing a delay from the pan fire getting to the main charge. All the other advice is good and with more practice, your flinching disappears. I flinch occasionally, but the funny thing is I never flinch when fireing at live game, big or small. Im so committed to focusing on the killing spot to make a clean kill that flinching never comes to mind. When shooting at flying game, I'm busy swinging and leading and concentration of that fast moving pheasant, and again no flinching. Take your Caywood Gun out to the woods and go kill something .... A crow, groundhog, or other suitable types a vermin targets. See if you flinch when you shoot at something alive instead of a paper target on a frame. That's my best advice ...
Ohio Rusty

 

[BLAHMAN]

Stumpy....... :applause: :applause: :applause: :haha: :haha: eace:


That's good, love it!

 

[ffffg]

dry fire twice then shoot.. next( this is immportant tostart season, and session) with 40-50 grains of powder and shoot that.. i doubt youll flinch its a powder puff load..i use 50 grains 3f, 50 grains shot equivilent, to start off session of clays and it splats them very well.. work up 10 grains until you reach your accuracy load that you want to use.. works very well.. with this tecknique you can use the same gun for practice.. if you increase the load yo wont have the crud ring in the chamber screw up accuracy.. if you go less after you shot full load youll push the ball by the chamber crud ring( fouling) and you will loose alot of accuracy. both in shotgun and ball.. dave...

 

[Gary]

Get a cheap recurve bow and practice archery. Once you've perfected follow-through, you'll have no trouble with a flintlock.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Now that an interesting thought. I've been shooting recurves for about 40 years and still shoot them exclusively. :hmm:

I always recommended them to shooters of smooth muskets for picking up the eye, mental focus and muscle training for instinctive shooting without sights.

 

[dryfly]

Only one cure for the flinch. Concentrate on the front sight and squeeze the trigger slowly so that you do no know the instant that the gun will go

 

[Gary]

Concentrating on the front sight eliminates the distraction of the fffttt! from the pan. On modern guns (or cap 'n ball) it's the old ball & dummy. Archery helps with mental concentration and once that is mastered, it helps with either handgun or rifle shooting.

 

[bovey]

All the suggestions are good ones. One that I use with a new shooter that has the "yips" is to load the gun for them... the shooter never knows if the gun will fire or not. This requires you to have a loader but is a workable system. The shooter faces down range while the loader loads the firearm. The firearm is then passed to the shooter to fire. It is amazing how much a rifle or handgun can recoil when it is empty This method requires a lot of time and patience but it helps on getting the shooter to concentrate on the font sight and trigger pull.

 

[RunningBear]

There is a old way to avoid flinching,make a hardwood fake flint.Ive heard the brits used this as a practise tool for there new recruits.You learn to hold on target when shooting.Runningbear.