Hello, I picked up my Caywood northwest trade gun Thursday. Went out and shot it a few times Saturday. I flinched bad! lol, Pulled it down most of the time. A friend of mine with lots of flintlock experience shot it great. Then I reluctantly took it to our club's monthly match Sunday. The guy I bought it from made me run home and get it, I wasnt even going to try. Again I flinched pretty bad. By the end of the match, roughly 40 shots or so, I was atleast hitting 8" * 11" paper at 25 yards, and actually managed to hit my 50yd tie breaker, barely. I was pulling mostly to the left instead of down by then. Still no real accuracy to speak of, though.
Any tips on getting over this flinching would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much! I hate to admit my flinching, but I would love to get help.
Im left handed and it is a left handed gun.
I LOVE the gun btw, it ran very well even with 2f primer, after I ran out of 3f, as long as I kept the vent clear. Cant wait to start shooting it decent. It's sure a different game than my GPR percussion. I think I have been incurrably infected by the flintlock bug!
Jeff
All the above is good...and the bench rest suggestion might help reveal that MAYBE THE PROBLEM IS NOT FLASH RELATED AT ALL...MAYBE IT'S JUST RUN-OF-THE-MILL FLINCHING FROM ANTICIPATING THE SHOT, OR A TRIGGER CONTROL ISSUE, OR WHAT IS REFERRED TO AS 'TARGET PANIC'.
You could take a few minutes in your garage to do some "dry firing" and you may learn a lot in short order...using an unloaded rifle and an old flint or a small piece of hard wood as a flint (someone on this forum suggested the rounded nose of a closepin).
Aim at a tiny target on the wall like a nail head, and concentrate on holding the bead still on the nail as you slowly squeeze the trigger and the hammer drops.
Look past the cock, focus only at the front sight, and squeeze the trigger soooooo slowly that you are completely surprised when it fires.
If you have a set trigger, adjust it and by all means use it.
There will be no worry about flash, recoil, or noise...and after just a few tries and realizing this, you should settle down and notice if you're achieving a smooth letoff, or if you're still pulling the rifle off the target.
If you're able to achieve a smooth letoff and solid hold through the letoff after a few tries, then it may mean you were indeed anticipating the flash when at the range;
However, even after settling into a routine in the gareage, and knowing no flash is coming, but you still pull off the tiny taget at hammer drop, it could be one of two common causes:
1) Trigger control...you're "pulling" the trigger as the bead floats across the tiny target...relentless trigger squeeze even with the bead wandering a little is a learned thing...good accuracy can never be achieved by attempting to instantaneously "pull" (jerk) the trigger as you see the bead momentarily touch the target;
2) Target panic, where you're jerking the trigger as the bead starts to even approach the target, and is not even actually centered on the target;
This is a fairly simple excerise to try...just takes a few minutes...and there's no rifle to clean when you're done.
See if you can better determine which kind of problem you're dealing with...either a "flash anticipation flinch" type of problem, which should go away in just a few dry-fires since you won't be having any flash;
Or, a "trigger control" problem which will be apparent even when dry firing without a flash at a tiny target in your garage.
:m2c:
