Thread: Dealing with a flinch

Possibly down load or use a lighter projectile and work your way up. Or grab a light 12 gauge and shoot heavy loads. Then grab your 708 and you'll find your body will almost laugh at how little recoil there is compared to the shot gun. Ear protection, and practice is the key. With ammo availability as it is a shotgun is quite a viable option for this sort of training

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I get this with shooting an enfield.

A few ways to help
Dry fire practice
Use double ear pro
Use a shoulder pad
Put a snap cap randomly in the mag when at the range.

if you ask 10 people the same question you'll probably get 10 different answers . . what got me thru flinching was varminting, and one day instead of puttting up with recoil i started enjoying the process.
and thats the trick, dont try and fool your brain, it won't work . . my 2c remove most of the recoil and work back up to full power and noise, even better get a .223 and take up varminting . . and most important of all shoot every chance you get.

when i see the advice to a young shooter to get a .308 and get out there i expect to see some of them again later asking about flinching . . . instead of working up slowly and gaining skills everyone is in a hurry which always ends in tears

Agree with most things said here. Noise was the biggest factor for me and all my guns are suppressed now. Plus dry firing and shooting a lot with a 22. Shooting technique helps too being in poor alignment or poorly braced can make recoil more noticeable or even more excessive.

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that 222 was the answer....but suppressed 7mm/08 is good....if you reload???? grab some of Roberts cast 120grn hps and some trail boss (I can ship you some if cant find) and make up some really light loads,above subsonic and some below..plinking with them is just pure good fun,and for a finishing off shot ,they are "just so much more civil ol chap"
its a mind of matter thing....you NEED to tell your mind that the little shove and bang doesnt matter...its the hole it makes that is.
you have admitted its there...problem HALF SOLVED....good on you.

Took my mates son out last week. Put 3 rounds each of 223 and 243 at a target. Both suppressed rifles. He is very happy with the 223 so the roar will see him onto a deer with no flinch. Hunting is about enjoyment not pain. The 270 would be the worlds greatest creator of the flinch..

the unsuppressed .270 with hot loads....yes
suppressed with decent recoil pad ,yeah nah.....absolute pussy to fire now.....and dont go silly lightweight either,that is defying laws of physics.

Buy yourself a 45/70 and learn to enjoy a steel butt plate on your shirt sleeve. I use to hate recoil, had trouble pulling the trigger on the 303 or the 3006 in my young days. In fact I owned only a 222 in centre fire. Once I got into the 45/70, I used a gel pad first, now, after hundreds of rounds, I expect and enjoy the recoil, even the 450/400 is ok, but only about 6 rounds at a time.

Look up Joel Turner ShotIQ he has a course, that you pay for, that helps. But he has been on a lot of podcasts and you can pick up info from that.

i trained myself out of a flinch by going to the range twice a week and shooting at least a box (20 rounds) per session. get comfortable with how your rifle shoots, learn how it feels to hold it correctly and when it will fire. dont obsess with how well your groups are they will only get better the more comfortable you get once your brain knows exactly whats going to happen through repetition you'll forget about the flinch and shooting will be a pleasure.

Originally Posted by Fisherman

I'm the worst flincher and agree with all of the above. But key for me is taking time to do some visualization which is a weapon in any sport. I try to imagine squeezing off the shot and watching the projectile arrive through a shit storm of noise.

That is actually another really effective technique. Some of the newer shooters are so keen to put another 'follow up' shot through that when they are starting to pull the trigger, they are already preparing their body to move at the sound of the shot. As mentioned the brain is a wonderful thing, and it thinks that after the bang/ shove that it has to do the next task of working the action. I teach them to 'look for the impact / hole through the scope. This means their body is no longer anticipating a movement while the shot is taking place, but is in fact preparing to stay as still as they can until after they see where it went. Now this may not count as a flinch from recoil as such, but it has a remarkably similar effect.

For me it was noise, I really noticed it using a shotgun. I would get the odd dry fire not realizing I hadn't cycled another round in and when I went to pull the trigger I would flinch.
I may still do it to a degree I am really not sure.
A suppressor was the answer for me on all my rifles. Shotgun got sold. Varminting was the practical field solution , small targets and further ranges allowed me to focus on the shot and not anticipate the noise and recoil.
I have a 308 that is hardy ever used but I don't mind shooting it but mainly it's smaller caliber's for me , 22 RF , 17HMR , 222 , 223 .

Flinching wouldnt matter if it didnt make us miss. Norway put up a vid on 'Natural point of aim' a while back. That technique will keep you on target in spite of a flinch.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Flinching wouldnt matter if it didnt make us miss. Norway put up a vid on 'Natural point of aim' a while back. That technique will keep you on target in spite of a flinch.

Yeah i missed an easy one sunday morning. Or not so easy as it turns out..... will look it up

I think the art of distraction, technique and kinesthetic awareness is what you are looking for here.

Lots of really good suggestions here already so maybe some retraining is in order (I know I periodically do all this stuff as bad habits tend to grow up over time)

Distraction of the senses : Eyes - Keying in on the quarry watching the fall of shot and knowing its good. Ears, good sound pro in case this is causing an alert response from your brain. Touch - I do trigger awareness techniques when helping others with a visible flinch.

Technique wise - Quite often people grip the rifle too hard with trigger hand. A coach taught me to align my thumb upwards and position behind the back of the bolt. This stops torquing of the wrist and the rifle will sit a lot more upright naturally. This also helps with hand pressure and gets a much better release of the trigger.

Visualise the trigger pull. The smoothest trigger pull involves both the thumb and (inside edge of pad of) the forefinger. Once I show guys this groups shrink markedly and really helps solve a flinch as the brain is worrying about so much other stuff that it often doesn't react and cause a flinch. Think the trigger pull is like squeezing a syringe (thumb to forefinger squeeze) your brain gets better control of pressure from 2 points rather than a thinking about which minor muscle in your single finger is pulling the trigger on its own. -try it it actually works.

Then the bit that I think causes a lot of flinch is the reaction to the break of the trigger. You need to train yourself that when it breaks not to react and to concentrate on the trigger continuing rearwards with consistent pressure to its fullest extent in a smooth motion.

Question can you honestly say when taking the shot that you are relaxed and the rifle is pointing naturally to the target and not being pulled in any way onto the target. If you are this will accentuate the reaction in the flinch as the body recoils from that un-natural position. I'll leave breathing alone for now - but this to me is as much about control as rhythm and a learnt approach to shot release.

Training: Cheapest to do these drill on a 22lr (great to do indoor and one I do every winter as a project for the coming season) and re- train your brain not to react to whatever thing or things are setting it off.
Then move up cals and make it a bit more real world.

Everything starts with good technique as a base, and every problem stems from a slight miss and amplifies over time.

BTW I am by no means an expert on this, and there are a lot better than me out there. But these tips have really helped me when I had problems in the past.