It’s back after many years. It’s subtly returned. Any practical tips on overcoming or dealing with rifle flinch would be appreciated.
Does dry firing on an empty case work ?
Thanks
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It’s back after many years. It’s subtly returned. Any practical tips on overcoming or dealing with rifle flinch would be appreciated.
Does dry firing on an empty case work ?
Thanks
on game I used to say under my breath [ youre mine ] as I pulled trigger and it worked it made me gently breath out and relaxed trigger pull .
Yes it helps, another thing to do at the range is get someone to load or not load a round for you so you don’t know if it’s loaded or not, generally shows up flinching well and helps overcome it, also do some practice with a low calibre rifle (222) that doesn’t recoil to get back on the basic’s.
wear the best possible earmuffs, much of a flinch is "in your head" and reducing the noise of the shot helps considerably. And shoot your 22 rf a lot.
I had a bit of a flinch years ago with my unsuppressed 270. Went to the range, put in some ear plugs and told myself the rifle isn't going to hurt me if I'm holding it properly.
Held rifle, controlled breathing and gently squeezed trigger till it fired. Also try and look through scope the whole time immediately after the shot. All this helped me.
Biggest part was overcoming my internal fear of nothing.
Lots of shooting with good ear protection. Your head needs to unlearn it.
Are your rifles suppressed ?
Second for shooting Lots of .22
Third breath out,relax for a second with slight pressure on trigger then squeeze.Watch yr cross hairs on target.Try it with a suppressed 300wm and ear muffs on,i hardly notice the shot.
Put one round in a revolver and spin the cylinder. You'll see your flinch and soon overcome it when you start dry firing it.
I would second this as a first step. Your 7mm08 may be suppressed but have you used an unsuppressed / larger calibre recently? Flinch is really the body anticipating the felt recoil from the BANG. The mind is an incredible thing- it associates a loud noise with a reaction like a impact from recoil and assumes by itself that the louder the noise, the more the impact. Once it figures out it is coming it anticipates the impact and flinch develops. Another technique I use for new shooters (mostly have a go tyoes as guests) is to get them to pull the rifle as hard as they can into their shoulder almost to the point of discomfort/ pain. The reasons is that if the rifle is part of the shoulder, then the item going backwards under recoil is the whole body- if you try hold the rifle forward to resist the impact, it means just the rifle is coming back rather than the whole of the person.
Think of it as holding your fist against a car and pushing it along.....the whole car moves and you feel pressure but not pain on your fist. Now hold your fist 6 inches from the car and apply one forceful motion hard enough to move the car....its going to really hurt.
So in short, chuck on some good hearing protection, and really really pull the rifle into the shoulder. Once you teach /trick the body that recoil wont hurt again, then work on developing the technique /accuracy again....
I'm sure Bunji would have seen a lot of it while guiding around the world,he would have the best knowledge to correct it may be PM him .[emoji108][emoji16]
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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.
Greetings,
As mentioned above we teach ourselves to flinch and need to teach ourselves not to. The key is practice. Dry firing will help but only live firing will really kill the beast. If you have a .22 RF start with that. Every time you go to the range shoot 10 or so rounds at a target form sitting at first and moving up to standing later on. .22 RF rifles are brutally honest about flinching. Get a cobber to watch you shoot to see if he can spot anything you are doing sub consciously like lifting your head at the shot. Try to follow through the shot. Make every shot count. Next move up to your hunting rifle. If you are a handloader consider cooking up a batch of youth (light) loads with cheaper projectiles. Only shoot from a bench or bipod to sight in and check zero. As you have discovered we never really totally eliminate a flinch and it is always there waiting to sneak up on us.
Regards Grandpamac.
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.:cool:
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.
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.
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.
I missed a slow walking yearling last week at 240yds,could only see sholder neck,grrr.Bugger wouldnt stop,so i tryed.Hmmm missed,how could i?so had one more day to go.Thort il checked my 308 at a hundy on a cardboard box i had in the truck,spot on nearly with one shot.Mustv been me,be more carefully ah.Dont know about flinching,just to big a hurry befor yearling disappears.Attachment 192473
I've noticed a flinch starting to build, mine is only when shooting centrefire and I think the fact I'm out shooting PCP rifles every day is to blame. My mind is perfectly used to zero recoil and next to no noise when I pull the trigger but it knows to be wary of the big bad centrefires. I think I need to get my .223 out for weekly shoots, it's cheap to shoot and should build up a better sub conscious response to getting behind my bigger centrefires.
I’ve had this problem and a small caliber with a suppressor is good. 243 or 223. For myself the main time to flinch is standing. I deal with it by basically not fu$king around for too long as I think the longer you stand there aiming the quicker you head fu$ks it up. Let’s assume you see a deer inside 100 yards and a standing shot is the only option. Bring the rifle up, when it’s on the should breath out and squeeze off. Of course lying down and all the time in the world, dry fire once or twice them bombs away!
The other thing I’ve done is lighten the trigger right off in both main hunting rifles. Off to the range again tomorrow
trigger pull is a funny thing...2-3-4lb works great..too light and you will stuff it up on quick shots,trigger finger will rest on trigger as going onto target and fire too soon...lost pig on dairy pasture from that...I also found back in my bad flinch days..too light made it worse as I lost control of when it would fire...3lb is pretty good FOR ME.
funny wee flinch story to show how bad it can get.
3 of us on range,all young fellas all wiht 270s .mate had trouble zeroing his ruger so I had a go..trigger was terribly heavy and I had fired a few rounds..I LITERALY could not make it go bang... I too kround out and could pull trigger no worries, pt a round in and just could not do it.. my mind knew the boot was coming and remembered the heavy triggerr thing from back when my rifle was bad for it.... it was that balls up that made me go and buy a thick bisly recoil pad for the old rifle..no limbsavers back then..... I spent next 15 years happily shooting rifle as it was ,with lightish reloads,then fitted suppressor and worked back into hottish loads.
keep at it bud....you WILL beat this.
@Nathan F Is that why that pack looked so light on the walk out from the bite the other day? Very photo genic by the way! ;)
@Fireflite na was poaching up ur end. Did you not notice the couple of scrubby heads hanging off the back :thumbsup:
@nathan they looked liked monsters! Your partner looked great in black! ;)
Need to catch up in there some time!
Well that went better than expected today. Was doing load testing for the .223. Have found my loads I think @Tahr
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The targex went unreal. The smk’s we’re going good too
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