Flinching with both pistol and rifle

[Smurf]

Try not to think about when you are going to shoot when squeezing the trigger. Just let it "surprise" you and maybe focus more on your breathing so you don't think about the shot.

[militarymoron]

I'm going through something similar with my 9-year old son; teaching him how to shoot. What I've found that helps at the range is dry firing before any shots are sent downrange, until he gets comfortable. Then, load one round in the chamber and have him shoot that. Then two etc. If I see him start to flinch, we go back to dry firing maybe a dozen times again; making sure that he's not flinching on the dry fire shot. Then repeat, alternating dry firing and shooting live rounds. The dry firing helps to remind him how he's supposed to pull the trigger, and get the feel for it without the anticipation of the loud sound, and observe the sights.

[flenna]

MM touched on dry firing, which is a great place to start to learn breath control, trigger squeeze and sight picture. You want the point at which the trigger breaks to be a surprise, not anticipated. Buy dummy rounds and load them randomly in your magazines with live rounds. What happens when the hammer drops on the dummy round? Do you almost fall on your face? Or do you maintain a correct sight picture? One funny trick someone taught me way back when I started shooting PPC matches: while squeezing the trigger repeat the mantra "front sight clear, straight to the rear". This does a few things: makes you concentrate on the front sight while squeezing the trigger, and most importantly while reciting this you are not thinking about the trigger breaking so it is a surprise. It sounds goofy but helped me tremendously, especially when training to shoot from 50 yards with a double action revolver.

[gaijin]

I'm going through something similar with my 9-year old son; teaching him how to shoot. What I've found that helps at the range is dry firing before any shots are sent downrange, until he gets comfortable. Then, load one round in the chamber and have him shoot that. Then two etc. If I see him start to flinch, we go back to dry firing maybe a dozen times again; making sure that he's not flinching on the dry fire shot. Then repeat, alternating dry firing and shooting live rounds. The dry firing helps to remind him how he's supposed to pull the trigger, and get the feel for it without the anticipation of the loud sound, and observe the sights.

^^This.

Dry fire, a lot.

[T2C]

I agree with dry firing to help work through an issue. Dry firing is a very effective way to develop sound shooting skills.

I suggest placing a dime on the front sight while dry firing your handgun. Concentrate on building a good shooting position and pressing the trigger to the rear without the dime falling off.

Once you move onto live fire, try loading one round at a time in the pistol or rifle and focus on that one shot. Repeat single shots until you feel you have mastered the process, then load the pistol or rifle with two shots, etc.

If you think noise is causing you to flinch, try doubling up on hearing protection using both earplugs and headphones.

Speed comes with time and countless repetitions using proper technique. You can work on speed after you have mastered the single shot.

[LMT Shooter]

Prof, there was some good advice here, have you been able to try any of it yet? If so, did it help?

[VARIABLE9]

Breathe.

Google ‘respiratory pause shooting’.

[BuzzinSATX]

Prof, there was some good advice here, have you been able to try any of it yet? If so, did it help?

Absolutely!^^^^^^

Remember that people generally flinch for two reasons, immediately after surprise and/or pain. In shooting (or other activities where we anticipate either, we unintentionally induce the response. So when someone is new to shooting, it’s important to understand this and proactively take steps to mitigate the action.

Three things I do when introducing new shooters to firearms:

1. Dry fire every weapon a dozen or more times at the range immediately prior to live fire

2. I have them wear BOTH earplugs AND muffs

3. Always shoot at least 100 rounds of .22LR, typically start with my Ruger 22-45 then SR22

Seems to help take the flinch out as it helps the brain understand that shooting does not hurt the body (assuming you do things in a safe manner and are on the right side of the muzzle )

Also, something I also do immediately prior to their shooting their first 9MM round is I have them hold the UNLOADED pistol (we check it twice to ensure it’s unloaded) pointing down range as if shooting, and close their eyes. I then randomly smack the muzzle end of the firearm with the heel of my palm pretty hard to simulate recoil. I then ask them “...did I hurt you?” We repeat this drill several times, a bit harder each time until I’m smacking the gun harder than any 10MM round. When they realize and wrap their heads around the fact by feel that there is no pain involved, it really helps.

Hard to do by yourself, I know, but by aiming the gun, closing your eyes and focusing on “feeling the recoil” just before pulling the trigger, and then concentrating on the sensation and acknowledging there is no pain, can help train yourself to stop flinching.


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[5.56 Bonded SP]

Dry fire practice drills is what you seek.

[Hohn]

Absolutely!^^^^^^

Remember that people generally flinch for two reasons, immediately after surprise and/or pain. In shooting (or other activities where we anticipate either, we unintentionally induce the response. So when someone is new to shooting, it’s important to understand this and proactively take steps to mitigate the action.

Three things I do when introducing new shooters to firearms:

1. Dry fire every weapon a dozen or more times at the range immediately prior to live fire

2. I have them wear BOTH earplugs AND muffs

3. Always shoot at least 100 rounds of .22LR, typically start with my Ruger 22-45 then SR22

Seems to help take the flinch out as it helps the brain understand that shooting does not hurt the body (assuming you do things in a safe manner and are on the right side of the muzzle )

Also, something I also do immediately prior to their shooting their first 9MM round is I have them hold the UNLOADED pistol (we check it twice to ensure it’s unloaded) pointing down range as if shooting, and close their eyes. I then randomly smack the muzzle end of the firearm with the heel of my palm pretty hard to simulate recoil. I then ask them “...did I hurt you?” We repeat this drill several times, a bit harder each time until I’m smacking the gun harder than any 10MM round. When they realize and wrap their heads around the fact by feel that there is no pain involved, it really helps.

Hard to do by yourself, I know, but by aiming the gun, closing your eyes and focusing on “feeling the recoil” just before pulling the trigger, and then concentrating on the sensation and acknowledging there is no pain, can help train yourself to stop flinching.


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Great advice in this post. I would suggest the people also flinch in *anticipation* of surprise or pain. It's a lot like when you drop something near your foot and say OUCH only to realize it missed and you don't have any pain at all, or if you say OUCH for a minor toe stub thinking it would be a big one and turns out it really didn't hurt.

One thing that really helped my flinch other than doing more shooting was practicing with a particular rifle I have that has a trigger with no perceptible wall at all. EVERY time you fire it you have no idea precisely when it will fire.

Two extremes of trigger design will help resist flinching. One extreme is a rolling trigger break with no perceptible "wall" to push through-- my Geissele SD3G is like this, but so is the DAO P250 sig and a few DAO handguns. They just move, move, move and BANG! (not all DAOs are free of stacking, many can be terrible and invite flinching).

The other extreme is a trigger that has zero movement at all until it breaks. Zero creep or "stacking". The 2nd stage of my Geissele HSNM is like this. You pull through the first stage, and park it at a short detent for the 2nd stage. It is impossible for it to move AT ALL in this 2nd stage without firing. (heck, it's tricky to not blow through the 2nd stage because it's only about 1.5#).

So a trigger that enables smooth firing must be linearly progressive in either position or in force, or both to some extent. A trigger that stair-steps builds (stacks) or just keeps creeping is one that invites a flinch.

I really struggled to shoot Glocks well for this reason. I could easily predict when the gun would fire, so I'd anticipate that and flinch. You want to see how bad your flinch is? Mix some snap caps with a live round in a magazine or revolver cylinder. When you hit that snap cap, you'll see just how badly you're jerking the trigger.

I'm still struggling with that pistol flinch for striker guns. One thing that seems to help is working on ramping up the force quickly once you get to a wall. So instead of pulling to the wall and building anticipation, once you hit that wall, you pull as quickly as you can smoothly pull. Start slow, work up in speed until you can get faster and stay smooth.

Dry Fire.
Dry Fire.
Dry Fire
And more Dry Fire.