98Redline
Member
Technique changes are not going to cure your flinch. They may improve your shooting but once you develop a flinch, until you can break the mental connection between the sights being on target and the gun going off, you are doomed to continue to flinch.
At it's root a flinch is nothing more than classical conditioning, the same as Pavlov's dogs. In Pavlov's experiment he rung the bell then fed the dogs...many many times. Eventually the dogs mentally connected the sound of the bell with getting fed. Once that connection was made, whenever the bell was rung they started salivating regardless of whether they were being fed or not. Your flinch is exactly the same thing. Your mind has made a connection between the sights being on target and the recoil of the gun. To get rid of the flinch you need to retrain your brain and break the connection.
1) No more target shooting...for awhile. Stop shooting at targets and "things" and just concentrate on your trigger control. At the range make sure your gun is pointed down range and safely at the berm or backstop and just squeeze the trigger. Don't aim and don't look at the sights at all. Concentrate on building up your trigger pressure. Each time the gun goes off, it should be a complete surprise. At this stage, as long as the round goes off in a safe direction, we don't care about where on the backstop or berm it impacts. Not having a target up helps you from inadvertently trying to aim at your previous bullet holes.
As soon as you start to feel the least bit tired or fatigued, stop. There is no sense in reinforcing bad habits.
2) Put up a target and with a loaded mag or cylinder (to keep the weight of the gun consistent), bring the gun up and just aim at the target. Hold your aim for about 2x as long as it would to get a normal shot off then lower the gun. No trigger squeeze at all. Keep doing this over and over.
Keep this regime for at least 21 days if you can.
NO SHOOTING AT TARGETS during this time.
At the end of this time period approach your target shooting again in small increments. Just a couple of shots while aiming then back to #1 and #2 again for the majority of your range time. Slowly work back up to a normal round count. It is very helpful to keep #1 and #2 as part of your normal practice regime to keep the flinch away.
As a rule, you should be doing #1 about twice as many times as #2.
Some people will struggle with flinching their entire shooting career, others, not so much. What makes one person susceptible and another not, I am not sure, but I do know that this routine is how my shooting coach got my flinch in check quite a few years ago. Since that time I keep these tools as part of my practice regime and it allows me to shoot even my biggest bore revolvers (480 Ruger) without any flinch at all.
At it's root a flinch is nothing more than classical conditioning, the same as Pavlov's dogs. In Pavlov's experiment he rung the bell then fed the dogs...many many times. Eventually the dogs mentally connected the sound of the bell with getting fed. Once that connection was made, whenever the bell was rung they started salivating regardless of whether they were being fed or not. Your flinch is exactly the same thing. Your mind has made a connection between the sights being on target and the recoil of the gun. To get rid of the flinch you need to retrain your brain and break the connection.
1) No more target shooting...for awhile. Stop shooting at targets and "things" and just concentrate on your trigger control. At the range make sure your gun is pointed down range and safely at the berm or backstop and just squeeze the trigger. Don't aim and don't look at the sights at all. Concentrate on building up your trigger pressure. Each time the gun goes off, it should be a complete surprise. At this stage, as long as the round goes off in a safe direction, we don't care about where on the backstop or berm it impacts. Not having a target up helps you from inadvertently trying to aim at your previous bullet holes.
As soon as you start to feel the least bit tired or fatigued, stop. There is no sense in reinforcing bad habits.
2) Put up a target and with a loaded mag or cylinder (to keep the weight of the gun consistent), bring the gun up and just aim at the target. Hold your aim for about 2x as long as it would to get a normal shot off then lower the gun. No trigger squeeze at all. Keep doing this over and over.
Keep this regime for at least 21 days if you can.
NO SHOOTING AT TARGETS during this time.
At the end of this time period approach your target shooting again in small increments. Just a couple of shots while aiming then back to #1 and #2 again for the majority of your range time. Slowly work back up to a normal round count. It is very helpful to keep #1 and #2 as part of your normal practice regime to keep the flinch away.
As a rule, you should be doing #1 about twice as many times as #2.
Some people will struggle with flinching their entire shooting career, others, not so much. What makes one person susceptible and another not, I am not sure, but I do know that this routine is how my shooting coach got my flinch in check quite a few years ago. Since that time I keep these tools as part of my practice regime and it allows me to shoot even my biggest bore revolvers (480 Ruger) without any flinch at all.
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