That dirty word: FLINCHING!

[Mad Magyar]

I sometimes think that the expression that one’s pistol far exceeds the user’s capabilities derives in part from flinching….This phenomenon almost is equated to emasculating ones psyche.
All the experts tell us that recoil, noise, and muzzle blast heads to the mysterious corridors of the shooter’s subconscious.
I will admit being caught by the “trigger pull on an empty chamber” that makes one cringe in embarrassment.
What best describes your reaction to “flinching”?

 

[CypherNinja]

Its embarrassing and infuriating, is what it is.

My next purchase is a P7, but after that it is revolver time.

I dry fire a lot, but I still find myself wishing I could do "random empty chamber" drills.

 

[Princi]

It drives me nuts because I never know when it is going to happen. I think it is when I have a lapse in attention. Caliber has nothing to do with it. I shoot 464 Casull without flinching, and then I'll flinch when shooting 22LR.

I took a friend shooting once and she had shot her husband's 1911 in 45ACP. She was doing well until I handed her a 1911, which was heavy and chambered in 9mm. She was putting the rounds in the dirt she was flinching so badly. I loaded a magazine with a snap-cap in the middle of the rounds. All of a sudden the gun didn't go bang, put took a big dip. What was so amazing is that as soon as she realized what she was doing, she got focus and was putting them all in the center ring.

 

[Conqueror]

I know every time I flinch. It's usually when I'm shooting an unfamiliar gun for the first time and unsure of what to expect. For example, I've shot .308s for many years - no trouble at all. But I shot an M14 for the first time recently, and dag-nabbit I was flinching! It's definitely a subconscious thing. There was no reason for me to expect it to be any different from the other .308s I've owned and shot. But I did it, involuntarily, nonetheless.

 

[Hokkmike]

It is more or less normal. It doesn't bother me unless I flinch on the snap of an empty round and there is someone nearby to notice my flinch. The only cure for flinching is good ear protection and practice firing.

 

[dagger dog]

you have to be dead focused, on that sight picture, trigger prep, and breath control, then the guy next to you pulls off a round in a .50 BMG Barrett, and all that goes out the door and you put one through the roof!
for some reason if i can totally erase everything going on around me the flinching goes away. it's eaiser to shoot a rifle,for me the pistol or revolver is a real challange to get the same accuracy reletively speaking.
do you find that most good handgun shooters are also good rifle shooters? it just takes more discipline!

 

[Conqueror]

I find that most handgun shooters are good rifle shooters, but not the other way around - at least, not if we're talking about rifles at 100ish yards. It's pretty easy to make a 3" group with a scoped rifle at 100, but not nearly as easy to make a 3" group with a pistol at 7 yards. Newbies can pick up a .223 bolt gun and shoot well at 100, but their pistol techniques often need much more work in my experience.

 

[PennsyPlinker]

I have (and sometimes still have) a tendency to push the gun. I cured it with a $50.00 air pistol and a few hundred pellet rounds. Not only that, shooting the pellet pistol is a blast (so to speak). It is fun, it is quiet, and I can indulge in it when Mrs. Plinker thinks I am out in the shop working.

 

[Quoheleth]

CypherNinja wrote:

Its embarrassing and infuriating, is what it is.

My next purchase is a P7, but after that it is revolver time.

I dry fire a lot, but I still find myself wishing I could do "random empty chamber" drills

FWIW, I flinch a whole lot less with my Ruger GP100 and SP101, even shooting pretty warm magnum loads, than with my Smith M&P 9mm auto. I do not know why, unless it's as Skeeter Skelton once said, all that moving around in my hand makes the goosy gunner gun-shy. I can punch out the center on a 15 yard target with my revolvers. With my revolver, DA or SA, I shoot well - SA, I can put it exactly where I want. Drives my brother nuts.

With my 9mm auto, I have to REALLY focus on front sight, trigger squeeze (I'm so "in the zone," I can feel the striker slip that last little bit before it releases to fire), and breath control to even stay CLOSE to center. If I don't, I'm in South Central Target city, 4-6" low. I obviously have a lot of work to do with the autos.

Interestingly, my .22 Buckmark, I do not have this problem.

IMHO, one of the problems we face is Hollywooditis. Watching the movies and TV shows, they run a whole mag full of ammo through whatever ubermagnum or uberauto and hardly have any recoil at all. The first time we touch one off in real life and the gun takes on a life of its own, we think we're doing something wrong and then we recall the stories of the "Long Tom" that knocked the kid elbow over applesauce, or the pistol that recoiled so hard it punched the shooter in the nose. And, suddenly, we develop a flinch out of fearful anticipation. It's worse than the shanks, the flu or the runs, because you can't take a majic pill to cure it. You gotta work it out with deliberate practice, focus and concentration.

Two things that have helped for my MP9 improvement (not "perfection!") is a wall drill and a bump drill. Wall drills: face a wall and, with UNLOADED, checked, checked again pistol, extend arms with pistol in hand toward the wall. Back up as necessary until your pistol barrel is just breaking contact from the wall. Focus on the front sight and slowly squeeze the trigger. If you drop the barrel at all (anticiaption), you'll tap the wall. Bingo! Try again. Bump drills can be done with or without a wall. Again, using a 2x checked, unloaded gun, extend arms and focus on front sight. Gently begin to squeeze the trigger and then relax it, each time adding a little more pressure - "bumping it," if you will - until the trigger breaks. The purpose of this is to learn the break point of the trigger/sear and to unlearn the anticipation of the break. If you search for these drills, there's a link somewhre that shows videos of how to do this properly if my clear-as-mud instructions don't do it for you.

In the words of EX prez Clinton, "I feel your pain." But I'm working on a cure...

Q

 

[CountGlockula]

Anticipating a loud "bang" sound.

 

[Brian Williams]

I dry fire a lot, but I still find myself wishing I could do "random empty chamber" drills.

For a Semi, get a bunch of mags and preload them with a few snap caps and put them in a dump pouch and pull them out at random, load them and fire away.
For a Revolver, put an empty in one chamber and fill the rest, close your eyes, spin the cylinder and gently shut the cylinder and fire away, the empty in the empty hole looks like it is full.

 

[bensdad]

I flinch when I get off my discipline. These are some of the cures I've heard of:

1. Dry fire. Alot.
2. Extra hearing protection.
3. Random empties/blanks.
4. Professional training (I haven't done this yet, but I shoot informally with
a couple of really good shooters who have been most helpful).
5. Lighter loads/smaller cal. gun.

When I used to shoot trap I'd pull my head sometimes. I had to focus on keeping my cheek on the comb until I saw the clay break or escape. I'm wondering now if "pulling" my head can be an issue with handguns as well.

 

[YK]

Funny that this came up as I was about to post about flinching.

Flinching is infuriating.

After attending a class in mid-January where this was addressed in detail, ALL my practice time has been devoted to getting rid of it.

I am at the range at least once a week, sometimes twice. 80-90% of time is devoted to ball and dummy drills. I barely expend 50 rounds in 1 hour.

At home I dry-fire with an empty brass on top of the front sight. 9 out of 10 times the cartridge won't fall.

Yet I still keep flinching more than I care to admit. I find it interesting that I flinch more with best-trigger pistols - 1911 - because, I think, I know exactly when the shot is going to break.

All the experts tell us that recoil, noise, and muzzle blast heads to the mysterious corridors of the shooter’s subconscious.

This is right on money. When I know the gun is empty, I don't flinch.

I even started to doubt value of dry-firing since I know that the gun won't go off and, therefore, I won't flinch.

It is plain infuriating and I feel like I hit a roadblock.