How to stop flinching?

I agree with practice, practice, practice - dry fire until your hand is tired -one of the things that helped my wife was to have her fire from a sitting position with the pistol and her forearms resting on a mat. Once she fired 2 or 3 magazines from the mat, she realized the pistol wouldn't hurt her. She stood and started firing without a flinch. You can't say front sight, front sight, front sight as you are squeezing enough.
 
I know this is the semi auto forum but a buddy had a great anti flinch trick for revolvers. Load three or four rounds with your eyes closed. That way you won't know where they went and when you pull the trigger if it will go bang or not. I've tried it and it works well for wheel guns. If you stop flinching with your revolver (you do have a couple of revolvers, right?), you will probably stop with the auto as well.
 
Buy a Crimson Trace. Install it. Practice dry firing with it and keeping the red dot on a small object (like 50 cent piece). I absolutely guarantee (barring any physical challenges) that if you breathe properly, sqquueeeze the trigger while working to keep the laser dot still, you WILL vastly improve your shooting.

I use them as training aids and they work.

bj
 
Anticipation is great if you are waiting for ketchap for a burger but not so good for shooting a firearm. I sold a friend a 303 rifle and he wanted me to buy it back cause he couldn't hit anything with it,I threw a yellow straight neck squase about 75 feet out then shot it.

I then said the rifle will hit where aimed,I then acted like I was chambering another round (but held the round down into the mag) then handed the rifle to him and told him to shoot the squase. He pulled the trigger and jumped around like a june bug on a line!

I told him this was his problem and then loaded a round and told him to hold it in tight ,and sight it in and just lightly squeese off the trigger(never knowing when it will fire) he hit it dead on.

He was happy then because he had overcome a bad flinch habit.

Bad shooting habits are hard to overcome,and if you have a pistol or rifle that you just hate to shoot(get rid of it)shooting is supposed to be fun!

Bob
 
I can't see dry firing helping too much with flinching other than you getting a feel for when it'll go bang. Knowing for sure when it'll fire may or may not, but you're not going to flinch when dry firing because you know there wont be the bang. JMO

I had a buddy who would flinch horribly shooting his Sigma. One day he put 100 rounds down range without trying to be accurate. Getting a feel for the trigger and when exactly the gun will fire and how it'll sound and feel while not trying to be accurate helped him a lot.

Remember, squeezing is always better than pulling the trigger.
 
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Pulling the trigger is like setting the hook on a Bass ,squeesing is like catching a troute(you don't jerk) lighter constant pressure!

Bob
 
I used to have a horrible flinch. Every round I fired was 6" below my point of aim.

Here's how I cured it. First, I practiced shooting with a double action revolver. Oddly, repeated shooting with a double action trigger pull eliminated my tendency to flinch and, when I resumed shooting single action, the flinch was gone.

Much of my practice consisted of dry firing. I must have dry fired 10,000 rounds, with revolvers and semi-autos. I used the "coin on the barrel" technique recommended by several and just kept working until I could shoot six rounds, double action, rapid fire, (dry fire of course) with a double action revolver without dropping the coin.

I bought a .22 caliber double action revolver and shot thousands of rounds at the range, working again on eliminating all movement.

I practiced dry firing in front of a mirror, keeping my eyes on the front sight as I did. That made downward movement instantly detectible.

I also fired at a plain white sheet of paper without trying to hold the sights on a single point but just trying to get the feel of not flinching. Eventually, everything was clustering around a single point.

Finally, when shooting revolvers, I'd put 4 or 5 rounds in a 6-round cylinder, and spin the cylinder without looking at it before firing. That way I never new which chambers were empty. When I shot I concentrated on holding the front sight steady. If I saw it dip on an empty chamber then I knew I was still flinching.
 
Just put 200 rounds through my 6906. Allshots (except for 3 from the first magazine) were on paper. I started at 7 yards to get the sight picture, and then moved to 15 yards and 25 yards. I was great at 15 yards (grouping was decent) but at 25 yards I sucked. I followed advice from you guys. Thanks so much. Here is what helped:
1. Dry firing and concentrating on front sights.
2. I kept saying, "Front sights, front sights, front sights."
3. I now understand squeeze instead of pull. I cannot explain it right now, though. Just a slower trigger pull?
4. Loosen up my trigger finger.
5. Breathing slower, more deeply.
Honestly, I think it was only a matter of getting used to the recoil. I think I am kind of a *****.

I am so happy with how that used 6906 performed. I thoought something was wrong with it, that it was firing low or whatever. Not a thing wrong. I think Bud's gave me a great deal.

Now I am going to buy a S&W .45 Any recommendations?:)

Thanks again to EVERYONE for the advice. I am thinking positive thoughts for all of you.
 
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Plunky,
The mastery of any one handgun's sights and trigger stroke/pull/squeeze/press will serve you well no matter what gun's system you go on to. True, there will be certain systems that will work better for you, but if you can shoot one, you can shoot them all. Recoil/blast are mastered by adequate hearing protection and practice. Even a pair of in ear plugs beneath a set of shooting muffs can help. Your on your way, stick with it you'll do fine!
 
Plunky McPlunker said:
Now I am going to buy a S&W .45 Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
My third generation 4566 has served me well. It's been as reliable as reliable can be.

I wish S&W hadn't turned away from the steel pistols when they jumped on the plastic band wagon. The 3rd generations were pretty decent weapons as far as pistols go.

I also like barrels in the 4" range found on the 4566 rather than the longer 5" bbl's of pistols like the 4506. I find them easier to use as a combat weapon than the longer 5" bbl, but that's me.

However, a 5" bbl pistol like the 4506 will give you a longer site picture (more accuracy) and more weight to control the pistol. You just have to deal with the concealability of the longer slide/barrel if you'd be carrying it.

The bbl length preference applies to my S&W. However, it's an exception in my other pistols that the .45 ACP ;) was named after. In those I prefer the 5" bbl. It just looks and feels right for me and is the pistol that I carry most often.

After all of that, you're going to get a lot of other opinions on what is best. We each have our experiences and prejudices, including those for and against the more recent plastic-framed pistols. For the most part it's going to be hard to go wrong on model that has some time under its belt to prove its dependability.

BTW, be careful of assuming that by referring to a .45 that people will know you mean a .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). There's another current pistol cartridge in .45 GAP (Glock Auto Pistol). They aren't compatible. Then, there's also the common .45 LC (Long Colt) revolver cartridge that's still popular.

Good luck on your choice of pistols!
 
I would really like to find a sweet .45 ACP S&W 3rd Generation.

A local shop had the big brother of my 6906. I took a good look at it because there seems to be plenty of 9mm ammo around and not much .45

I forgot to mention... I started off shooting my 22A. I used Remington Golden Bullets from a bulk pack of 550. Out of 100 rounds, I had 3 failure to fire rounds that looked like they had a good hit from the pin and 2 jams for some reason. My 22A likes Winchester 37 grain high velocity hollow points and CCI 40 grain Mini Mags the best. You cannot beat $15 for 550 rounds, though. The Winchesters are $30 for 500 rounds and the CCI's are $40 for 500 rounds.
 
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OKFC05 said:
I put a dummy cartridge in the magazine with live cartridges, and charge them a quarter if the gun moves when the gun clicks on the dummy.
Click to expand...

The advise given me years ago was to put one 357 in a cylinder full of 38's. The surprise tells you a lot about how you learn to anticipate things.

Personally, I believe that the best way to get around this is shoot a lot, and bring a few different guns to the range. I'll test myself and in fairly short order shoot 22's, 32, 38, 257 and 9mm. Just a cylinder/magazine of each and switch.

I also dry fire my handguns a lot paying attention to how the barrel moves from my unintentional movements.

Still, my Winchester 70 30-06 kicks me in a bad way and I can't stop flinching shooting it.
 
Flinching

It seems to me that there are two totally different problems: trigger control and flinching. I've been doing dry fire with snap caps in my 38 revolver and an upside down hollow point on my 9mm. This is to stop jerking the trigger left or right during the shot. However, when shooting my 357 at the range I load 5 rounds in my 6 shooter. When the gun does not go "bang" there is a noticable drop down of the muzzle. This seems to be my body attempting to counteract the anticipated muzzle rise during recoil. If there is no recoil, my body still wants to push the muzzle down. Maybe I should try "Russian Roulette" with only one live round in the gun to try to stop the muzzle drop.
 
Smith Pistol has it exactly right in #11 above. It's all mind and training. Concentrate on holding your hands rock solid, like they're concrete. No, I don't mean a death grip, just completely rigid and immoveable. Let the pistol move as it wants in your concrete hands. Focus on trigger pull. Steady pressure, straight back, only the trigger finger - nothing else. Imagine the bore of the gun and pressing the trigger directly parallel with that axis.

Now with that said, I admit I suffer from flinch when I get sloppy. Even with a 22 pistol! Yep, I said it. When it happens, the best thing to do is dry fire as others have said. Do it right there on the range while your head is trying to flinch. Concentrate on the things I mentioned earlier. Strangely, in this situation I can feel myself trying to push the muzzle down on trigger release - even with an empty gun. A few dry fires retrain my muscle memory and I'm back on track. I can feel the urge to flinch go away. Then I'm good to go until the next bout of flinch occurs - the next day or months later. Still, I know I can retrain myself.

It can be a recurring battle. Never give up!
 
flinching

Ahhhh ya the flinch. It can be embarrassing. I had a friend recently who had a real bad flinch and couldn't seem to correct it. The easiest way I've found is the old ball and dummy fix. First you can make your own dummy rounds. All you need is a kinetic bullet puller which you can purchase from your local gun store. Pull the bullets, then take the cases, empty any remaining powder and load them in your gun and point in a safe direction and pop the primers, re-seat the bullets in the cases and then paint the dummy rounds black or orange to designate they are dummies (its really important). When you go to the range randomly mix the dummies with live ammo and shoot away. It will really help. Good luck.
Bob St.George
 
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FLINCH CURE.

Get some good AZoom snap caps and practice firing at a dime sized spec on your wall. When you think your doing better, lay a nickle on the top of your barrel and practice some more. When you go to the range, shoot at 5 yards, again at a dime sized spec, and concentrate ONLY on the front site. I read about this method in a Clint Smith (Thunder Ranch) article in American Handgunner a few years ago and it transformed my shooting from "crappy" to "really good". Flinching is no longer even a thought.:):)
 
There are a variety of techniques, and all work to some extent, and it may help to vary your routine.

Shoot target level loads, especially if you flinch with full or magnum rounds. I load .38 SPL wadcutters for my .357M, and .44 SPL for the .44M. You have much less flexibility with pistols for reliable operation, but pistols have less recoil anyway.

Concentrate on the front sight and sight alignment. Call your shots. (The only way to do that is if you see the sights at the time of discharge, silhouetted in the muzzle flash). That's essential technique for self-defense. You'll shoot like you train.

Practice trigger control. A non-shooting exercise is to move your trigger finger with an empty, relaxed hand. None of the other fingers should move. (I can do that with any finger, on either hand, but I've been a musician for over 50 years.)

Practice a front-to-back grip, with as little side pressure on the grips as possible. That way, small changes in grip pressure (e.g., at the time of discharge) have less effect on the point of impact. That applies to two-handed grips too, but is especially effective on the traditional, one-hand stance.)
 
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