l still do it to a degree, but the answer is practice a lot. I know a few guys who recommend loading only 1 live round and the rest of the cylinder are empties, so the shot is a surprise instead of the other way around. Never tried it.
This. I became a much better shot very quickly when my shooting buddy-who is a fine shooter said these exact words to me. Practice and more experience mostly took care of the rest.
That method ,or leave one hole empty,will reveal anticipatory movement of the gun.
Practice trigger control with an empty gun (use dummy rounds or snap caps) and do not rush or anticipate the shot. Trigger control is slowly squeezing the trigger with slowly increasing pressure on it until it fires - never pull or jerk a trigger When the gun fires it should be somewhat of a "surprise" as to the precise moment it goes off. You can start off live shooting with a .22 and work up from there. Do not move up until you are flinch-free with the lighter and smaller calibers. When you pull the trigger your gun's barrel should not move downward. Focus on your sight picture - it is perfectly ok to have the target be somewhat blurry. The human eye is incapable of keeping the rear sight, front sight and the target all in focus at the same time. Squeeze, do not pull. Gently increase pressure until you hear the bang. Master that and you have mastered trigger control and eliminated the flinch.
I'm not a fan of surprises when it comes to a round being fired. I want to know what's coming and ready for some recoil.
Along with this advice control your wobble with the trigger. Every one has a sight wobble, slight or major. Put yours in as small a circle as possible. While focusing on trigger pressure only add pressure to it when you are in the last quarter of the circle approaching the target, never when you are moving away from it.
I could not agree more! The smaller the target circle, the less your drift will be and the smaller your groups will be. "Aim Small - Miss Small" so they saying goes. I try and get that point across to new shooters who thinkl they will embarrase themselves less by shooting at a giant bullseye. When I give them a B-3 NRA target for use at 50 feet and put a 3/4" red sticker inside the 2.5" black circle they bitch and moan - until I make them try it. Then they surprise themselves.
Another here in favor of the smallest target you can clearly focus on without eyestrain at your selected distance. I like to shoot at a 2" square at 25 yards with all handguns, bullseye style. Groups are always smaller than when using a commercial target with an enormous 6" bullseye, though the latter is passable (but still a bit large) for 50 yard shooting - something I'm still not good at but I'm trying...
Flinching or no flinching, that is dad gum good shooting, I don't care who ya are!
Cheap .22 snap caps can be found at the hardware store. The yellow wall anchors for screws work perfectly and will extract in revolvers and autos. I use them in my .22 autos that can't be decocked other than pulling the trigger when I put them away.
When you graduate into revolvers you will find that for the most part semi auto calibers do not compare to the power and effectiveness of real handguns. They shoot harder, go faster and are way more accurate than most semi autos. Take for example, a 357 mag has heavier bullets, goes faster, has more energy and hits harder than even your beloved 10mm, and thats just for starters. You also don't have any semi auto action to take up the recoil. If you are flinching the only way to stop flinching is to concentrate on proper shooting techniques, quit jerking the trigger. The only way you can flinch is if you know the gun it going to go off. If that is the case you are jerking the trigger and expecting the recoil. If you are properly pressing the trigger you will not know when the gun is going to fire, thus you cannot flinch.
