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I never had a flinch until I bought a custom five-shot 45 Colt on a Ruger Bisley and started shooting 325-grain bullets at 1,350 fps. It took many years of very focused work with a 22 to make it go away.

I think that getting some kind of flinch is almost unavoidable if you shoot guns that kick. One of the famous African ivory hunters (Bell?) started his career zeroing double rifles at Westley Richards or a similar company, where he developed a huge flinch. Someone later asked him about big rifles, and he said something like, "I heartily wish I had never had anything to do with them."


Okie John

Long time back I lived on Flinch Av for a spell, but eventually moved on. Couple of thoughts FWIW.

Guns that hurt generally do so because of poor fit. You'll get some clues. Cheek hurt, shoulder pocket red marks/pain etc. Fix the fit, first and foremost. Avoid scopes with short eye relief.

Noise can hurt, quite a bit. Ear protection is mandatory for most shooting.

Shooting light loads is not a sin, particularly for punching paper; learning about a new gun or introducing a neophyte to the sport. The strictures inherent to shooting clays do not require heavy loads at all. Before I moved away from that sport I was loading 20 ga equivalent lead loads for the 12 bore and shooting A/AA class.

Lastly, best fertilizer I know of to promote flinch is to concentrate on the pain you expect rather than the objective. Focus on the target and sights, make yourself follow through on each shot. Keep it up and you'll bid Mr. Flinch farewell.

Everyone flinches that has not specifically, and regularly trained it out. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of shooters of all skill levels from brand new to world champions. I can count on one hand those who haven’t trained ball and dummy who don’t have a flinch when they think the gun is loaded and it isn’t.


There is only one way to correct a flinch- fire the gun repeatedly without knowing whether it is loaded or not. That’s it. All the nonsense about “concentrating”, “focus”, etc. does not work, and definitely doesn’t work long term. Ball and dummy is where it’s at.

Fairly certain my intermittent flinch came from my ears more than it ever did my shoulder. Another cause was I grew up smack in the middle of wonderful upland game hunting and we were/are very avid partakers. A person gets away with a LOT in the way of "flinch" shotgunning rising ringnecks and sharptails. They're an awful lot larger and slower than even clay pigeons thrown from a $5 red plastic hand thrower.

I shoot an awful lot better in the fall if I spend some time in the summer shooting either our "sort-of" F-Class league or my own steel targets and throw in a little bit of off-hand and kneeling practice as well.

My "flinch" consists of first raising my shoulders/ducking my head like one does with unexpected loud noises and then peeking my head up over the scope before the trigger breaks. When it's really bad I'll be rolling my right shoulder into the rifle as well. When I remember to just think "squeeze" the flinch goes away, when I get rattled or rushed is when it potentially shows up.

Another way is to use a new rifle with a 3 position safety you are not quite used to and try to shoot a deer with the safety in the "unload" position.

Similar story, 45 Colt Ruger Bisley, big LBT bullets.

Not an issue, but I slowly and deliberately work my way through every shot be it targets, ground squirrels, or big game.

Fine shooting either comes with time or some quality coaching at a young age. For most of us it's really an educational process and a desire to excel. Not too many natural born shooters out there.

I've done Hunter Ed for over 25 years and many kids are first time shooters in our classes. Shooting sessions involve groups routing among 22LR, 20 Ga, 223, and a 50 cal muzzle loader. I can go through the 22LR targets and identify the groups that did the shot gun before making it to the rim fire bench. Heavy kickers are not the greatest starting units if one wants to get technique into a kid.

I've never done competition, but am amazed at the pros that fire all kinds of arms with such control that they never even blink. I can do that with light arms, but have not mastered that with my big guns.

My father, an NRA smallbore competitor in his younger days, taught me how to squeeze a trigger. I was smooth for many years. Then I tried handgun loads suitable for punching bison shoulders and ruined it.

That’s what happened, in my bear “embarrassment”! memtb

^^^probably one of the most important lessons a shooter can learn. Far better w/ new shooters than resorting to telling them that they had better stick w/ a .22


mike r

I too have a somwhat permanat flinch due to a really light bolt action 20 ga I started hunting with as a kid....it was chambered in the days of all paper shells...dad bought me high brass 4s..plastic..higher presure in old paper chambers..to this day I can't snap shoot a rifle I wil jerk the trigger bad and miss...I have since learned to .take a split second and take a breath...I can usually make a good shot..
A trick I learned while shooting competivly in archery was to hum while aiming...it occupies the conscious mind and the conscious mind can only do one task at a time making a flinch way more difficult...works the same with rifle...pistoles and just about anything...

Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.

I did get all fugged up with an AR. First time I put a bunch of rounds through one, the two stage trigger had me flinching. Or at least noticing my flinching. I hadn’t ever shot a two stage trigger before. First couple dozen shots, no problem. Then I started getting all hinky.

Rifles not so much, handguns are a whole different thing though.


I also can't remember the last time I shot a rifle from a bench. Bench shooting is a waste of time and not 'real life' shooting.

We will have to agree to disagree on that point. You do any wing shooting?

Ball and dummy is for folks that want to replace firing pins on a frequent basis.

Hmmm... I've fired my rifles, pistols and shotguns hundreds or more probably thousands of times and have never had a broken firing pin. Dry firing while concentrating works for me.
Also, if you want to cure yourself of flinching, get into some competitive shooting. Nothing trains you to tune out noise like shooting off hand with rifles going off on both sides of you. Works with pistols too.

Hahaha. Replace firing pins? On what? Hundreds of thousands of dry fires each year on pistols, carbines, and rifles and no firing pins are broken.


I see close to half a million rounds shot a year with 90% of those being tracked and measured. People that say they don’t flinch, but do not train to not flinch are my favorite. Takes about 30 seconds for them to see that they do.


Every single shotgunner I have ever seen will flinch like a mother trucker if he gets a snap cap unknowingly placed in his tube/chamber. “Release” triggers are a thing for a reason.

Can you answer a simple question or are you afraid you'll flinch?

Do you do any wing shooting? Clays or birds?

Well, perhaps you are luckier than myself. I quit dry firing after the second pin broke. One of my gunsmiths broke the third with a single try. One rifle (Marlin lever action) , two shotguns (Winchester and J.P. Sauer & Sohn). I don't dry fire anymore, and frankly never saw any benefit.

I dry fire my rifles all the time and have never experienced a broken firing pin - Kimbers, Remington700's, 7's, Ruger 77's American, Benelli R1's.

I'm always teetering on the edge of a flinch and usually start every range session with several minutes dry firing. If I haven't been able to get to the range before a hunt, I dry fire practice at home.

David

I'm same as David. It's always there and I tend to dry fire a few times throughout strings to track it. I seem to stay more calm/settled shooting suppressed so I'm guessing it's a noise thing more than recoil thing for me.