Thread: Two For Flinching...

Hey All,

I just cant get rid of this bubblegumming flinch. Ive watched all the videos I can get my hands on, practiced with snap caps, dry fire, 1 or 2 snap caps in a full mag. Whatever I do its still there nagging at me like my mother in law on a bad day. Any tricks of the trade you care to share. If i continue to shoot low too much longer Im giving it up and taking up crochet.

What exactly is it that your shooting, that is causing you to flinch?

Find someone, a qualified coach or instructor or someone who knows how, to run you through the "exemplar" trigger management exercise. You'll know they know this exercise if they don't look at you in bewilderment and ask you what it is. Combine what you learn from it with dummy rounds in live fire practice, and the coin exercise in dry fire practice and your problem should be solved.

What helps me is starting off with shooting 22LR. I forget about the recoil and can concentrate on the important things.

What is the coin trick?

wood worker most of what I am shooting is short barrel .380 and 9mm. I do have a problem with grip strength as i have a bit of arthritis. I can shoot my ruger mk III hunter all day and night with no problem and fairly accurate but when I switch to my glock 26 or ppk all bets are off. Its not even that the recoil is bad at all, I can totally handle it. Its just knowing its gonna happen, telling myself dont flinch, flinching, and then beating up myself for the rest of the day about it.

Originally Posted by bmbowman

What is the coin trick?

Coin trick, or washer. Unloaded weapon. You in a firing position. Have a buddy balance a coin or washer in the barrel or slide of the weapon. Dry fire. You're looking to have the coin or washer remain on the barrel or slide. Repeat until consistently successful. This exercise varies in difficulty/effectiveness depending on the weapon.

Originally Posted by Douglas

Coin trick, or washer. Unloaded weapon. You in a firing position. Have a buddy balance a coin or washer in the barrel or slide of the weapon. Dry fire. You're looking to have the coin or washer remain on the barrel or slide. Repeat until consistently successful. This exercise varies in difficulty/effectiveness depending on the weapon.

I imagine that'd be pretty easy with a Glock

I too suffer from flinching, been working on it for some time now.

In addition to the suggestions above you may want to print out a few of these targets for your next trip to the range. Once you figure out what type of flinch you have you can work on correcting it

Imageshack - pistolcorrection.jpg

Doubletap, I didnt see a spot in the target for "scared of loud explosions."

Originally Posted by Joey Link

I imagine that'd be pretty easy with a Glock

Yep, glock would rate on the (much) easier/less effective side but that ppk may allow for better practice of this exercise.
This is really to help nail down the trigger squeeze fundamental. If you're have trouble with the "loud explosion" aspect you probably just need to shoot more while concentrating on your fundamentals. Desensitize yourself to the "bang". My advice of "shoot more" will hurt the pocket book but it promises to be a lot of fun.
You could also consider taking a course with a professional and have them critique your shooting. An instructor observing you would allow them to give you better advice than any of us.

Think about something else besides the impending bang (which will usually cause you to jerk the trigger). Repeat (out loud, if possible), "front sight - front sight - front sight" as you steadily increase pressure on the trigger reminding yourself where your focus should be, and not thinking about the upcoming bang, the recoil, or when the trigger is going to break. No matter how fast you are you can't compensate for the recoil so just let it happen. It won't injure you (unless you built a .50 BMG handgun or something)!

Originally Posted by DoubleTapDrew

Repeat (out loud, if possible), "front sight - front sight - front sight" as you steadily increase pressure on the trigger reminding yourself where your focus should be, and not thinking about the upcoming bang, the recoil, or when the trigger is going to break.

Agreed. And I'm telling myself I want to see the front sight during the blast - and just after.

Yea, Ive been concentrating on keeping my eyes open to see the flash and trying to keep focus on the front site. I was kinda joking about being scared of the bang, I actually really love the bang. When talking about "follow thru" what exactly are we talking about and does it affect the accuracy of the shot just taken or is it for easier acquisition of shots about to be taken.

on a related subject, breath control... Ive read that in long gun shooting its common to hold ones breath when making a shot but in pistol shooting, the pace of the shooting might not allow one to hold their breath for each shot. In a training scenario, what do you do regarding breath control?

Originally Posted by davef

Doubletap, I didnt see a spot in the target for "scared of loud explosions."

Dave, you may have just cured your own issue with this statement. What kind of hearing protection are you wearing? It's not the trigger pull, because as stated earlier you are doing all the drills correctly. It's the "big bang" that's getting you. It's a normal reaction for someone who anticipates the fuse burning into the firecracker to pull their shoulders up, grit their teeth and wait for the BOOM! I always wear the best hearing protection available at the time when practicing. If your wearing a good set, perhaps an additional set of plugs under the muff's would be beneficial. I hope that helps, John.

Ha! Really? Two for flinching? That is insanely hilarious!

I pushed one today that ruined what would have been a very picture worthy group. It happens to all of us from time to time

Originally Posted by davef

Yea, Ive been concentrating on keeping my eyes open to see the flash and trying to keep focus on the front site. I was kinda joking about being scared of the bang, I actually really love the bang. When talking about "follow thru" what exactly are we talking about and does it affect the accuracy of the shot just taken or is it for easier acquisition of shots about to be taken.

on a related subject, breath control... Ive read that in long gun shooting its common to hold ones breath when making a shot but in pistol shooting, the pace of the shooting might not allow one to hold their breath for each shot. In a training scenario, what do you do regarding breath control?

I've found I shoot more accurately when I press the trigger and hold it back until the gun comes back down from recoil and back on target, then slowly release the trigger until it resets and repeat. This is for slow shooting obviously but when shooting fast, mashing the trigger and quickly releasing fully (off the trigger face) can hurt accuracy too.
In pistol shooting IMO it's best to just breathe normally rather than the exhale-break the shot-inhale like with rifles. Since a pistol isn't using your shoulder/chest as an anchor point it probably won't matter much and your hands can remain independant of the up and down motion of breathing.
The ear protection salmonriverjohn mentions is a good point. I actually found I shot a little better when using expanding foam ear plugs with a rifle since it isolates the noise more. Something about the brain saying "well it just shoved me a little but there was no big boom, so whatever".

I too suffer from a horrible flinch. What I found to help was to keep building up pressure on the trigger so you don't know when it will go off. So pull the trigger until you feel resistance, then slowly and lightly increase pressure until it finally goes off.

Also, if the noise gets you, double up on ear protection. Wear the foam ones with a set of over the ear ones.

I had a buddy with a S&W 629. We were out in the woods plinking and he was flinching up a storm. 1st round hit the paper, second round went under the target, the rest hit the dirt in front of the target. I told him "Let's try something" I put up 4 targets 5 feet apart and numbered them. had him position with muzzle down range but looking off to the side. then told him that "when I call out a number, shoot that target, don't think, just Acquire and Fire". He started nailin um!!!

Get your sight picture and then pay attention to the target, not your gun. The muzzle is going to flip up.. it's OK, let it. It won't hurt you (Unless you have a Nitro 600 Single action).

As for noise...I don't put too much into that. Clyde Drexler (a former portland trailblazer for those that may not remember) was interviewed while watching a playoff game (He was retired at the time). His comment was that he couldn't believe how loud the crowd was. He said when he was playing he never really heard the crowd.