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How to Stop the Flinching


Flea

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40 minutes ago, bimmer1980 said:

50/50 drill helped me a lot.

I've done this drill a bit in the past but don't quite understand why it will help. When doing the drill, my gun doesn't move on the second shot b/c I know there isn't a live round. I don't get the concept.

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If you're not sure if you are blinking then you are. I got over my flinch by live firing regularly and throwing some practice rounds (or whole magazines) downrange while actively watching the slide reciprocate, the case fly, and the sights return to zero without much attention to the aim. Now I can regularly let the hammer slap on an empty mag, and an empty chamber without a budge. My 2 cents.

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12 minutes ago, Flea said:

I've done this drill a bit in the past but don't quite understand why it will help. When doing the drill, my gun doesn't move on the second shot b/c I know there isn't a live round. I don't get the concept.

 

You maybe have to do it a bit faster, so your brain is still stressed. Try to aim for ~ .25 to .40 splits. I saw bad flinches and bad triggerpulls that way, which i would not have seen in live fire.

You can train it out pretty good by repeating many times. Your focus should be on the sights not on thinking about the following dry pull.     

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2 minutes ago, Acclaym said:

If you're not sure if you are blinking then you are. I got over my flinch by live firing regularly and throwing some practice rounds (or whole magazines) downrange while actively watching the slide reciprocate, the case fly, and the sights return to zero without much attention to the aim. Now I can regularly let the hammer slap on an empty mag, and an empty chamber without a budge. My 2 cents.

 

Thats important to. Just shoot some magazines without aiming but with watching the sights or the slide move. If you blink, you almost guaranteed flinch.

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22 minutes ago, Acclaym said:

If you're not sure if you are blinking then you are. I got over my flinch by live firing regularly and throwing some practice rounds (or whole magazines) downrange while actively watching the slide reciprocate, the case fly, and the sights return to zero without much attention to the aim. Now I can regularly let the hammer slap on an empty mag, and an empty chamber without a budge. My 2 cents.

Great suggestion, thx

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1 hour ago, MemphisMechanic said:


Your buddy stands next to you with a squib rod.

 

Every time you pull a shot low left, he whacks you with it squarely in the crotch.

 

It is incredibly effective.

 

 

Well, either it'll stop the flinching, make him quit the shooting sports, or at the very least insure that he'll never breed any future flinchers.

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10 minutes ago, IHAVEGAS said:

You are not watching the front sight. If you were you would see the flinches and be able to call any shots low left.

 

 

 

 


He is watching it, likely very well.

 

He just isn’t seeing the important stuff that begins a millisecond before the detonation happens,while the gun is going off, and as the sights lift.

 

As you very well know. ;) 


Being told “watch the front sight” isn’t specific enough; it helps to tell them what they’re looking for. 👍

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I tried everything to stop flinching/anticipating but the thing that worked the best was learning to precisely call shots with my CO gun. Eventually I could see the dot dip then lift as the shot went off. Once I realized in real time that I was flinching it was much easier to stop. Also you can see were the shot went and often it's still in the A zone so I just roll on and keep calling shots.

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Air pistol (pellet gun) or airsoft pistol or sirt pistol may help.  The air rifle is what helped me kick the flinch, but it was tens of thousands of rounds down range working on it every day for about a year.  I still find myself flinching from time to time, but a few dry reps can fix that.  I find that it is all a mental game for me.  As others said having a training partner mix dummy rounds in your magazine randomly can help identify if you are flinching

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3 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:


He is watching it, likely very well.

 

He just isn’t seeing the important stuff that begins a millisecond before the detonation happens,while the gun is going off, and as the sights lift.

 

As you very well know. ;) 


Being told “watch the front sight” isn’t specific enough; it helps to tell them what they’re looking for. 👍

What is the important stuff and what does calling a shot mean?

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35 minutes ago, Flea said:

What is the important stuff and what does calling a shot mean?

If you watch your front sight but know exactly what it's doing right before the gun fires.  Not just watch the site but comprehend it's relation in your required sight picture & it's relation to your target, shooting the notch, etc.  Know all this about the sight right before the gun fires and what it's actually doing as the sights lift and you'll know where the impact is and won't have to look at the target.  You'll know.  You'll have called that shot.

To run through a stage competitively you can't be looking where your hits are. You have to know it, call it, as you fire, and roll on through because you have other places to be.

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14 hours ago, Flea said:

I'm a new handgun shooter and use a 9mm 1911. A fair amount of shots go low and left and after having someone load a mag with snap caps and ball ammo, the dreaded flinch was on full display. I'm looking for live fire drills that can help me eliminate this habit. I don't mix up the snap caps with the ball ammo by myself because even if I load the mag with my eyes closed, I can feel the difference between the plastic and the lead.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A flinch, or the pushing/pulling against the gun, is usually an involuntary reaction of the body reacting to an unpleasant experience it is unfamiliar with. No, shooting a handgun especially at the power factors we use for competition does not hurt. However the unfamiliar combination of noise,concussion and blast against the face generally leads to this type of unwanted involuntary response when shooting. Case in point, when Doug Koenig (multi-time world champion  Bianchi cup shooter) shoots a bolt action pistol at long range for competition at extremely high power factor he actually wears a full face motorcycle helmet so he can concentrate on the shot and  not be influenced by the concussion noise or blast. Military personnel have noted they shot handguns considerably better when wearing full face Shields etc during training than when not. I bring this to your attention as a means of understanding why you are getting an unfavorable result when shooting. Experiment with this yourself until you become comfortable with less and less protection to the point when only wearing proper eyeglasses and double plugging is sufficient to keep you in a comfort zone when squeezing through the trigger. 

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Doubles. Starting from very close. Step back 1 yard after every set of 6 rounds or so (as long as the shots are all A's) 
If they aren't move 1 yard closer again, repeat. 

Since you are starting so close, Go FAST.  

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