Flinching with both pistol and rifle

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Here's my suggestion. It sounds kinda silly, but it worked for me.

Get yourself a .22, and put a couple thousand rounds down range with it. Then when you go to shoot your center fire rifle or pistol, pretend it's a .22.

I know it sounds silly, but doing that, (or alternatively muttering to yourself that "the recoil cannot hurt me") works.

I don’t flinch, I over anticipate recoil..... I’ve gotten to shooting a lot more 22, in rifle and handgun. I used to do more dry firing, but haven’t much lately- but I think I’ll go back to more. To me the are like building blocks.

That, and with my son I tried to get him to not do fake recoil when he was playing guns around the house with - Pew-pew with a finger or an unloaded nerf gun. Why use all that trigger time and build bad habits?

With my son and I both shooting now, blowing thru 9 and 556 gets expensive. A couple of hundred rounds of 22 helps to soften the blow a bit.

I also try to focus not on the recoil, but getting the sight picture/dot back.