After only shooting .22 rifles at the range for marksmanship classes at my High School I purchased a 7mm Magnum for my deer gun from a recommendation from a friend. My first shot gave me a jolt and the scope gave me a nice cut on my eyelid. Ever since that first shot I have had a problem with flinching. I always anticipate the shot. It’s embarrassing especially when shooting a smaller caliber at the range like a 9mm handgun. It is also effecting my sighting in of my new AR15. My groups are inconsistent. This handicap is frustrating. Any advice for this girly man?
Have someone load dummy rounds into the gun randomly.
Shoot more 22.
Dry fire.
Press the trigger so you dont know when the gun is going to go off. Dont anticipate the recoil.
What belmont suggests will work…shoot the snot out of the 22’s.
Do you shoot any shotguns?? Try shooting some skeet / clays in between your centerfire sessions. The higher volume shooting with some recoil helps some folks.
I would also move to the 120gr premium bullets for the 7mag.
check out this thread. A bunch of experienced folks chimed in on this one, and you should find a ton of helpful info in here
I actually don’t have issues with a shotgun. When I shoot a 12 gauge whether it’s ducks or skeet I’m not anticipating the recoil as I’m engaged in what I’m trying to hit.
Dry fire and lots of it.
The dummy rounds mixed in with live rounds in your pistol and AR mags should help a lot. I had the same problem when I was in police academy and within a day my scores went from low 80% to high 90%. I don’t know how you could do that with your 7mm Mag but doing it with your other guns and dry firing your 7mm should help quite a bit.
Seems kind of mean to suggest a 7mm Magnum to a novice shooter.
The linked thread above is a great resource for pistol.
Frankly, if you can shoot a pistol decently you will be able to shoot a rifle well.
Flinch with long-guns has a few manifestations:
Closing the firing eye before the shot is fired.
Bucking the shoulder forward as the shot is fired.
Jerking the trigger.
In extreme examples the entire body will flinch, which is really bad.
Dry and low-recoil practice with a meticulously adhered to shot process will help. Here is what I do for bulls-eye:
Assume position, with natural point of aim and as much muscular relaxation as the position allows.
Check NPOA by closing eyes, two deep breaths, stopping on the natural respiratory pause, then open sighting eye to verify NPOA.
If NPOA is good:
Selector is moved to Semi/Fire
Trigger finger is placed on the trigger, applying slight pressure to fix finger on trigger.
Deep breath, released to natural point of aim.
Complete focus on the front sight, placed in the center of the target blur.
Trigger finger applies smooth, gradually increasing pressure to the trigger until the shot breaks. While the trigger is being pressed, do not think about making the shot break, but focus on the gradual increase of pressure with the front sight being absolutely in focus.
When you can do this with low recoil/dry fire, move to single live shots with the heavier recoiling weapon interspersed with several dry shots.
It’s what works for many, maybe it will help you.
Have you tried standing very close behind & to the left of someone while they are shooting?
With eye & ear pro and tell them in advance of course. The shots would be a total surprise and just try to focus on their front sight blade without blinking. Yes the front sight isn’t the same from the side angle but…
7 Mag scope eye. Fun stuff. The first thing I would do with that rifle is make sure you have enough eye relief. If you can’t get enough with the scope you have, invest in one better suited for the gun. It’s not going to do you any good to improve your flinch, only to be whacked in the face again and go back to square one.
One thing I’ve noticed that really seems to help people who are just moving to larger caliber rifles is improved hearing protection. When you think about it, even from a rifle like a 7mm the actual recoil isn’t really worse than getting punched in the shoulder. But that very loud bang that comes with it isn’t friendly to the senses. It makes the experience seem much more violent than it really is. If you haven’t, try doubling up good plugs and muffs, or wear good electronic protection.
This doesn’t carry over so much to smaller guns, but it should help you with the 7mm Mag.
Absolutely true.
Double hearing protection does help reduce flinch.
Great post.
OP- I’d work heavily with 22LR. A 7mm bolt gun is quite a jump from what you’ve been shooting.
Sound advice above.
Howard leight impact and a set of Surefire ear pros will help and wont break the bank like some digi ears.
An exercise I like that has not been mentioned:
Place an empty casing on your front sight post then press and reset the trigger without it falling off.
Also, make sure you are not using the tip of the finger. I found the “jerky” more when the pad of the finger was used. I make sure I use the crook of the first bend at the first knuckle behind the finger nail.
Dry fire , dry fire and dry fire some more(not with a .22 though without a snap cap).
Sometimes my eyes flinch when shooting as well. Its embarrassing and frustrating.
At Appleseed shoots, they do the loading dummy rounds method. Just have someone else load rounds one by one into your rifle. They can either put in a live round or nothing at all. Then you will be able to see your flinch and after going through several empty chambers, when a live round is thrown in you wont anticipate the shot. Just make sure you continue to shoot with a good hold on the rifle the whole time or you will get another idiot mark on your forehead 
Another thing to try are Bill Drills. They are popular in the competition community when trying to overcome flinches, among other things.
Also, there’s the technique of aiming your handgun in the direction of the berm/back stop, coming up on target, closing your eyes, and just solely focusing in on how the gun feels and reacts under recoil.
The two previous are just some more tools to add to the flinch control tool box. The latter really helped my mom overcome her flinch. It seemed to solidify and reinforce the idea to the more primitive, reflex oriented parts of the brain that the gun will not bring any harm, and that explosion happening so close to your face isn’t something to be too worried about. Our higher brain KNOWS the gun isn’t dangerous, but our body all too often wants to react differently.
I borrowed a friends revolver with crimson traces on it. the combination of heavier smooth trigger pull in DA, and the immediate visual feedback from the laser made my flinch virtually self-correcting
Beyond that i like to do dry fire while I’m watching tv. When a commercial comes on bust out a few minutes of dry fire, keeps it from becoming too tedious.
Thanks for all the help guys.
On that note!
I like to watch shows like Law&Order “SVU”, pick out a “bad guy” and every time he shows up press out and dry fire on him. I like shows were the “target” shows up more often…not often enough to build a rythm but just enough to keep that consistent element of suprise.
It is a big problem for me as well. You want to train and use low recoiling rounds. A few months ago I sighted my dads 300 WB mag with 200 grain bullets and that really set me back. IMO anything mag has way too much recoil. A 30 -06 or 270 should do the job and then some. I hate recoil , IMO a 22 l/r should be the max recoil in a fire arm.