This is slightly embarrassing but I want to get better and I need some help regarding flinching. Its not a problem for me when I slow fire but when I shoot rapidly or consecutive shots, I find myself tensing up and it is taking me off target. What are some things I could do to overcome this? Is this something that disappears over time?
I wouldn’t say I’m a novice pistol shooter but I’m not really at the intermediate stage either.
Thanks
A ball and dummy drill is a great way to help overcome flinch.
SAFE dry-fire practice (like a ball and dummy drill) worked pretty well for me though you don’t necessarily need a spent round if you watch your sights closely.
Every day fire about 100 trigger pulls (using proper focus, technique and presentation) Focus on smooth trigger pull, you’ll gradually de-condition the response, artificially fooling your brain not to expect the shot and therefore not flinch.
Live rounds at this point seem to be reinforcing your flinch instead of getting you over it.
Yep, grab a handfull of snapcaps and mix them up in your ammo pile, then have a buddy load your mags for you. concentrate on smooth, consistent trigger pull, and sight picture.
This, combined with lots of dry fire as GSJ describes has worked wonders for me so far.
You will never get rig of the flinch, it is natural to do it. You can only mininize it by practicing the tichniques above.
Being prone to a massive finch myself, I’ll disagree.
Ball and dummy is great for diagnosing a flinch, or to get someone to understand that they are flinching, but does little to cure it.
Dryfire works much better in my experience.
Are you sure it’s a flinch and not a trigger control issue? Flinching is anticipating recoil and tensing or pushing the gun. Is your POI relative to your POA?
I mean I’m pretty sure its a flinch. When shooting rapidly I’ll lean slightly forward as I tense and I’ll shoot low.
Don’t put too much stock in these types of targets, but
Building Block Drills to Proper Handgun Shooting:
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[li]Start with the Wall Drill or similar dry fire drill that will provide obvious & immediate feedback with regard to your sight alignment throughout the trigger stroke. When you can break the trigger without disturbing the alignment of your front sight, move on to the next drill.
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[li]Shoot a Ball & Dummy Drill to assess whether you are anticipating recoil. Work on this (or go back to the Wall Drill) until you can break your shots without anticipation. Then move on to the next drill.
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[li]Use a 3x5 Card Drill or similar walkback-type drill to refine your marksmanship at slow speed. Until you can get 100% hits on demand on a 3x5 at 7yd, you shouldn’t focus on going faster. Once you can hit the card at 7yd every time, move on to the next drill.
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[li]The Circle Drill or another adjusting speed drill will begin to show you how time compression affects your shooting. You want to get a tight little group when you’re taking your time and you want to be in control of the gun when you’re going fast.
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In my experience, most of the problems we attribute to poor trigger control are actually caused by improper grip or recoil management. When trigger manipulation is the problem at speed, it’s usually the result of a shooter changing how he presses the trigger when he goes fast, rather than just compressing the timeframe in which he does it the right way … the way he already knows how.
It’s also important to define what you’re trying to accomplish. If you can hit a 4" circle at 25yd slow fire and now want to hit that same circle at that same distance with 0.10 splits, you’re smoking crack. If you’re doing things properly, the time you’re “saving” when shooting fast is the refinement time you would use on your sight picture and trigger control when going slower. Shooting fast is about learning what is and isn’t an acceptable amount of refinement under a given circumstance.
I’m a big advocate of electro shock therapy… In my experience it works wonders, but YMMV…
This might help me also…
But seriously, Im going to try the 3x5 card drill and get some snap caps as suggested before I go faster. Thanks Todd
Ball and Dummy incorporates dry-fire, at least how LAV teaches it. Every time you flinch you perform five perfect dry-fires and then resume the drill.
Whenever I recommend a drill, you can basically add the prefix “In addition to dry-fire everyday, you can also…”
Perhaps shooting rapidly is the issue. Try slowing down a bit until you can shoot and hit how you want… then step up the speed a little at a time. Trying to go from slow and consistant to super speedy is just going to add problems to the mix. It’s damn fun to shoot fast, but it’s even more damn fun to shoot fast and actually hit what you’re shooting at. 
Seriously, I recommend to people (and I’m not a professional mind you, but I have shown quite a few people how to shoot) that they practice drawing and firing at 1/4 speed until they can hit where they want better than 90-95% of the time. Then take it up a notch to 1/2 speed till near 90%, then 3/4… you get the picture. 1/2 speed is obviously going to be a relative term for each person. Just start slow-motion slow. It’ll help you in all aspects of the draw, as long as you are doing them properly to begin with. Pretty soon, it’ll be second nature.
I’drecommend working up to fast.
So, I tried this ^^^ for a few dry fire rounds tonight and I was surprised to find that I was able to keep the case balanced on the sight. (I didn’t think I’d be able to balance it on the sight at all, let alone keep it there while I pulled the trigger.) The question I have is, are there any good tips for taking it to the next level of faster dry fire and live fire, or is it simply a matter of repeating the dry fire until it “takes?” I think I know the answer already, but it seems worth asking the experts. Thanks.
EDIT: To the OP, I’m sorry for the apparent thread-jack. You posted a question I’ve had myself and my questions seemed on topic, but still…
The biggest contributor to my flinch is staging the trigger. Make sure you are pulling the trigger straight to the rear without stopping at the point right before the sear breaks. If you stop the pull after taking up all the slack, this tends to lead to now syndrome, trying to make the gun go off right now. It is easy to not flinch in dryfire because you know there is not going to be a loud noise, when you try to take the trigger control you learned with dryfire to livefire think about what pulling the trigger felt like in dryfire, and do not think about the gun going off. To get the surprise break just pull the trigger slowly straight to the rear while focusing on the front sight, understand that you will have an acceptable wobble zone, and don’t try to make the gun go off at a specific spot on the target.
OP and Erik,
With whom have you trained?
Hint: Seek out a tier one trainer.
https://www.m4carbine.net/forumdisplay.php?f=88
The money you are wasting in ganked shots will more than pay for the class.
M_P
Thanks. I’m a relatively new shooter, so have had only a little formal training so far (the CCW class and a day long class geared towards people who are new to concealed carry). More formal training is a definite must and is high on my list.
joshs: Thank you for the tip about not staging the trigger. I think that’s a definite factor for me.
What caliber are you shooting and what model? The combo you’re shooting might be a little too much right now and like others said reinforcing your flinch. Back up a little bit. In fact back up all the way to a .22 pistol and practice smooth trigger control and front sight focus. Make sure you’re not feeling for the trigger break whatever you’re shooting.
A flinch is a natural response to loud and unfamiliar stimuli. The loud sound of gunfire just happens to trigger this response.
I think very few people actually ever overcome flinching. Most people just seem to minimize it. That’s what I have done.
I found arm and grip strengthening to be helpful. Trying wearing both ear plugs and ear muffs when shooting. Concentrate on your trigger/sear reset, ensuring that you take up all loose trigger travel prior to breaking your shot. Handguns with short sear resets like 1911 style pistols and glocks seem to be better for beginners to learn sear reset.
By trigger/sear reset I mean, the shooter fires the weapon and continues to hold the trigger to the rear as the slide/action resets it self. The shooter slowly releases the trigger foward until they hear/feel a click. That’s the sear reset. The shooter then begins a rearward press on the trigger. Sigs have a lot of loose play at this point, ie “slack”. Once the slack to taken up. The shooter feels firm resistance. The shooter ensures that the sights are in line with the target, completes the last fraction of trigger press, and the shot fires.
Standard Sig handguns have a rather long sear reset and a lot of loose trigger play. My agency issues Sigs. The main problem that I see with our shooters is that they will ease the trigger forward to reset and then quickly press the trigger to the rear without properly controlling the trigger. The other issue is shooters completely releasing their finger from the trigger and then slapping trigger to the rear to fire another shoot. This action pushes the weapon off of target.
Done correctly, this is what you will hear…bang…click (reset)…bang…click…bang click…
I think most shooters understand the sight alignment and sight picture concept. Its the trigger control issue that throws most people.
My suggestion would be to concentrate on trigger control/sear reset. As you slow fire, pay attention to your form. If you feel your flinch coming on prior to breaking the shot, don’t shoot. Take a deep breath and start the shot over again.
Hope this helps.