Advanced Marksmanship Been away from shooting for awhile but trying to get back...flinch...?

[SilentStalkr]

I have been away from shooting for a good while and somehow or another while away I developed this flinch. Anyone got any advice on the bst way to get rid of it? Even shooting suppressed with ear pro on I am still flinching! I have no idea what caused this but I got to get rid of it as it is impossible to follow my shots with my eyes closed!

 

[AIAW]

Hopefully you are shooting prone. Bench shooting - no good for fundamentals!

Try this: Prone-out, get positioned, load the bipod as you should and dry-fire at least twice before sending a live round just as it would have been a dry-fire. Dry-fire twice more then chamber and send a live round again in the same fashion. Don't forget trigger control during both dry and live firing. Keep this up and use as many dry-fire sessions as it takes until you can mentally tell yourself that the rifle is going to fire and recoil but it doesn't matter. By this I mean you should have little reticle movement difference between a dry-fire and a live round (within reason of the caliber you are shooting). Recoil management is a different story, but get rid of that flinch before worrying about anything else!

What cartridge are you using?

 

[Darkside-Six]

Dry fire. Another thing you could do is buy some snap caps or dummy rounds. mix a few in with some loaded rounds and throw in a magazine.

 

[bogeybrown]

I'm with Darkside-Six, "ball and dummy" drills. If your action will feed an empty casing from the mag you can use them as your dummies randomly in a mag. If not and you have a range buddy, have him single feed live rounds and empty casings randomly for you.

I recently got a bad batch of 223 from Federal and the whole range day was a ball and dummy drill. It certainly kept me honest on focusing on the crosshairs all the way through trigger squeeze and follow through as I got "click" after click from "live" rounds

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

I have been away from shooting for a good while and somehow or another while away I developed this flinch. Anyone got any advice on the bst way to get rid of it? Even shooting suppressed with ear pro on I am still flinching! I have no idea what caused this but I got to get rid of it as it is impossible to follow my shots with my eyes closed!

What caliber are you shooting? A flinch comes from either noise or recoil, and both can be abated. Yours appears to be from recoil, which is very easy to correct.

 

[SilentStalkr]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am not sure what the deal is. It seems to occur on anything from a .223 up to a 300WM. It doesn't seem to matter. What's crazy is even with a suppressor and double ear pro I am still doing it which is driving me nuts because I can't see my damn impacts or trace if my damn eyes are closed. I will try some things you all mentioned and see what happens.

 

[Old Soldier]

First, dry fire with a dime balanced on the end of the barrel. Do this until you can fire with out the dime falling off 3 out of 5 times. No the firing pin snapping will not drop the dime, only a flinch will. Then have a buddy lay next to you, young and female preferably. Close your eyes and have her place either a dummy round or a live round in the rifle, load and fire. The not knowing what is in the rifle will cure you. Good luck.

 

[SilentStalkr]

Thanks. I can already do the dime thing without a problem so I guess it's time to move on to the laying down with the young and female. Haha.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Get recoil under control and you will miraculously stop flinching. That doesn't mean put a brake on your rifle. That means get yourself under control. SH has videos on youtube on recoil management. Just a few simple steps and the problem is solved with very little practice.