30-06. 13 pounds all in. It’s a bitch but I’m running it ok some days. I’m going to do the ear pro thing next time out, but flinching from recoil has been ruled out by a couple of dummy rounds
Thanks for all the input everyone.
My bet is on some kind of unconscious anticipation. If you are interested, here is my experience :
I'm shooting 7.62x54R on my Mosins on a very regular basis and despite not being as hard recoiling of a cartridge as 30-06, the metal butt plate on the 9lbs rifle makes shooting not that enjoyable sometimes. And I got bruised a couple times when fiddling with my shooting position.
I do not flinch either, at all, but same phenomenon you described applies to me : when shooting these rifles, the trigger feels heavier than what they are, the trigger pull also feels longer and inconsistent. And sometimes it might take me a second try to send the round downrange. That weirdness magically disapears when I know I'm pulling on an empty chamber or when dry firing at home with dummies. (Mind that I've reworked and polished all my sears and trigger springs to get a consistent lighter and crispier release on them and they aren't your typical soviet heavy gritty garbage rod trigger.)
On the other hand, my MAS 36 in .308 have a heavier trigger than my russians and it usually feels so for the first round after shooting a Mosin, but lighter than them afterwards.
I believe this is because the recoil is milder (this one also has a slip on recoil pad for extra LoP) and I guess my brain relaxes as nothing bad will happen with that setup. Same goes if I'm shooting a modern rifle in 308 or 6.5. What I did was purchasing a shoulder pad for the russians and things have improved a lot with the added comfort. The first few rounds of 54R still make me tense up on my trigger (cure isn't complete yet) but after the first reload, trigger feels like it should, as when dry firing the gun.
So I would not call this "flinching" as there are no parasite movement during the shot but I'm still anticipating for the uncomfort of the shoulder kick, most likely stiffening the trigger finger which gives the feeling of a heavier trigger than it really is.
What you could try to put aside your 30-06 for a while and try to borrow a mild recoiling rifle (223, 260, 6.5CM etc...) and shoot it exclusively to see after a few trips at the range if things are starting to change.