Re: need a flinching cure
Here's what has worked for me-
It has almost nothing to do with hardware fixes, training, snap caps, or lower calibers- because none of that addresses the problem directly, in my opinion (and which some on here have echoed). The only piece of kit I'd suggest is indeed plugs with electronic muffs, just to make it more bearable over the course of the day.
So here's the trick- it's all about your mental objective. Most new shooters (or shooters without much training) think the objective of firing a gun is to fire that gun. So everything in your mind is building up to that moment- the break. Your muscle tension, breathing, focus, are all building up to that one explosion- and there's your flinch. In truth, the thought process should go much differently:
That mental objective needs to be "keep the sights on the target". And just coincidentally, just a minor detail, is that you happen to be pulling something called a trigger. In your mind, that trigger pull could go on for 5 miles. You could be pulling that trigger for 10 years- it doesn't matter because it's coincidental to your sight focus. This one change has not only made me a much better shot, it has made new shooters I train hit the black time and again their first time out.
I hope I was clear about it- if you get this line of thinking, it should really eliminate it- because you could care less about something called a gun going off- you're keeping your focus razor sharp on sight alignment, and again, just happen to be exerting pressure with one of your fingers on a piece of metal known as a trigger- in your mind, you should think you could sit there, focusing on that sight and pulling back for 30 minutes. The bang is then a surprise
Using this method, I've seen even when I hit the end of the mag and don't realize it, and dryfire by mistake, that I don't move a mm. And, any rifle anyone gives me, regardless of the caliber, gets fired the exact same way.
Remember: "I'm focusing on this sight. And I just so happen to be exerting pressure down here while I'm doing it, and I can do these two things forever."
Hope it helps,
BB
