I have a flinch

You'll know you're cured when you can see your 22lr bullets on the way to the target through your scope. I don't know if can be done all the time, but you can see them if the light is right.
 
I'm going to bump my own topic from the deep if that ok.

So far this summer I have been nailing gophers with a rim fire in what is almost a duplicate of my center fire rifle.

I noticed that as soon as I switched to that rifle the flinch went way with out even thinking about controlling it. So I believe that it is a noise induced flinch, though the only centerfire practive I havehad has been at a range where hearing protection has been required.

I shoot a heavy savage in 22-250 flavor which isn't a hard recoiling gun by any means so I've narrowed it down to being a report related flinch.

As of now, I'm working on shooting it with hearing protection, though that is very unconductive to hunting. It has helped, so far as I can tell with the unvolentary flinching, and I hope that by yote hunting season I can be rid of it for good.

 
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Craig, The only thing I can offer is to obtain some electronic ear muffs... They will cancel the louder noises and allow a magnification of low range noises as long as you don't turn the volume up to where it picks up the breeze/wind..You will probably be able to hear an animal walking through the leaves with them on..

It does take some 'getting used to' as far as wearing them when you are not used to them, but your ears are too important to not be protected... I know, as my hearing has been damaged from years on a firing range with ear protection and hunting as a kid without it..

When I'm in a competition, where there are numerous firearms going off, I'll have a pair of custom molded ear plugs and the amplified muffs over them so I can hear the range commands and still be somewhat protected..

Your ears and brain are telling you that the noise is "Too Much" and therefore the "Flinch" due to the pain...Listen to them..
 
I am no expert, but this is what the experts say.

Flinching and blinking are habits developed from reacting to the blast and recoil of the shot. The way to replace bad habits with good ones is to establish proper shooting techniques (hold, indexing, trigger release, follow through) while eliminating the negative effects of blast and recoil. And the best way to do this is by dry-firing.
Many believe that the only reason for dry-fire practice is to save money on ammunition, or save the inconvenience of driving to a range. Certainly these are worthwhile benefits. But even if you live next door to a range and have unlimited access to free ammunition, dry-firing should be a regular part of your practice. Military shooting teams, which have those resources available, still spend considerable time dry-firing. The reason: Dry-fire builds positive habits. This has been well-documented by the best shooting coaches.
Bill Pullum (Lt. Col., Ret., U.S. Army), who coached Olympic and International U.S. shooters to unparalleled success, wrote: "Shoulder jerks, eye blinks, flinches of all types, delayed reactions and false starts can all appear in the trigger-pull sequence... when they do, trigger-pull techniques usually must be relearned from the beginning. This conditioning practice is best accomplished by dry-firing, which is probably fifty to a hundred times faster than any other method" (Position Rifle Shooting, Bill Pullum/Frank Hanenkrat, Stoeger Publishing Co. 1973).
I dry fire all the time, It’s a good way to practice off hand shots (especially with my wheel gun), concentrate on making sure the cross hairs are on the same spot before, during and after the squeeeeeze. Try different breathing techniques.
Just my .33 cents worth.
 
+1 on the dry-firing. I dry fire A LOT, my wife thinks I'm just 'massaging my guns' but usually there is a method to my madness...sometimes I'm just massaging my guns!
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The trigger control should reduce flinching and it will do wonders for your accuracy too! LOTS of good info here, I've never flinched...I had a 300 Weatherby that kicked like a b*tch...took A LOT of focus and going through the motions (exhale....squeeze...click) to shoot that rifle without flinching.
 
A flinch is many different things to different people. Since I shoot alot of Trap I see guys that almost fall on their face when their Gun does not fire. Although it looks funny when they do it, it's not funny when you understand whats going on. I have seen guys at the critcal second not be able to pull the trigger to fire their Gun. What it boils down to is your body is telling you to stop what your doing to it. Most of what people consider a Flinch is the Body jerking your shoulder into the Gun as you squeeze the Trigger. Whats happening is your body is trying to counter act the pounding it is about to take. The other Flinch not being able to squeeze the Trigger. The only way to fix that is to go to a Release Trigger.

This was kind of funny to me but it also woke me up a bit. I shoot about 20,000 Shotgun shells a year when I am chasing the Trap Dream. About 4 years ago I wanted to start calling Coyotes again. So I got my Air Rifle out to start practicing around the yard. The first shot with my Air Rifle I almost droped it. My mind and body was still in Shotgun mode. It took me about a year of solid shooting before I slowed that flinch down.
 


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