doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Continue to be hampered by flinch

I shot at Woods and Meadows SxS shoot with good friends. We are usually close but in the past I have been a few birds ahead, partly due to age. I am 72 and they are 80 or close. To their credit they shoot the same gun almost all the time while I am trying different solutions. My best scoring gun broke a few weeks ago. They both beat me soundly on the clays course and 5 stand. I think I used to shoot almost everything swing through with the occasional pull away. Now I seem to be all over the place. The flinch becomes obvious when my reloads fail to fire. Another problem, my Mec progressive 20 ga loader is seating primer too deep, how do I adjust it?

Buy factory loads ,anything that stops your flinch worsening is worth it ...if it gets bad you`ll not even want to shoot ....forget the dodgy reloads for now !

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Previous thread from 8-2020 and not much new to add.
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=577370

The pro golfers & MLB players cured of their "yips" are not sharing the method thereof
This might be of interest
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/...-to-do-it-again?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Probably time for a release, or a future of continued suffering and frustration.
Be sure you have not sifted dominance. Someone will be along to explain "90% of flinches are visual" and they are mistaken. What a flinch most certainly is not is ALL anything; recoil fear, focus, vision, grip, slapping vs. pulling, trigger pull, gun fit, performance stress, hold point or anything else, for everybody. And claiming "it's 90%" anything is simply wrong, and not helpful.
LOTS of things contribute to the dystonia, and many of us have found effective ways to suppress our flinching without a release (for me dealing with my cross-firing, firmly gripping the gun, intense focus, and low recoil loads) but as said over and over, usually a release will work (but often requires dealing with vision issues also) and we don't know why.

Slapping the trigger helped me overcome it. Literally having your finger barely off the trigger and then consciously slapping it to trigger the shot. Never flinched, not even once, when I remembered to do that. It's gone now. Haven't flinched in ages. So, there's hope. Just keep trying stuff.

My flinch was definitely not recoil related. Often any changes in my routine would see me go flinch free for awhile, even going from 1 oz. loads to 1 1/8 oz. loads. But, it would always come back. Until I started slapping the trigger. I'll always believe that the type of flinch I had was more related to a fear of missing. I literally wanted to break every single target, every time.

Slapping a trigger seemed counterintuitive to me, coming from a pistol and rifle shooting background. But, I can assure you (I punched into Master class while "defeating" the flinch) that it is not detrimental to shotgunning in the least.

Sadly, the one thing that eliminates flinch in my world, has been a 20 gauge Remington 1100. A 28 gauge 1100 works, too. I say sadly because I’d prefer to shoot just about anything else.

I had flinch sneaking in when I started shooting off my right shoulder, after fifty years of shooting left handed. I discovered it the same way you did, having the trigger selector in the wrong spot to make a single trigger work on the barrel I had chosen, and the gun not going off. I have made progress, believe it or not, by practicing my mount and pulling the trigger on an empty chambers in my dinning room, with a gun that is OK to dry fire, a 12 gauge Darne.

The old proverb “Getting old ain’t for sissies” is sadly true, as well. Best of luck to you.

Best,
Ted

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but being a flincher myself, I will testify there is no absolute cure for the dreaded flinch. I am 67 years old and have shot a shotgun most of my life. When I was young I almost never flinched. Now, it is different. My flinch is mainly 'trigger freeze' and I never know when it will happen. On a good day it may only happen once or none. A bad day, every 10 or so shots. I think taking your eyes off the target or even closing eyes just prior to the shot is a form of flinch. And then there is the off hand flinch where you pull the gun downwards. And then, trigger freeze which is the worst of the bunch, all being bad. I have slapped the trigger and that may help some, but no cure. A release trigger which I go back and forth to is best for me, but I can flinch with a release too, but only rarely, maybe once out of 250 targets in competition. Competition and the stress thereof make the flinch more prominent for me. I have a familial tremor and have often wondered if that carries over to flinching? I think it does imho. The best advice I can give is to look very hard at detail on the target just prior to and through the shot. Easier said than done, but I think that may help the most in mitigating the dreaded flinch/and trigger freeze....at least for me.. Good luck!

What works for me, what works for you, and what ends up working for the OP will likely all be different. I don’t think it is recoil that causes my flinch, but, it is much improved by using the 20 gauge gas gun that has almost no recoil. Nobody ever referred to an 1100 as svelte, and perhaps the extra bulk and heft are helpful as well.

I don’t know why, but, I do know it helps. Me anyway.

Good luck.

Best,

Ted

I wouldn't wish flinching on my worst enemy or even a democrat.
I tried all the "fixes" nothing worked except a release trigger.

I'd try to make progress off the clays range with dry firing. Try to use different muscle groups, for example making sure mount and grip pressures are consistent, and train to move the trigger finger, without the rest of the hand moving, much. Make sure vision is following the target, not the muzzle, maybe little wall targets at different distances and spreads, with maybe a swinging ball and a target or two on the big screen TV.

Then, off to the range, by ones self, and put it into practice. Many problems can be broken down to simpler components, and it might show a direction that helps. I believe it takes time and some commitment, and give yourself honest feedback. Make the process second nature again and put the focus on the target. Best of luck with it.