" I would say that normally, the majority of flinching is caused by an explosion so close to someone's face."
I have to second this and surprisingly only mentioned once in 3 pages of discussion. A few years back I was at the SHOT SHOW range day with the opportunity to shoot a number of things that are a criminal offense in Canada. I sat down at a bench and hefted a 300 Win Mag with a suppressor. I had never shot a gun with a suppressor before. First round I had a slight flinch mostly due to anticipation of what might occur. But that first round was an amazing eye opener. On the rest of the shots I nailed exactly what I was shooting at with no flinch and a totally relaxed shooting stance. Then the big epiphany. Without that big explosion and noise I had no mental adversion. I reloaded the magazine and shot off another 5 rounds and was quite flabbergasted at not realizing the sound of a gun firing was way more adverse than the recoil. After that I started wearing ear plugs with ear muffs over top to minimize the noise and I found I was totally relaxed while shooting not fearing the big bang.
I also believe recoil is over exaggerated. My wife of 95lbs had never shot a gun when we married. I taught her to shoot trap but first spent a long time with minor caliber guns getting her mount and stance just right. It was not about the recoil. She doesn't flinch and the recoil never bothers her because she understands how to absorb it properly. And she occasionally shoots 3" steel waterfowl loads with no problem. I get a tickle when someone with a +125lb 12 year old kid is looking for a 410 so the recoil won't hurt him.
