Shooting Basics ...
How to Cure a Flinch
By Kathy Jackson
We've all done it. Mysteriously misplaced holes appear in the target. The holes
are low, below the bullseye, and usually fall left of the centerline. What in the
world could cause that?
A flinch.
A flinch happens when your muscles clench suddenly in anticipation of the shot firing,
yanking the muzzle of the gun downwards and off-target at the last possible moment.
It can be made worse by firing without adequate hearing protection, or by firing
large-caliber guns with unexpectedly solid recoil, or by firing guns that just don't
feel good in your hand. Every shooter on the entire planet has dealt with a flinch
at one time or another. There are no exceptions. It's the one universal experience
all shooters share.
Sometimes a habitual flinch can be created with just a single negative experience. I've
met more than one woman whose first exposure to shooting was when a jokester relative
handed her a full-power .357 Magnum, or a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with 3 1/2-inch
full powered slugs, and told her to pull the trigger without warning her what to
expect. Such a rough introduction to the shooting sports can create seriously negative
opinions about shooting, and often leaves an enduring flinch.
Since every shooter has dealt with a flinch, most shooters have some method of coping
with a flinch when one develops. It's worth listening to experienced shooters at
the range, and finding out what works for them. The only "solution" I
would warn you away from is the non-solution of mechanically adjusting your sights
so that the gun hits high and right when it is fired by someone without a flinch.
That's a range trick, not a solution.
Diagnosis
Diagnosing a flinch is not difficult. Sometimes you can feel yourself getting ready
to flinch -- that clenched, quivery feeling in your muscles right before the shot
fires is often a telltale sign. Another telltale sign of a flinch is when you find
yourself trying to yank the trigger during
the brief, magic moment that your sights are perfectly aligned exactly in the center
of the bullseye, rather than steadily increasing the pressure on the trigger while
holding the front sight as centered on target as possible, without worrying too
much about minor wobble.
The most certain way to diagnose a flinch is to fool your muscles into believing
that you are about to fire live ammunition, when in fact you are going to dry fire
the gun. Here's how to do that.
In order to diagnose and then cure your flinch, if you have a semi-automatic handgun,
you will need to purchase snap caps. Snap caps are inert ammunition-shaped objects
you can put into your gun. They are the same size and shape as your regular ammunition,
but usually come in bright colors. When a snap cap is loaded into your semi-automatic
handgun and the trigger is pulled, all you will hear is a click. Snap
caps are not live ammunition. They cannot fire, nor will they cycle the gun's action.
Safety Note
Be very, very careful not to allow your snap caps to get mixed
in among your defensive ammunition when leaving the range. That could
be Very Bad.
|
This works best if you have two or three magazines. Fill the magazine with a couple
of live rounds, a snap cap, a little more live stuff, another snap cap, and so on.
Randomly mix the number and order of snap caps compared to live rounds. If you only
have one magazine, have a friend fill it for you while you look elsewhere. If you
have two or more magazines, fill them yourself and then shuffle them around so you
do not know which one is which.
Using these specially-prepared magazines, on the range when the firing line is hot,
safely load your firearm as you ordinarily would.
To accomplish the same task with a revolver, you can either randomly mix snap caps
in with live ammunition in the cylinder, or you can randomly leave a few empty holes
where ammunition would ordinarily go. Before you close the cylinder, close your
eyes and gently rotate the cylinder. Close the cylinder without looking, so that
you do not know how the ammunition is lined up in your gun.
Now your firearm is loaded partially with real ammunition and partially with fake
ammunition which will not fire. The next step is to fire the gun. Line your sights
up on the target, focus on the front sight, and steadily increase pressure on the
trigger until the shot fires with a bang. When you get to a snap cap, instead
of a bang you will hear a click. And if you have been flinching, you
will graphically see the muzzle end of the gun take a deep dive instead of remaining
steady as it should.1
Having diagnosed the problem, it's time to write the prescription for curing it.
Prescription:
Dry Fire
The first and most important method of dealing with a flinch is lots of
dry fire. Be aware that dry fire can be very dangerous. If you have
never dry fired a handgun before, please read the article titled "Dry Fire Safety" before you go any further.
What is dry fire? Dry fire is going through the motions of firing the gun when there
is no ammunition in it. You can do this at home as long as you have a
safe backstop and as long as you follow every single one of the rules for
safely dry firing a gun.
If you are uncertain whether you can safely dry fire in your home, DON'T.
You can always safely dry fire on the range. There is no rule that says you must
always use ammunition at the range. It is perfectly safe and acceptable to dry fire
there instead. No one will be surprised, because good shooters often dry fire at
the range as one part of a regular practice routine.
Just as if you were firing live ammunition, you will grip the handgun properly,
align your sights carefully, and slowly increase pressure on the trigger until the
trigger's break point is reached. You will keep your eye glued to the front sight
and will continue to hold the trigger to the rear without lessening your finger's
pressure on the trigger for a full two seconds after the trigger has been
completely pulled.
As you focus sharply on the front sight during dry fire, you may notice that your
front sight wobbles a bit. This is normal and expected, not something to worry about
or fight against. If you watch the front sight for awhile, you will see something
interesting: no matter how badly your hand is shaking, the area on the target that
is actually covered by your "wobble zone" is really quite small.
Shooting Tip
Especially for firearms with long, heavy triggers, holding the gun very
firmly from the beginning often often serves to counter the human tendency
to pull the gun off target as the trigger is pulled.
|
|
As long as your trigger pull is smooth, every single shot will fall within that
very small wobble zone close to the center of your target. But if you try to snatch
the trigger back to get an absolutely perfect shot during the brief moments when
your front sight wobbles across the exact, perfect center of the bullseye, your
shots will land very low and much further away from the center.
Do not try to muscle the wobble away. The more you clench up, the worse the wobble
becomes. And don't try to race against it by snatching the trigger back. Simply
increase the pressure on your trigger while accepting the wobble for the normal
phenomenon that it is.
Even though you have accepted this normal wobble of the front sight, remember that
you are still trying to hold the front sight as steady as you humanly can. Don't
allow it to dip or sway as a result of your trigger pull. If you find your trigger
pull also pulls the sights out of alignment to the right or to the left, adjust
the amount of trigger finger you have resting on the trigger. Grip the firearm firmly
rather than loosely so that your non-trigger fingers cannot sympathetically tighten
and "milk" the pistol while you are pulling the trigger.
As you pull the trigger, you may be able to feel the tension within the trigger
mechanism increasing so that the pull feels heavier as the trigger gets further
back. Do not allow this to slow down the rate at which the trigger is travelling
to the rear. Instead, pull the trigger at the same speed during the entire process,
increasing the pressure upon it steadily until the trigger breaks to the rear with
a sharp click.
Never think about the trigger's break point, or about the shot firing. Let the hammer
fall surprise you, every time.
In order to keep themselves from thinking about the trigger break and to allow the
trigger break to come as a surprise, many folks find that chanting "front sight
front sigh front sight" helps keep their minds from trying to anticipate the shot.
This is an important step: after the trigger has broken to the rear, do not
take your finger off the trigger for at least two full seconds. Keep the sights
steadily on the target and continue holding the trigger completely to the rear while
you count one-one-thousand-two-one-thousand.
Try to dry fire for at least five or ten minutes every day or so.
Prescription: On The Range
On the range, try to do exactly as you have practiced in dry fire. Get the sights
lined up on the target, focus sharply on the front sight, and gradually increase
pressure on the trigger. Do not think about the shot firing. Do not try to "grab"
the magic moment when your sights are completely and perfectly centered on the bullseye.
Instead, accept that the front sight will wobble a little bit, and concentrate on
keeping it as steady as you can while you steadily put increasing pressure on the
trigger. Do not try to figure out when the shot will fire. Let that be a surprise
to you.
If you need to chant "front sight front sight front sight," do so. Anything
to keep your mind from anticipating when the shot will fire. You want the shot to
be a surprise to you.
Practice good follow-through. After the shot goes off, continue holding the trigger
completely to the rear while you line the sights back up and focus sharply on the
front sight. Count one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand while you hold the trigger
to the rear. Then and only then, release the trigger and allow it to come forward.
If you feel your muscles getting ready to flinch, take a deep breath. Then safely
unload your firearm, and practice dry-firing right there on the range until you
have settled down a little. Any time you feel ready to flinch, consciously relax
every muscle in your body except the ones you need in order to shoot safely, and
go back to dry firing until you feel ready to try it again.
Checkup
After you have fired live ammunition for awhile, it's time for a checkup. Mix snap
caps in with your regular ammunition again, as you did for the initial diagnosis.
This time, you are simply going to shoot the gun and keep shooting it. Since you
have been doing so much dry fire, you know exactly what the sights should look like
when you pull the trigger on an unexpected snap cap -- it should look and feel exactly
as it does when you were expecting to dry fire.
By the way, it's kind of embarrassing to find that muzzle dipping downwards so dramatically
when you come across a snap cap while firing. The only cure I've ever found for
that embarrassment is to conquer the flinch.
Prescription: More Dry Fire
Back at home, set up your safe dry fire area
again. You need to practice dry firing some more. This time you are going to do
something different: you're going to try balancing a coin on the front sight while
you dry fire.2
Lay a penny across the top of the front sight so that it is resting there. Then dry
fire as usual. Align the sights, focus on the front sight, and steadily increase
pressure on the trigger while keeping the coin balanced on top of the front sight.
Can you do it?
Practice until you can keep the penny balanced on top of your handgun during each
and every trigger pull, without fail. Make a game of it: instead of using a penny,
get a roll or two of dimes and use them. Every time a dime falls off, pick it
up and put it into your penalty jar -- and then get out another dime. When the jar
is full enough, you can use the contents to buy ammunition or professional
firearms instruction only. (No cheating ...)
Continue to regularly practice dry fire, especially when you cannot get to the range
for awhile.
Follow-Up Care: Regular Check Ups
Now that your flinch is under control, you should take your snap caps to the range
with you from time to time, to check on your progress and to prevent the flinch
from returning full force. Remember that you will need regular dry fire practice,
too.
Most shooters have recurring bouts of flinch trouble. This isn't unexpected or unusual.
It only means that it is time to focus on the basics once again. And now you know
what to do about it when it happens to you.
Previous Steps
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Except where otherwise noted, all articles and images on
this web site © 2006-2009 by Kathy Jackson. For permission to quote, please
contact author.
Disclaimer: The author of this
site assumes that you are an adult human being capable of making your
own choices and taking responsibility for same. If you are not an adult,
or are not capable of taking responsibility for your own choices, STOP.
Do not read anything else on this site. The author has made a reasonable,
good-faith effort to assure that the articles herein are accurate and
contain good advice, but hereby advises the reader that the author is
a normal human being who makes the normal number of human mistakes. Deal
with it. If it sounds stupid to you, don't do it. The author accepts absolutely
no responsibility whatsoever for anything you might say or do as a result
of reading any material on this site. Live your own life.