Posted: 4/9/2006 4:07:36 PM EDT
|
Couldn't seem to correct my flinching problem with my old Series 70. I gave up and put it away. Bought a .22 Ruger Mark III so I could see some bullseye success. After working really hard for about a month with the .22 at 25 yards, with some success, I had an urge to shoot the .45. So I got it out and immediately put a 1 inch group in the 8 and 10 rings at 10 yards. I was completely shocked! Even at 10 yards, I've never shot the .45 that well. I never really thought about it before, but this makes alot of sense. I Highly recommend this for anyone who's having a problem with flinching. |
| I hear you. My first centerfire pistol was a 9mm S&W 669. I had read it had mild recoil and was easy to shoot......maybe for some, but NOT me. It is a little shorty 9mm and it torqued in my hands pretty good and the muzzle blast/flash were impressive at the indoor range. I fought it for a while till I went to the range one day and a guy next to me was shooting a stainless Colt Gold Cup in 45 ACP. He was cutting nice size holes in a tight group at 15 yards with light loaded 200gr. SWC lead reloads. I commented on his groups and he offered to let me shoot his pistol. Man what a difference from my little 9mm. All shots were in the black and it was a pleasure to shoot. I sold that 9mm to a co-worker and bought.....a stainless Colt Gold Cup in 45 ACP. It is still my favorite pistol. |
+1 Flinching is nothing to be ashamed of. Every shooter who puts rounds downrange regularly will have to beat flinching sooner or later. If you haven't dealt with it and beat it yet, then you can look forward to doing so sometime in the future, because its a stage that we all go through, sometimes more than once. Personally, I've beaten flinching twice. I beat it once and got to the point where I was very accurate in slow fire and wanted to ramp up my speed. Started shooting faster and faster followup shots, taking a methodical approach, and then my groupings went to hell-- the flinch was back. Had to dial it back down and beat the flinching problem yet again. Dry fire practice helps alot, so does having the right mentality and knowing what to focus on. |
|
Yeah.......I also doubled up on ear protection. I think that also helped. Before working with the .22, my Series 70 and me were grouping (if you can call it that with an 8 to 10 inch pattern) about 6 to 7 o'clock about 4 to 5 inches low. This, at only 10 yards! One of the range managers was watching me shoot the Colt and had told me I was dropping the gun just before firing, another kind of flinch. After I couldn't seem to correct this, that's when I said "enough" and put it away. But the real key for me (I'm convinced) was the strong effort put toward hittin eye with the .22 at 25yds. Never having been any kind of marksman (just a can shooter from way back), I never even thought of trying to be accurate at that range. Now, the extra concentration and mental discipline has really made me aware of what it takes to be accurate and what it takes to think through the flinch of a .45. |
| There's something to be learned from going smaller, to a .22lr, but there are also lessons to be learned from going larger. When I bought my S&W 29 the recoil was just astounding. I don't know why anybody wants a .454 Casull or .480 Ruger when a .44 mag kicks bad enough to hurt my wrists as it is. But what I've learned from shooting that gun is to just let the recoil happen. I think sometimes we have this idea that if we only held on really really tight, we could make the gun kick less. If we pushed down and forward as we fired, we could cancel out the recoil to where it would be negligible. Shooting a .44 mag will break you of that idea. Its going to give you a bunch of recoil, all at once, and flip the muzzle up like crazy, no matter how hard you grab it, no matter how big a guy you are. So just let it happen and focus on your front sight and your trigger pull, because the rest isn't up to you anyway. |