Ive got a terrible flinch, how do I fix it

[trickg]

My wife had this problem... awesome with a .22LR, but crap with the .40. I tried everything (coaching, snap caps, mixed snap caps and live rounds, etc.), but the flinching remained. Then I found the cure-all: a suppressor. Throw a can on the gun and she turns into freaking Annie Oakley. Turns out she was just scared of gun's report. Once we tamed that and she felt how little the recoil really was, the problem evaporated.

Prolly helps that the can adds some weight to the gun, reducing recoil a bit.

While adding a suppressor might "work" or at least help some, (it would also reduct muzzle flip considerably) I didn't really see that as a great solution - that's a lot of money to throw at a problem that should probably be addressed in other ways.

 

[MDlocal]

Grow a set of balls and man up

 

[Travis Bickle]

I went to the range yesterday and shot about 100 rounds of 9mm because thats all I had available. Before touching my steyr s9 I went through a few hundred rounds with my sr22. Then when shooting the steyr in 9mm I found that I wasnt flinching at all and was shooting groups almost as good as my sr22. Im really happy about this but have no idea how it happened. Im not sure if switching between the sr22 tricked me into not flinching or if maybe the remington umc I was shooting was loaded to a lower pressure and made me less jumpy but I was spot on yesterday. Either way I find it hard to believe I just got over this in one day. There's got to be another factor at play here. I'll see if I can repeat it whenever I can find some decent priced 9mm.

 

[Harabec Weathers]

I went to the range yesterday and shot about 100 rounds of 9mm because thats all I had available. Before touching my steyr s9 I went through a few hundred rounds with my sr22. Then when shooting the steyr in 9mm I found that I wasnt flinching at all and was shooting groups almost as good as my sr22. Im really happy about this but have no idea how it happened. Im not sure if switching between the sr22 tricked me into not flinching or if maybe the remington umc I was shooting was loaded to a lower pressure and made me less jumpy but I was spot on yesterday. Either way I find it hard to believe I just got over this in one day. There's got to be another factor at play here. I'll see if I can repeat it whenever I can find some decent priced 9mm.

Great news!

 

[Blaster229]

This is great news! Now i can tell you that I had my 17 year old daughter not flinching in about an hour shooting a ruger .38, p229 in .357 and ultimately an MP5.
Easy peasy.
Now take all the snap cap suggestions and work on your smooth trigger pull by dry firing.

 

[MikeTF]

Outstanding news! I have a .22lr conversion kit for my SIG P228. I am a cheap bastard so I mostly shoot .22lr out of it. When I switch up to 9mm the first several boxes of ammo don't have me flinching. If I shoot a couple 100 rounds more, I can see a flinch creep back in. I then switch back up to .22lr to get rid of the bad habits and confirm that I've done so by shooting one last box of 9mm.

 

[Ranger Tom]

I went to the range yesterday and shot about 100 rounds of 9mm because thats all I had available. Before touching my steyr s9 I went through a few hundred rounds with my sr22. Then when shooting the steyr in 9mm I found that I wasnt flinching at all and was shooting groups almost as good as my sr22. Im really happy about this but have no idea how it happened. Im not sure if switching between the sr22 tricked me into not flinching or if maybe the remington umc I was shooting was loaded to a lower pressure and made me less jumpy but I was spot on yesterday. Either way I find it hard to believe I just got over this in one day. There's got to be another factor at play here. I'll see if I can repeat it whenever I can find some decent priced 9mm.

This is good news, but you have to figure out why it happened. Next time shoot the nine first and see if you repeat past success.
And hopefully you are using hearing protection, not only to reduce flinch but to save your hearing!

 

[Travis Bickle]

Outstanding news! I have a .22lr conversion kit for my SIG P228. I am a cheap bastard so I mostly shoot .22lr out of it. When I switch up to 9mm the first several boxes of ammo don't have me flinching. If I shoot a couple 100 rounds more, I can see a flinch creep back in. I then switch back up to .22lr to get rid of the bad habits and confirm that I've done so by shooting one last box of 9mm.

I guess this is what happened to me. I was switching between the ruger sr22 and the steyr s9 every couple of mags. Although the two pistols feel nothing alike it still seemed to work

 

[S&W19]

Snap caps work, and I also got used to it with a revolver. When at the range, I'd mix spent cases with live ammo in the cylinder. When I hit an empty, I realized just how much I was anticipating the recoil and then I adjusted accordingly.
With good steady trigger pull, it should surprise you when it drops. It has to in order to be accurate.

 

[5.56blaster]

Shoot........a lot!

 

[annihilation-time]

Shoot........a lot!

This really is the best fix.