Drew,
I noticed your reference to your flinch, I don’t presume to know that much on the subject but would like to share my flinch experience as I had a fairly terrible time of it!
After Kathleen and I bought the Double Adobe Campground in 1990 we immediately started adding the trap fields as this was the clientele we were attracting. I built a 25’ flag pole with a draw rope in pulleys. The rope got fouled in the top pulley so I stood on the bottom pulley to try and shift the rope, it rolled and I fell only far enough to be impaled on the tie off cleat. I was hung through my right bicep about a foot off of the ground. Dr Susini told me the 3” tear was very close to the brachial artery and between muscles. The accident messed up the nerves in my right arm pretty bad, when shooting I would have a strange delay and stutter on trigger pull. I best described it as a small electric shock. This created my first FLINCH. I was shooting an old straight stocked Model 32TC but flinching badly.
As the owner/operator of a fledgling shooting facility I felt that I better figure out how to keep shooting—in comes the release triggers first a single Perazzi then my doubles Beretta EELL and so on. I did fine, made the 27 yard line and a number of 100 straights. We sold the operation after 17 years. My interest in competitive shooting waned as I revisited my collecting of vintage Remington’s especially clay target/bird guns.
I love my “oldies” but had an awful time trying to shoot them, I have actually stepped off of the shooting post while flinching! Very funny for my buds watching—not too fun looking from my view point! Pulling the triggers was tough and double triggers were nearly impossible.Too long shooting release triggers although my bird guns are all pull.
After so many years of talking and reading about nerve damage I felt that some degree of restoration had occurred to my right arm. I decided to remove all my release hooks, sell off the triggers and guns (buy more Remingtons) and do my best to learn to shoot double triggers.
I decided that if I wanted to continue shooting shotguns I needed to take an aggressive adjustment to the way I shot. I figured I would try to re-wire my brain and years of muscle memory. The first thing was to not shoot the guns that I had been shooting with release triggers even though they were converted to pull. It seemed like the feel of the fit prepared me to the “old ways”. I pasted a mock doubles trap house and set of 4 targets on the front of my gun safe, I make my gun mount then move to shoot the first target while pulling the front trigger—then make a good move to the second target as I pull the back trigger. All this is done as I shift my weight and execute the two shots just as if I am shooting the pair. I don’t cock the gun just pull/move/pull dead triggers. I mount and shoot 50 targets (25 pair) twice each AM, this plus my stretching and light dumb bells for shoulder mobility. Over the last few months I have been doing this with my 32TC as it feels good, I’ll change to the FE when the stock is finished.
I think the exercise has helped me a lot. I have been shooting 25 straights often and shot a 94 in a registered competition a couple of months ago. I know that I can and will flinch once in a while if I am not focused on the shot. When I do I ignore the result as if I got a broken target or no bird. I avoid shooting any of my guns that have hard triggers, the 32TC and FE have very smooth ones. I hope to stick with my rehab program until I feel totally comfortable and automatic with the double trigger guns.
Mike
