doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Flinch

I fixed the formatting and added to some of the posts

It is repeated over and over in Forum discussions that "Most flinches are visual" ie. “Most people who flinch are covering the target with the barrel and while searching they panic and pull the trigger.”

https://www.trapshooters.com/thread...-flinch-when-trap-shooting.876235/page-3

https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/flinching-and-recoil-reduction.549686/

These polls would refute that claim, although clearly some flinches are visual

https://www.trapshooters.com/thread...-primary-discipline.936142/#post-9140491

https://www.trapshooters.com/thread...-primary-discipline.936141/#post-9140435

You got some typical & expected grumpy "Trapshooter" responses. Haha!


I believe my flinches are eye/brain disconnects. Eyes say "good"...brain says "nope!"

If it's a fast target no issues. Slow target with lots of time to see with mounted gun, happens sometimes.

I don't ever remember a flinch when shooting game.

Not a result of recoil. I shoot large bore rifles without any yip. Most of my 12ga target loads are 7/8oz @ 1225fps. I sometimes shoot 1oz @ 1200fps


I was surprised to see Barkley continue his swing after the glitches. Would thing he'd start over with such a delay.

Agreed. Me, too. The biggest thing I did to help myself is to make myself "slap the trigger". As a competition target shooter for much of my life, pistol and rifle, I had pretty much perfected the type trigger pull necessary to be competitive at it. It is exactly what you should NOT do with a shotgun. Every time I told myself to slap the trigger there was never a flinch. I believe the difference in telling myself "don't flinch" and telling myself "slap the trigger" is the difference between a negative thought and a positive one. My LMS flinch on clay birds is 99+% gone since I began this. And if I remembered to tell myself that more often, until it became ingrained, I believe it would be 100%.

Interesting. In these non-statistically significant polls, compared to trapshooters, skeet and sporting clays shooters do appear to be more likely to have a visual flinch; 55% vs. 43% as their primary flinch.
Not sure how release triggers "cure" visual flinches.

I shoot release triggers because I find them easier than a pull trigger, although I can shoot pull triggers with little problem. I shoot competition skeet, trap and sporting. I flinch at times with both a release and a pull, usually due to a visual disconnect with the target; it seems that most often it happens when my hold point is too high and the shotgun barrel is obscuring the target. It seems I flinch less with a release than I do a pull trigger. I have a bad right shoulder that causes me pain when shooting and I think knowing what’s coming causes me to cringe, if not flinch, sometimes. I’m having rotator cuff surgery in 2 weeks so no shooting x 4-5 months. Fingers crossed it helps.

Good luck with the surgery. I had the same back in late November. It is a long, slow, and somewhat painful recovery.

I'm a helice shooter fighting a flinch, currently trying double release triggers, the first trigger is coming around ok, second trigger not so much.
I have now shot 8 thirty bird rounds of helice and have only had 2 second barrel kills.
Wish I had tried release/pull first.
Having my stock fitted made my flinching worse and I always float the bird, so I never lose sight of the bird.

Flinching is awful and makes shooting not as enjoyable, I haven't flinched a single time with release triggers, but my scores are worse because I can't seem to master that second shot.

I had my right shoulder rebuilt over ten years ago. It was so bad I could not throw a ball 15 feet. Within a year I was back to throwing a ball in the low 80's. Played in an old mans baseball league the second year. Wish I had done it ten years sooner. The PT was not fun and follow the PT closely. Doing 100 instead of 30 is not smart. You are building strength and range of motion, not things which can be rushed by doubling up PT. My other shoulder now needs a little work, but that is just bone spurs needing trimmed and should be easier. In and out in a few hours and a few weeks PT for full recovery.

My flinches started out from recoil. Thinking I was going to Africa, I shot a few thousand .375 and .458 rounds, mostly .458. I cringe just thinking about them now. But I did it and ended up with a great flinch which transferred over to my shotgun shooting. It took years to get rid of it. Went to shooting left handed, using my middle finger for my trigger finger and went to shooting only .410. Tens of thousands of .410 later I switched back to right handed and using my normal trigger finger. I would have a rare flinch even then, but they were always a visual, sight picture issue. It did not look right and I flinched trying to get the right sight picture. Today I doubt I have more than a finch or two a year and am very happy to be past them.

You may not have time to set the second trigger for Helice. I shot flyers a few months ago trying a double release and I found just that, not enough time to set the trigger for the 2nd shot, so I put a pull/pull trigger back in my P-gun. However, next time I go to a flyer shoot I’m going to try release/pull which is clearly the fastest of all the triggers. Back in the old days I shot R/P. I’ve never shot helice but I’d like to try it (after rotator cuff recuperation). Good luck.

Jon Kruger shoots a release trigger now, as I think you know, Buzz. But, he does it in a totally different way than most. Most people pull the trigger to set it, then call "Pull", then release it. He does nothing with it until he's ready to shoot, then pulls it and releases it, quickly. Whatever works, eh?