The list of things I tried to get over my flinch is very long. I tried a Hydra-coil stock thinking recoil was the problem. Changed gun fit, changed to semi autos, tube set, pump gun and side by side. Tried to a combination of custom ear plugs with ear muffs to reduce noise being told it was noise as a trigger. Tried five or six different tube sets. Switched from 28" to 26" to 30" and then 32" barrels. Tried a sight blinder to prevent cross firing. Removed the sights completely. Stopped shooting everything but .410 for everything. Tried shooting with only one eye open. Tried a spot on my non master lens to block that eye from seeing the bird when shooting. Went to several shooting coaches for help. Learned to use my middle finger instead of my index finger as the trigger finger. Tried shooting with a gun mounted, semi mounted and even from below the hip at the call. Learned to shoot from the hip without mounting the gun. Got fairly good that way but that was more trick shooting than a fix.
Then I stopped shooting for almost a year. My flinch was waiting for me when I returned. With nothing to lose I tried left handed. To be honest it was not that hard but I knew if I flinched left handed I was done. A .410 is effortless to shoot. After two years I tried shooting right handed again. The flinch was gone for the most part. Might show up once in a hundred.
Only when I tried to shoot at a exact spot on the field and failed to see the proper sight picture did I flinch. I practiced riding birds well past my normal shooting points so that I could chase them down well across the field, even all the way to the landing point in some cases. After that I learned how to withhold fire on my flinches and just ride them out.
Stan, my flinches followed me into the field. It was not recoil which was the entire cause but more a problem with not seeing the proper sight picture when my mind wanted to pull the trigger. I did not hunt for four or five years. Just by chance this was about the time the State released wild turkeys on my land with out telling me. My quail restoration, which had taken 20 years and almost six figures, collapsed in less than two years. I went from 13-20 coveys of birds every year, across four separate farms, to one or two in even the best years. My flinch for the most part never returned and neither have the quail.
