BEAT THE FLINCH

Do you flinch when you fire your gun? Most shooters will say no – and yet look what happens when they get a misfire. Without the anticipated noise and recoil, any tensing up and snatching the trigger is plain to see. Often they’ll feel foolish and laugh it off in the moment, rather than stopping to think about the problem it’s highlighted. There’s a lot of self-denial and shame surrounding the subject, with shooters not wanting to own up to being ‘soft’ or ‘frightened of the recoil’.

Let’s be clear that I am not talking about ‘trigger freeze’ here. That is a related, but different problem where your trigger finger locks up tight on the trigger with the first shot, instead of releasing again. That