Flinching?

I’ve begun sighting in my recently-completed Traditions Kentucky flintlock kit rifle. Front sight doesn’t look 100% centered, but it was close enough to give it a go. As photo shows, all shots hit right of bull. (Target was at about 40 yds-max range for my eyesight, and plenty for woodland deer hunting.) My question is, if & when people flinch, is there a usual direction of the flinch? I’m a left-hand shooter, but am using right-handed rifle. I don’t think I flinch, but I DO notice the flame/whoosh/BOOM! Do I need to work on my sights or my shooting?

If you move that target up and a little to the right you’ll be fine.

I just focus on front sight and target and my flinch went away. Hope that helps.

Follow through matters. Hold. Hold. Hold.

And squeeeeeeze the trigger. Let the rife surprise you when it goes off

airiest-falcon0n said:

I’ve begun sighting in my recently-completed Traditions Kentucky flintlock kit rifle. Front sight doesn’t look 100% centered, but it was close enough to give it a go. As photo shows, all shots hit right of bull. (Target was at about 40 yds-max range for my eyesight, and plenty for woodland deer hunting.) My question is, if & when people flinch, is there a usual direction of the flinch? I’m a left-hand shooter, but am using right-handed rifle. I don’t think I flinch, but I DO notice the flame/whoosh/BOOM! Do I need to work on my sights or my shooting?

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Both, if you notice the flash you probably are flinching to some extent.
Move both front and rear sights to minimize offset of both for windage adjustment.
Use a bench and sand bag rest to establish elevation, windage , group center and size.

It can make a differences what side the sun is on. We tend to see one side of the sight better than the other if you're not shooting from shade. The other side of the sight being in the shadow makes you crowd windage way or the other.
I've also seen Barrel Mirage bend the front sight after a few shots.

And if your front sight looks to be a little left of center, by all means, move it to the right a touch.

Freedom said:

It can make a differences what side the sun is on. We tend to see one side of the sight better than the other if you're not shooting from shade. The other side of the sight being in the shadow makes you crowd windage way or the other.
I've also seen Barrel Mirage bend the front sight after a few shots.

And if your front sight looks to be a little left of center, by all means, move it to the right a touch.

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I have found this (sun positioning on sighting) to be true with aperture sight shooting at longer range out to 600 yards but have never noticed it with muzzle loader open sight shooting which is generally limited to a maximum of 100 yards and generally not over 50 yards with most targets being shot at 25 yards. Some of this is attributable to front sight profile/shape as well and wither it is hooded or not like on the Lyman 17-A front. The rear sight can be effected (but much less so in my opinion) as well depending on shape and aperture size.

Have a helper with you when you shoot to either prime the pan , or not. Then hand you the rifle, you'll know soon enough if you flinch or not. Could also have someone video you while you shoot and review the film. I've found with flintlocks continuous practice is needed. If I dont shoot for a month or more I can tell a difference in my shooting.

All good suggestions! I especially like the “is it primed or not”-trick! Thanks, all. It’s weird-sometimes I definitely saw a flame, but usually just a puff of white smoke. Only 1 shot was noticeably delayed by a beat. The rest were pretty simultaneous.

I’ve done a lot of the lock polishing I’ve read about on these forums-definitely helped! Again, thanks all. I’ll get serious and actually (try to) measure centeredness of front sighT.

take a .22 rifle with you to the range. Every once and a while shoot the .22 after the flintlock. You will see if you have developed a flinch.

Fleener

airiest-falcon0n said:

I don’t think I flinch, but I DO notice the flame/whoosh/BOOM! Do I need to work on my sights or my shooting?

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It's your attention and focus ...

If all your focus is on that front sight and where it is when the triger breaks and through the follow through ... you'll never see the pan flash. I too am a lefty and now have a lefty flintlock, but I still shoot RH'd snaphaunces, wheellocks and matchlocks ... and I've never seen any pan flash from any of them.

If you watch some YouTube videos of people shooting rifles offhand, and concentrate on watching the muzzle against its background, you'll see that when they flinch, it'a always down, so the flinch is probabaly an involuntary recoil anticipation, and can be trained away by dry fire practice.

airiest-falcon0n said:

I’ve begun sighting in my recently-completed Traditions Kentucky flintlock kit rifle. Front sight doesn’t look 100% centered, but it was close enough to give it a go. As photo shows, all shots hit right of bull. (Target was at about 40 yds-max range for my eyesight, and plenty for woodland deer hunting.) My question is, if & when people flinch, is there a usual direction of the flinch? I’m a left-hand shooter, but am using right-handed rifle. I don’t think I flinch, but I DO notice the flame/whoosh/BOOM! Do I need to work on my sights or my shooting?

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If the front sight is not centered....

Center it.

You could be chasing your tail otherwise.
There is not, "good enough."

Yes, there is a general direction of people's shots when anticipating the shot. Generally it is in the direction of their support side, and often down,,,,, but not always.

Center your front sight. If we take you out of the equation, and if your front sight is not centered, it looks like the front sight is too far left causing the gun to shoot to the right. Then shoot from a bench. Properly. This should take you out of the equation while you adjust your rear sight if there is still deviation.

Yes I just had to reset my front sight, must have bumped it at some point.

Difference between hit and miss.

when I decided to try flint I struggled until my mentor told me to put away my percussion gun and not even pick it up again......it worked !

It's just me but I would try adjusting the sights to move the impact. Looking at the group of shots it's obviously shooting high and to the right.
If that group is caused from flinching, you are flinching consistently.

I concentrate on my sight picture, front sight on the target and having fast lock time is the other part of the picture. Concentration is the whole thing, you won't even see the flash in the pan!

Holding the trigger back during the recoil emphasizes follow through and helps me to not flinch. I do this will all shooing disciplines. With a ML, I let the recoil happen, hold back the trigger, and freeze my position. The gun comes up while I am still otherwise frozen in the same place I was before the shot. It looks very exaggerated.

With modern rifles in rapid fire strings I let the trigger reset only when I am back on the 10-ring after the previous shot. This trick is huge to eliminating flinch or rushing.

Remove the flint and insert a hardwood flint instead. Dry fire. Dry fire. And dry fire some more concentrating on follow through for each 'shot'. That's what it took for me to transition from percussion, and I'm still working on it.

Shoot, shoot and shoot some more. Practice makes perfect.

Piquant said:

Shoot, shoot and shoot some more. Practice makes perfect.

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This is for right handed hand gun, single hand griping not rifle.