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Think I failed this season

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Joined
Nov 26, 2008
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Been shooting the heck out of my first flinter for awhile now (.45 pedersoli kentucky) But I am not happy at all with my accuracy, My groups are around 6in at 60 yds. I know I am flinching like an unruly dog caught in the garbage! I try not to but I can feel it. I have gone through several sizes of patches with same results. Having fun trying but not good enough to hunt with yet. So I will have to go back to a capper for this season DRATS! I am trying to shoot .445s because the .440s are illegal in this state. Oh well I am learning quiet a lot on here and will keep trying until I get it right.
 
I am just like you, struggled with my GPR flinters (2 of them) for about 15 years or so. Even went so far as getting the L&R RPL lock to replace the factory lock. No luck. Then Zoni said something in a post that I tried, “focus hard on the front sight and ONLY the front sight!”, and next trip out to the range I did exactly this with the L&R equipped GPR. My success improved dramatically and the flash essentially went away. Now I purchased a custom flinter equipped with a quality, tuned lock and now I fully understand what everyone says when they talk instantaneous ignition.
Keep at it, when things come together it is very satisfying.
Walk
 
About all I can suggest is, when your shooting your flintlock, keep all of your concentration on the front sight and to a lesser extent, the fuzzy target in the background.
Don't think about the gun shooting. Don't think about the sound of the frizzen or the poof of the prime. Don't think about restraining the gun. Just "let it do it's thing, in its own time". You shouldn't have any idea at all about when it's going to fire so don't anticipate it.

Front sight on target> pull trigger > concentrate on front sight alignment. That's it. That's all you should be thinking about. Nothing more. Ideally, the only thing you should notice is the gun pushing back against you while the front sight begins to rise above the target but you won't know when this is going to happen and you are doing nothing to try to restrain it when it does.

It isn't easy. There are so many things happening almost all at the same time but if you can ignore them all, and keep your mind focused on the front sight your groups size should become smaller and you will be happier.
 
1sthound, your first step is to work on addressing the flinch. Make a wooden flint so you can focus on sight alignment while all those sounds and feeling of trigger creep, the sense of the hammer fall and the movement of the frizzen. All the while, concentrate on the sights as Zonie described. Start off with 3 dry fires. Work your way up to 10 and keep with the practice. When you can hold the sights on target for 3 seconds, you can go to the range. If you flinch at the range, go back to the dry firing. Shoot from a rest. Get comfortable with the rifle. Read everything on this forum relating to flinching.

You haven't failed yet, you just need practice in eliminating flinching.
 
About all I can suggest is, when your shooting your flintlock, keep all of your concentration on the front sight and to a lesser extent, the fuzzy target in the background.
Don't think about the gun shooting. Don't think about the sound of the frizzen or the poof of the prime. Don't think about restraining the gun. Just "let it do it's thing, in its own time". You shouldn't have any idea at all about when it's going to fire so don't anticipate it
.

At the police academy they would teach the guys not doing well with their revolvers, by placing a quarter on the flat on the barrel rib. Then you concentrated on dry firing without the quarter falling off. You can replace the flint with a piece of hardwood, and do the same by laying a quarter flat on the octagon barrel, just behind your front sight. Then aim at a spot on the wall, and squeeze off the shot with the empty flinter and the hardwood replacement for the flint. Try to concentrate on the spot that's the target and don't let the quarter fall off.

LD
 
At the police academy they would teach the guys not doing well with their revolvers, by placing a quarter on the flat on the barrel rib. Then you concentrated on dry firing without the quarter falling off. You can replace the flint with a piece of hardwood, and do the same by laying a quarter flat on the octagon barrel, just behind your front sight. Then aim at a spot on the wall, and squeeze off the shot with the empty flinter and the hardwood replacement for the flint. Try to concentrate on the spot that's the target and don't let the quarter fall off.

LD
Would this practice method work as well on a percussion rifle as well? Think this would help on jerking the trigger?
 
Loyalist Dave's method will work on a percussion rifle, flint pistol, percussion pistol, smooth bores and revolvers that have a flat spot to rest a quarter. Yes, it will help with trigger control too.
 
Well...you can still hunt with it, just know your limitations and limit your shots to where you are comfortable. If you can only shoot at 40 yards, you are still better off than bow hunters!
And always, always, use a rest when you can. There is no reason not to.
Dan
 
I have to think, at first, to hold my head down through the ignition. I know it's only a microsecond between the pan flash and the ignition, but I'll move my head off the stock if I don't concentrate.
 
Regardless of the firearm, there are four fundamentals (or so says the Army): sight picture, steady hold, trigger squeeze, and breathing.

As said, get a good sight picture. Focus on the front sight all the way through the shot.

If off-hand, make sure you are in a proper stance with the rifle supported. Off a bench or sandbags, just resting on your left hand (for a right handed shooter). Cheek weld to the stock in exactly the same place every time. It should be comfortable. Find something for a reference. Butt in the crook of my shoulder and cheek on the rest works for me. Right hand same place on the grip, trigger finger same spot on the tip of the pad.

Squeeze, don’t jerk the trigger. Even more important with a “creepy” trigger. Don’t worry about when the ignition system fires. Just a steady squeeze.

Some inhale and let off half a breath then squeeze. Some exhale fully the take a half breath and squeeze. The point is to relax and do the same thing every time. Every time you breathe, your chest and body moves. You want to fire with the same rhythm each shot.

Instead of a quarter, we used to use a dime on the barrel of our service rifles. If you could dry fire and not drop the dime, you had a steady position and good trigger pull.

Works with flinters. I’ll pick one up randomly, aim at a spot on the wall or leaf out the window, and follow the same dry fire routine. I burn up some flints but flints are cheap.

I’m not a competitive marksman by any stretch. But I like to shoot and hunt. I want to know where my rounds are going to hit.

Once you’ve got yourself tuned up, work on tuning your powder charge, patch, lube, and all combo. I started with Dutch Schultz’s system then found what works for me.

Keep at it! I’m constantly surprised at how well these old fashioned guns can perform.

Paul
 
I often have to repeat to myself " it's not gonna hurt me" because sometimes I can feel anxiety coming on.
You also can pressure yourself to much trying to get the result you seek.
Stop shooting at paper, put some water jugs or tin cans out and have some fun.
I will look for game vitals sized targets and take a shot just to see how I do. Try it.

B.
 
Another thing to try is double hearing protection. It makes a big difference for me. Ear plugs under muffs makes almost all of the noise go away, and really keeps the nerves calm even when shooting those fire breather guns. Anyone have any period correct ear muff designs?;)
 
Another thing to try is double hearing protection. It makes a big difference for me. Ear plugs under muffs makes almost all of the noise go away, and really keeps the nerves calm even when shooting those fire breather guns. Anyone have any period correct ear muff designs?;)
Hornets nest wadding.
Walk
 
I will tell you how to shoot a flint lock. It is the total truth. You have to become brain dead and shut down. :D I relate it to telling the wife something that I know she blanks out about. Maybe why women can shoot, everything upstairs closes down.
Now with any gun you shoot, never stop breathing while acquiring a target because your eyes fail first. Only the last half second is a breath hold.
The only thing else is a flint should fire as fast as a percussion if tuned.
 
Well thanks for all the ideas folks, I am thinking just maybe part of the problem is that hard trigger pull it has, I feel like when it lets go I am yanking off target because of all the pressure applied? I am thinking I will give my GPR .50 flint a try because it has a much lighter trigger. I only fired that one very little because I liked the .45 better for handling and never cared for the super curved butt of the gpr (and its a heavy bugger). And to answer a few questions yes I have eye protection and hearing also. As far as a 40yd limit It will not work in the area my permit is good for. The area is very open so I need more range like 70 or so. I will start over with the gpr and see what happens. Thanks again.
 
Everything that's been said so far. The front sight is never still, it moves around on the target in something like a figure eight. At least in my case the quicker I fire the better the shot. Holding that rifle up for much longer than a few seconds will give me the "shakes". So as the front sight weaves its figure 8 on the target I start the trigger pull as it begins to cross. The rifle may go off a micro-sec early or late but will mostly be in the black and often centering around the bullseye. But you DO have to keep focus only on that front sight.
 
Well thanks for all the ideas folks, I am thinking just maybe part of the problem is that hard trigger pull it has, I feel like when it lets go I am yanking off target because of all the pressure applied? I am thinking I will give my GPR .50 flint a try because it has a much lighter trigger. I only fired that one very little because I liked the .45 better for handling and never cared for the super curved butt of the gpr (and its a heavy bugger). And to answer a few questions yes I have eye protection and hearing also. As far as a 40yd limit It will not work in the area my permit is good for. The area is very open so I need more range like 70 or so. I will start over with the gpr and see what happens. Thanks again.
A pants trigger on a rifle is no good.
Get it sorted or you won't do any good!
I will spend months on a trigger until I am happy.
 
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