Thoughts on why he shoots to the right.

My SIL is a good shot with his musket and Lyman GP. He is respectfully consistent with decent scores shooting the two aforementioned cap locks. He has been shooting my 44" Golden Age 54 cal, Hadaway flintlock for sometime now, but always shoot to the right. The rifle has set triggers. sights that he likes, and good lock time. He doesn't appear to be flinching. Thoughts on improvement would be appreciated.
Larry

Follow through. Or position/stance. Try moving front foot an inch left

Has he shot off the bench to verify the sights?

He's probably paying too much attention to the flash in the pan. As @Tom Compton suggests, @Larry (Omaha)'s SIL should be paying attention to the front sight and concentrating on follow through until he can ignore the pan flash.

I’m real right eyed and with plain v and blade sights shoot pretty fair groups to the right. This started for me about 2010, I think it’s my sight picture, I’ve concentrated on it but even from a rest it’s there

Perhaps where the trigger finger is placed on the trigger, As you did not mention left or right handed shooter I assume right handed to much finger on the trigger could be the problem, As he pulls the trigger to much finger will pull the gun to the right,Tip take a marker and draw a line on the pad of his trigger finger half way between the end of his finger and the first joint, this is where you want the finger to be on the trigger.

Tom Compton said:

Follow through. Or position/stance. Try moving front foot an inch left

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Thanks Tom, he was already told that by a very good flintlock shooter friend. SIL says it is not comfortable. I will emphasize he was told again!
Larry

appalichian hunter said:

Perhaps where the trigger finger is placed on the trigger, As you did not mention left or right handed shooter I assume right handed to much finger on the trigger could be the problem, As he pulls the trigger to much finger will pull the gun to the right,Tip take a marker and draw a line on the pad of his trigger finger half way between the end of his finger and the first joint, this is where you want the finger to be on the trigger.

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Right on, good advice, but I don't think this is the issue as he does not shoot right of center with his cap locks. Good reminder though!
Thanks!
Larry

you're palming the gun stock with your right hand the tighter you hold the more to the right the miss(I had the same problem) support and hold only with the left hand and barely touching the stock with your right (I don't even wrap my thumb around the wrist)and just slow squeeze of the trigger all the balance and hold in the left hand you see this in unsupported shooting but not from the bench

Larry is there any cast off built into the stock.

appalichian hunter said:

Larry is there any cast off built into the stock.

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None! Good thinking, as that could have been an issue.
Thanks.
Larry

My flintlock rifle (with set triggers) will miss to the right for two reasons that I think are related; too much finger on the trigger and jerking the trigger. As previously posted, if I use more than the tip of my index finger to pull the trigger, the shot will go right. If I don't squeeze slowly enough, same thing, a miss to the right. Using just the tip of my finger reminds me to squeeze slowly.

appalichian hunter said:

Perhaps where the trigger finger is placed on the trigger, As you did not mention left or right handed shooter I assume right handed to much finger on the trigger could be the problem, As he pulls the trigger to much finger will pull the gun to the right,Tip take a marker and draw a line on the pad of his trigger finger half way between the end of his finger and the first joint, this is where you want the finger to be on the trigger.

Click to expand...

Yep, milking the trigger.

Larry (Omaha) said:

My SIL is a good shot with his musket and Lyman GP. He is respectfully consistent with decent scores shooting the two aforementioned cap locks. He has been shooting my 44" Golden Age 54 cal, Hadaway flintlock for sometime now, but always shoot to the right. The rifle has set triggers. sights that he likes, and good lock time. He doesn't appear to be flinching. Thoughts on improvement would be appreciated.
Larry

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First thing he needs to do is get on a bench with some sand bags and make sure he is seeing the sights correctly and that it is not a flinch. If the sights are correct for him then get him dry firing with a wood flint and breaking the shot on target then holding through the movement until the sights re-register on target. This trains the sub- conscience to hold through the shot cycle.

Larry (Omaha) said:

My SIL is a good shot with his musket and Lyman GP. He is respectfully consistent with decent scores shooting the two aforementioned cap locks. He has been shooting my 44" Golden Age 54 cal, Hadaway flintlock for sometime now, but always shoot to the right. The rifle has set triggers. sights that he likes, and good lock time. He doesn't appear to be flinching. Thoughts on improvement would be appreciated.
Larry

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Must be a Republican rifle!

Flintlocks are funny. When I shoot my Son's flintlock I get great groups one inch to the right and one inch down. Put it on a bench rest and it shoots dead center. My flintlock, just fine. Who knows?

rafterob said:

Flintlocks are funny. When I shoot my Son's flintlock I get great groups one inch to the right and one inch down. Put it on a bench rest and it shoots dead center. My flintlock, just fine. Who knows?

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Interesting!
My SIL is very frustrated, but we have received some good pointers so far and hopefully he will be able to start hitting center. I did not mention this before, and am not sure it could be part of his issue. I have always shot .535 RB, but my SIL uses .530. cuz it loads a little easier.
Larry

Larry (Omaha) said:

He doesn't appear to be flinching.

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Verify that first. The best way is to load the gun behind his back (so he can't see you), then hand the rifle to him in a ready to fire state, run that drill several times,, then randomly, don't load or prime the gun and hand it to him in a ready to fire state, a flinch will be visible if you do it that way.
The same drill is used to help correct a flinch if it's present.
Another cause of shooting right is a "peek", it's an anticipatory muscle movement of wanting to see where the shot went.
As mentioned, that's where follow through training comes in, put those sights back on the target

Favor left!

Larry (Omaha) said:

My SIL is a good shot with his musket and Lyman GP. He is respectfully consistent with decent scores shooting the two aforementioned cap locks. He has been shooting my 44" Golden Age 54 cal, Hadaway flintlock for sometime now, but always shoot to the right. The rifle has set triggers. sights that he likes, and good lock time. He doesn't appear to be flinching. Thoughts on improvement would be appreciated.
Larry

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You did not mention if he is right or left handed? Is he left eye dominant or right eye dominant? I am right handed, but left eye dominant. When I shoot long guns I must close or cover my left eye. If I don't my left eye instinctively takes over and I will shoot to the left.