Friday, June 24, 2011

Mix some snap caps in

"Mix some snap caps in with your live rounds in the magazine."

What does this do for me in improving my accuracy (obvious value practicing for failure drills)?  I already know about the anticipation when I lose count with a revolver and try to fire the 'seventh' round.  So I'll see the anticipation again.  Then what?  Tell myself 'don't DO that' and move on?  I already tell myself that, too.

~click~ "Yup, I flinched.  That's bad, according to all the books.  Now what?"

Big recoil guns, then switch to lighter recoil?  Helps very briefly.  Shooting a .45 feels like a .22 after a few cylinders of .44 magnum.

Light recoil guns, then switch to heavier recoil?  Same thing, only backwards.

7 comments:

Carteach said...

Dry fire helps, after you can see the flinch for yourself. Muscle memory and concentration help get past the wobblies.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried doubling up on hearing protection(plugs and muffs)?

Anonymous said...

How about a shock collar?

Hand the remote to your shooting partner and have him or her zap you anytime they see a flinch.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. :)

Anonymous said...

Seriously though, does your shooting range have any sort of poppers, or a bowling pin shoot?

Maybe you need to stop aiming at bullseyes and try shooting at a reactive target where trying to hit an elusive dot is less important than just whacking the thing.

It might break you out of whatever mental rut you've got yourself into.

45er said...

The snap caps will highlight what you already know, but they are just an indicator of your progress. You are at the "unlearn" stage. You need to start the multitude of correct repetitions to unlearn a bad habit. That is where the dry firing and then slow trigger squeeze shooting will help correct the problem. The snap caps will help you identify if you are slipping back into the bad habit when you aren't really thinking about it. The dry fire drills over and over are the muscle memory learning time. That's what will actually begin to fix the problem. The snap caps will not fix it, they will just help identify your progress.

Murphy's Law said...

You aren't going to beat that flinch until you learn to focus on the front sight and it's position on the target to the exclusion of everything else and stop anticipating the report/recoil.

Come out with Old NFO some time and I'll teach you a technique that I just learned in Todd Green's Aim Fast, Hit Fast course.

Old NFO said...

45er and Murphy are right... Let me know and we can road trip out to Murph's place.