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Anticipating recoil of pistol...how to get past it

R

Roadblock

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So I'm basically anticipating recoil and starting the act of bringing the pistol back on target prior to the round leaving the barrel. I know I'm doing it and if I shoot for awhile then do it with a snap cap or just dry fire- it's really obvious. At 30 feet I'm consistently 6 inchest down and left...with very poor grouping.

Being "suprised" by the firing of the gun only seems to help so much as I have a fairly decent idea of where my finger is when the gun fires so I am still expecting it.

Likewise it's a function of recoil, but not a fear of recoil. I do it "a little" with my .22 and "a lot" with my 9mm.

The irony is my groups tighten up signficantly and get closer to on target if I fire fairly rapidly.

Any suggestions other than "keep practicing"? Or is this just something I have to practice through?
 
Put your total focus on the front sight, the sight does not move from the target no matter what, total focus, your whole world is the front sight. If your properly focused you won't even feel the trigger squeeze.
 
I have the same issue. I went shooting last Sunday and noticed that making a concerted effort to "stage" the trigger helped me significantly. Although, maybe it's just me getting more familiar and comfortable with my pistol.

I think of it as getting the "yips" when on the putting green. The anticipation of whats about to happen causes slight muscle twitches. Therefore, like putting, getting the putter (trigger) to a repeatable position during the back swing (staging the trigger) allows muscle memory to take over on the downswing and follow through (slowly squeezing rather than pulling).


Make any sense? Or have I just had too much coffee this morning?
 
JohnFH said:
Put your total focus on the front sight, the sight does not move from the target no matter what, total focus, your whole world is the front sight. If your properly focused you won't even feel the trigger squeeze.
Click to expand...

Exactly!
You will hear of the ball and dummy drill, which helps, but if your eye stays still you will have a better outcome. Keeping the eye still on the front sight helps to keep your wrist and hands from taking over.
 
Dry fire and relax. Stop worrying about limp-wristing! Concentrating on relaxing prior to the shot then concentrate on the front sight. Don't worry about follow up shots until you can get the first one doing what you want it to do.

Release your grip between shots and 'shake off' or some such to relax.
 
A lot of issues will cause you to shoot low and left, pushing with your trigger finger, pulling with you weak hand, push the gun away as you fire.

Don't try to control the gun, put the sights on the target, press the trigger. know where the shot went by where the sights were when the shot broke
 
Roadblock said:
So I'm basically anticipating recoil and starting the act of bringing the pistol back on target prior to the round leaving the barrel. I know I'm doing it and if I shoot for awhile then do it with a snap cap or just dry fire- it's really obvious. At 30 feet I'm consistently 6 inchest down and left...with very poor grouping.

Being "suprised" by the firing of the gun only seems to help so much as I have a fairly decent idea of where my finger is when the gun fires so I am still expecting it.

Likewise it's a function of recoil, but not a fear of recoil. I do it "a little" with my .22 and "a lot" with my 9mm.

The irony is my groups tighten up signficantly and get closer to on target if I fire fairly rapidly.

Any suggestions other than "keep practicing"? Or is this just something I have to practice through?
Click to expand...

Just keep shooting. You'll get through it. I had a period of time where I was doing that and couldn't figure out why. It went away.

At least you understand it's not the gun.
 
Place a penny on the front sight and dry fire the gun. Works best if the gun has a safety you can toggle, since you dont know what to expect.
 
Underwhere said:
Just keep shooting. You'll get through it. I had a period of time where I was doing that and couldn't figure out why. It went away.

At least you understand it's not the gun.
Click to expand...

I disagree. This is not something you want to fight through, you'll will be much better off learning the correct mechanics up front, otherwise you will revert back to poor habits under stress
 
It is such a mental game -- getting your mind past the.....BANG.

Back in the day when I shot competitively in the Marine Corps with Marine Security Forces we had a shrink come talk to us about the mental aspect of shooting. One of the odd things that he pointed out to us that stuck with me is how studies have shown that the mind actually "shuts down" when the round is fired. It is that violent. It is nothing to be concerned with from a health standpoint; it’s not going to kill you. But because of that up-coming…… BANG -- we tend to flinch, jerk, slap, anticipate the shot being fired.

It is such a mind game.

Your mind knows the bang is coming.

The best advice that I can give to you is to shoot more often and to really focus on the slow steady movement of your trigger finger, the creep in the slack, more than the upcoming…….. BANG. That’s easy to say, but hard to do. Dry firing, and live firing with unknown dummies in the magazine definitely help.

However, when you boil it out in the end.... it's all in your mind. [laugh]
 
TheWookie said:
The best advice that I can give to you is to shoot more often and to really focus on the slow steady movement of your trigger finger, the creep in the slack, more than the upcoming…….. BANG. That’s easy to say, but hard to do. Dry firing, and live firing with unknown dummies in the magazine definitely help.

However, when you boil it out in the end.... it's all in your mind. [laugh]
Click to expand...

Yup. I've taken my brother shooting a couple of times. This last week we went again and he was all over the place, anticipating, jerking the trigger, etc. I had him do this and he was getting everything right in the center. Then he went on to start ringing the steel plate. So I asked him when he was going to get his license. [smile]
 
Supermoto said:
I disagree. This is not something you want to fight through, you'll will be much better off learning the correct mechanics up front, otherwise you will revert back to poor habits under stress
Click to expand...

Plus 1. You'll end up with a killer flinch that you'll spend years getting over.

Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire. The Wall drill. Do it 10 minutes a day. Every day.
 
Supermoto said:
I disagree. This is not something you want to fight through, you'll will be much better off learning the correct mechanics up front, otherwise you will revert back to poor habits under stress
Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying; having a proper understanding of the fundamentals of marksmanship is key. But after that, nothing works out problems like live firing. You can dry fire, and talk fundamentals until the cows come up -- but shooting time is key to figuring it all out. But it's also important to be quality shooting time,, not just shootin time - if you know what I mean. YEe ha...... [wink]
 
Next time you go to the range have someone else load your magazine for you and slip in a few dummy rounds with live ammo. I'm still working on this but it has helped me a lot.
 
Supermoto said:
I disagree. This is not something you want to fight through, you'll will be much better off learning the correct mechanics up front, otherwise you will revert back to poor habits under stress
Click to expand...

I think it seems like he understands the correct mechanics but can't perform.
Sounds like a mental block to me and I think the best way to get out of it is to get more comfortable with the gun by shooting it...so you think less, shoot more.

Personally I think he if takes the time to overthink it, he'll end up as a ball of sweat every time he pulls the trigger.

The basics are important, but if you're afraid to pull the trigger it does you no good.
 
If it's different depending on caliber, it's all mental. Are you trying to put follow-up shots downrange? When I want to shoot two into one target, I have to tell myself to slow down and let the front sight come down by itself.

Shooting faster is just compensating for your pull-down trying to line up the sights on target again. Maybe shoot at targets stacked on top of one another, to try to ingrain that it's OK for the sights to move up?
 
Last edited:
I do ALOT of dry fire - 50 dry fires per day with my DAO Sig, and 50 dry fires with my SAO Kimber 1911.

I keep them nice and steady. When I get to the range...anticipate recoil like crazy. However I did find that my Sig is not sighted like I thought per another thread.

My plan is to rather than shoot 50 rounds of 45 and 100 rounds of 9mm every 2 weeks or per month, I will shoot less, but every week and take my time to shoot it. When I buckle down for the last few mags, I do better, and I will incorporate dummy rounds into every mag.
 
TheRoland said:
If it's different depending on caliber, it's all mental. Are you trying to put follow-up shots downrange? When I want to shoot two into one target, I have to tell myself to slow down and let the front sight come down by itself.

Shooting faster is just compensating for your pull-down trying to line up the sights on target again. Maybe shoot at targets stacked on top of one another, to try to ingrain that it's OK for the sights to move up?
Click to expand...

I think adding stacked targets is just going to complicate things. Try firing a few rounds into the berm with no target. Just watch what the front sight does. You may be amazed at what you can see with no distractions. Then focus on seeing where the front sight is on the target when it lifts off and calling your shot.

I've found that doing bullseye slow fire and confirming my shot call with a spotting scope after each shot has done wonders for my shooting. I've come around to the belief that shot calling is THE fundamental skill.
 
I've been working through a similar problem. What first convinced me of the benefits of dry fire was putting a snap cap on top of a magazine with five rounds below it. I would dry fire maybe a dozen or two dozen times, concentrating on keeping the front sights on target. Then I would rack the slide and fire the 5 shots (not quickly or anything). Those five shots were remarkably accurate compared to my previous shots without dry fire practice. So with enough dry and live fire practice, it'll become natural.

So now I never take a trip to the range to practice without including dry fire.
 
Been there, dealt with this. I slowed my trigger squeeze down until the the flinch happen before the gun went off. I could then control it and worked my way past it.

Dry firing is really good at getting the good habits set without that pesky recoil getting in the way. And won't cost you a single round. It is also worth doing.

Ball & Dummy exercise also works, and is especially good for diagnosing and gauging improvement.
 
I used to shoot a lot of trap and not a lot of handguns. Just enough practice so that I could hit a bg if I had to.
The other night with my .40, I was putting some tight groups on the target but they were a little low and left. I changed my grip based on something I had read and suddenly everything was in the black.
I'm going somewhere for lessons. Nothing compares to a good foundation and knowing the basics.
 
n1zfg said:
Been there, dealt with this. I slowed my trigger squeeze down until the the flinch happen before the gun went off. I could then control it and worked my way past it.

Dry firing is really good at getting the good habits set without that pesky recoil getting in the way. And won't cost you a single round. It is also worth doing.

Ball & Dummy exercise also works, and is especially good for diagnosing and gauging improvement.
Click to expand...

+100!!!!!

This is a great excercise and helped me considerably!
 

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