FLINCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Willyp]

Every time I pull the trigger,on my new flinter!!!!!What can i do to help stop this??Please give me some ideas!!!!

[quickdtoo]

Practice aiming at a spot dry firing and getting used to the pan flash, just don't charge the barrel, that's what I did when I started with a flinter.  Follow thru with the shot is important with a flinter, an exaggerated hold will foil any hangfire you get, hold your aim well after the pan has ignited by habit, then when it happens, you'll still score. Shooting a flinter good takes focus and lots of practice, of course a well tuned lock and properly positioned touch hole goes a long ways towards making that easier too.

Good shooting,

Tim

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

Got this off another forum, Hope this helps.

If there is anybody reading this who isn't happy with their accuracy and hasn't tried practice shooting with a wood "flint", it is well worth your time. Actually, I reckon that it's worth your time even if you're absolutely content with your accuracy.

About this time last year, I received a Lyman GPR .54" in flintlock. I've shot about 150 rounds through it but quickly developed a flinch when trying to develop a hunting load. A few shooting sessions shooting the same load didn't help. Using a light powder charge produced a slightly less pronounced flinch, but it was still alive and well. Even just aiming and firing from the pan didn't eliminate the problem. Deer season rolled around and I didn't trust myself enough to take my flintlock out.

So finally, I cut a piece of wood about the same size as a flint, and went to work firing the rifle completely dry. Why I didn't do this ages ago is well beyond me.

In short, it only took a couple of 15-minute sessions and my flinch has disappeared. My first session was interesting. The initial few trigger-pulls made it clear just how bad my flinch was. (I consistently pull to the left and slightly down.) Ten-or-so tries, and I was able to hold the sights on target and "follow-through". The rest of the session was just practice. A couple of days later, and I flinched again on my first try in my second session, but that was it. Not a single flinch in my third session.

I just finished my forth session and am about to go outside and try dry shooting with the pan primed. Here's hoping it goes well.

My impression of dry firing (no powder at all) is that its a convenient, cheap, and very quick way of getting in some practice time. One can do it inside and in only a couple of minutes can pull the trigger as many times as in a decent range session. It makes flinching obvious because, unlike firing actual loads, you can actually see what's going on. Best of all, there's no clean-up when you're finished.

I'm so glad that I finally tried this technique. It's a wonderful tool to have in one's pocket and an excellent complement to range shooting. From here on out, it will be hard not to have a dry firing session whenever I walk past my rifles.

[fffffg]

  flinching is usually caused by slow ignition in flintlocks if you dont flinch in other guns..  use sharp quality black english flints,  try bevel up and then  bevel down, use black powder only, 4f in the pan,,  if the flash hole is too small this can usually be the problem ,..  drill with number drill bits staring at about .0625 and slowly go up to .078.  A white lighting flash hole is hard to instal and needs special tools but is the best..  I posted a long article on this but it didnt go thru.. check spark in a dark room, you should have lots of sparks going into the pan..  if not frizzen may need to be hardened or better flints,  or timeing work done on lock.     try differening amounts of powder in the pan, different sized flints,   you can also pick touch hole with toothpick.. i usually do this after it is loaded before i prime..   dave..

[Double 30]

Suffered from the same thing for years.Almost gave up on sparkchuckers entirely.I realized it is true that you cant flinch fast enough after the trigger is pulled.A typical flinter fires in 7/100ths of a second.The flinch is underway as you pull the trigger.I beat it with my T/C Hawken by noticing what my eye did when the set trigger tripped.My eye went right to the hammer as the sear broke . As the Pa. Game Commission now allows aperture sights on our flinters I mounted one and it helped alot as the disk blocks some of the flash.I also REALLY concentrated on the front sight and it did the trick.Proof of the pudding is the slightly piebald no balls( literally) button buck I nailed on the 27th with a 115 yard neck shot. Stick with it.Its ABSOLUTELY worth it.