Chris Sajnog preparing to shoot a pistol

How To Stop Flinching When Shooting a Pistol

A lot of people will tell you how to stop flinching slightly when firing your pistol is a natural response to a literal explosion going off near your face and that there’s nothing you can do about it. They’re partially right – it is a natural response. But they’re wrong that there is nothing you can do about it.

How To Stop Flinching When Shooting

What Does Flinching Mean?

A lot of these experts do what most people do – they head to the range the first time, throw a few rounds down range and assume they know what they’re talking about. They assume that flinching is inevitable. I’m here to tell you that it isn’t and you can control it. How do I know? I don’t flinch at all when I fire. Nor do competition shooters, or frankly, anyone who is trained properly. You can get flinch-less firing down too.

Here’s what I want you to do to learn how to stop flinching when shooting: take the 30-day dry fire challenge. That means you don’t fire a weapon for 30-days. That can be really tough, especially if you’ve got a range in your backyard. You also might be skeptical because you’ve tried dry fire before and it’s never worked for you. What people forget is that muscle memory is a powerful thing that you need to practice and for me, I’ve found that it takes about 30 days to get there. Doing the 30-day dry fire challenge will help turn you into an MVP shooter.

Chris Sajnog holding a pistol

How To Stop Flinching While Shooting

Dry firing is really anything you can do to improve your shooting and learn how to stop flinching while shooting including manipulating the firearm in a different way.

That acronym stands for something specific – meditation, visualization and positive thinking. This sounds a little bit corny, but let me tell you what; truly great shooters know that these three items are key. Think about the shot hitting it’s intended target. Relax your breathing. Visualize the weapon in your hand with a clean trigger pull and know that your shot will hit it’s target. If you start thinking about how your shots always go low and left, you better believe your body will follow suit. Body follows mind.

Think positive, and you will learn how to stop flinching faster than you think.


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One Comment

  1. Thank you,I am a fairly new gun owner and began target practicing just recently. I have shot smaller 22 pistols and my last pistol was a 32 caliber revolver but now I have a S&W 40 cal M&P Shield. Big difference! I’m a 61 year old grandmother and I figure since I can (finally) put a round in the chamber of THIS pistol, I can also train myself not to flinch! Thanks for the tip,I’m starting dry shooting now..Let ya know in a month how it’s going!………..Melissa in Oregon

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