Some months ago I asked for help on this list [Bullseye-L] in my struggles with the 45. I received many helpful and encouraging replies. As a result, I’ve kept at it and kept at it until enough things finally started to work that I’ve gotten past that early frustration. I’m still well down in Marksman-land for sure but, every now and then, there’s a glimmer, a single target, that suggests what’s ahead.

Shooting, I’m beginning to suspect, is like riding a bicycle. Intellectually you know what you have to do but as long as you have to think about it, you’re gonna crash.

(Posted to Bullseye-L.)

I’m really struggling with the 45.

Any tips on ridding myself of flinch and anticipation? (I occasionally catch myself closing my eyes now, too. Argh!)

Background

After going pistol shooting with some co-workers, I became interested in target shooting. My first pistol was a Ruger New Model Blackhawk in .357 calibre with the stainless steel finish. I immediately liked the really big noise that it made and ran through a couple of boxes of ammunition before deciding that 1) this could get expensive at approximately $0.25 per “bang”, and 2) I wasn’t hitting where I was aiming except on rare occasions, and didn’t know why. Talking with my friends and the other shooters, I discovered what “flinch” meant, and I had it big time. I learned that as I pulled the trigger, I knew when the gun was going to go off and my body was reacting in anticipation, and in a protect-myself manner, just before the hammer actually fell. That reaction was pulling the gun away from the middle of the target and I was never going to hit what I thought I was aiming at with any semblance of regularity.