First let me start off saying what a great site this is. I got a lot of useful input on my first post so I figured I’d try it again. I recently started shooting a Ruger SRH 44mag. I asked the guy who helped me where I bought the gun to recommend some ammo. I explained to him that this was my first large cal handgun and I wanted to hunt with it by next season. I plan to reload my own rounds but wanted to start off with a light factory load. (I needed the brass). He suggested some 240-gr. rounds. I have shot 2 boxes at about 50 ft in the last two weeks. 90% off a rest. 90% of them 2 hands. I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn! After about 40 round I took the scope off (must be the equipment right). Open sites on a rest was no better. So I tried something. I loaded 3 fired rounds and 3 live rounds. Spun the cylinder and closed it without looking. Set the gun on the rest, pulled the trigger and jumped 3 inches even though the gun just went click!! I have sense repeated this about 30 times. When the gun fires I don’t notice the flinch but when it clicks I still have a noticeable jump. Any ideas on how to fix? I bought a box of 180-gr. bullets but they don’t seem any better.

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First let me say thanks to all who posted so many great ideas!! I have tried most all of them. My wife wasn’t to keen on the idea of using the TV as a target. I told her I was KING of my castle and if I wanted to shoot at the TV then that’s what I was gunna do!!.
When I woke up I picked my gun and myself off the living room floor and went into my gun shop in the cellar.
There I set up a TV to aim at.

I have been dry firing about 50-100 rounds a night. Thursday I went to the range and noticed some improvement at first. After about 30 rounds I was back to old habits. So I think the key is going to be more dry fire practice and fewer range shots till I get more control. I also ordered some supplies to reload with. I plan on using 2400 and some Berry's Preferred Plated Bullets 44 CAL 180 GR FP. I wondering how low can I safely go with the powder? I don’t want to get a round stuck in barrel. I was thinking of loading them up at about 80% of the 44 spec. Any ideas??

don't worry, you will get better. it just takes lots and lots of practice. shoot as much and often as you can. you may want to try 44 special cowboy loads for practice as they have little recoil to make you flinch. use these and work up to the magnums as you progress. also, keep the range short at first and step back as you improve. another thing that helped me immensely are snap caps. buy yourself a set of 6 and have at it. while watching tv or sitting in the backyard i would pick out an object in the scope and practice trigger control while keeping the crosshairs on target. you will soon develop muscle memory that will help avoid flinching. i did this for weeks on end....several hundreds of times and it helped greatly. don't worry it won't hurt the gun....it's a ruger. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE GUN HAS SNAP CAPS IN IT AND NOT AMMUNITION BEFORE YOU START!! also while at the range, put in a set of the foam ear plugs and then wear ear muffs over them. some experts claim that most flinching comes from the loud explosive sound of the round being fired and that the body tightens when it anticipates that sound. don't know how true it is but you may want to try anyway..plus it'll save your ears. hopefully all or some combination of these ideas will help you out. they did for me. but don't worry, everybody was in your boots at one time or another. happy shooting!!

AH yes the flinch. Well most of it is mental, it's the bodys natural reaction to the recoil and noise. My first handgun years ago was a Dan Wesson super mag in 357 Max. The first time I pulled the trigger I thought WOW!! I thought it was the worst I had ever shot. Over time and a lot of practice it became one of the most pleasent guns to shoot in my arsenal.

What helped me with the flinch was by first shooting the gun with my eyes closed. Concentrate only on your hands and what you feel. You can now judge just how much the gun kicks. Most find out that the recoil is not as bad as they thought. It's usually the blast (noise) that makes them flinch. Once you realize that the noise is the worst part, provided that you have proper hearing protection. You can usually settle down and start to concentrate on the target and sights. In time you will be shooting and not even notice the noise or recoil.

Time to go back to the basics maybe. Got a double action revolver about the same heft as your SRH in .22lr.?? Can you borrow one? Practice with whatever you can come up with, just keep iron sights on it, they keep you more focused on sight picture. You'll soon learn which type of trigger control works best for you, slow squeeze or a quick press, whichever disturbes your sight picture the least.

Keyman (non sibi sed partiae)

I agree with using snap caps and 22s, I've been shooting my 475s for about three years now and still flinch if I don't concentrate, I put my snap caps when I'm in the house watching tv, this may sound strange but I'll watch hunting shows on OLN and the Outdoor channel and I'll pick an animal on the screen and concentrate on squeezing off a shot before the animal or the camera man moves, I guess it is kind of like the DART system for archers

hntrjohn, have you tried it with your scoped guns, I found it helped me a bunch with target aquisition, especially when I first started scoping my handguns a couple years ago

Sure have--I own very few firearms without scopes(Old eyes)
I have found that by doing this I have learned to aquire my target faster thru the scope and I also learned that bringing the gun up on target rather than down or straight out to target helps to aquire sight picture faster, especially with the smaller objective scopes. I have snap caps for nearly every firearm I own and they get a lot of use. I also get out the Stoneypoint sticks and practice using them while sittin in front of the boob tube, I even go so far as to wear a pair of gloves occasionally to get the feel of cold weather shots. Practice,practice,practice.

I'm glad to know that I'm not as eccentric as i thought i was and that someone else benefits from the same type of practice

Watching hunting shows and using the animals as targets to practice quick trigger let off????? Sniff.....and I thought I was the only one. Gee... sure is bright outside this here closet! Thank you my brothers.

Keyman

Aiming at game on the TV...you guys are nuts...if I did that my wife would think I were crazy. I stand at the bedroom window and aim at the deer walking around in the yard! Spring and summer are great times to "practice" when the fawns are running around and playing. Tigger called me one time when I was sitting at the window scope some bucks after the season had gone out!

Jt, this is what I did for my hunting buddy, he has a T/C in .44. Can hit s***, with it. SoI loaded or unloaded the pistol for him, and had him hold the pistol like he was going to shot it.sight pic everything,But I was the one who pulls the trigger@!! That got him over the flinching!! hope that helps Richard..

One thing that will help too is to reduce the amount of blast that your ears perceive. If you aren't already doing this double up on your hearing protection. Foam plugs on the inside and a set of good muffs on the outside. Overcoming the flinch is 100% mental. I would keep loading empty chambers and keep practicing. I would also dryfire 30-40 times per day. For now don't worry about sight alignment concentrate with all your might on squeezing the trigger and nothing else. It might help to close your eyes and imagine the target and sight alignment when you're dryfiring (do not do this during live fire for obvious reasons). After all, if you're flinching, what good is worrying about the sights?