Sons flinching… Help!

[Bgoodman30]

So my 10 year old son has 3 deer under his belt. 2 from a borrowed 243 and one from my MZ. All perfect shots…

So I got him a Savage 243 with a "Weaver" scope on it and he's now 0-3 with this gun. Watched these deer all clean misses dirt fly up around it…

I had him shot a target today sitting and I was shocked when he shot the dirt 25 yards in front of him…. He's a small guy around 60lbs and I think he's flinching and pulling the shot…. Not sure what to do to get him back on track???

 

[Remi]

Assuming the rifle is zeroed and accurate I'd start with a 22lr and shoot a bunch.

When he's hunting does he have hearing protection on? If not the noise could be an issue.

If the rifle doesn't fit him good then he may be getting more recoil that he wants.

An AR in 223 with a 6 position stock and some good ammo is never a bad choice for kids.

 

[Jcalder]

I like the 22 idea, and find him a fast twist 223 and some 77gr tmk and have him find his groove. Breaking one from flinching is tough.

 

[younggun308]

Load him some empty brass without telling him and see if he flinches

 

[huntntrap]

Maybe the trigger is to heavy for him

 

[knightrider]

Which model savage? Sounds like you need to get him back to basics on the 22 and if he isnt wearing ear protection it would help tremendously if he was

 

[EastTNHunter]

Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire

 

[backyardtndeer]

Maybe the trigger is to heavy for him

Was thinking the same, especially if he is pulling the shots low.

My wife's savage is a little older model from around 2000, trigger job on it was pretty easy.

 

[JJ3]

Which model savage? Sounds like you need to get him back to basics on the 22 and if he isnt wearing ear protection it would help tremendously if he was

Exactly this. My daughter was flinching bad and also was just reluctant to pull the trigger when she was 11 and I finally figured out it was she was anticipating the sound knowing it was going to hurt her ears. So I put her in ear muffs while hunting and on the range. And at the range I got her shooting my 22 a lot putting scope on target. After she'd shoot 50 - 100 rounds, then I'd get her to shoot the 243 once or twice. The ear muffs made a huge difference and the 22 built her confidence.

 

[Bambi Buster]

...................

If the rifle doesn't fit him good then he may be getting more recoil that he wants.

An AR in 223 with a 6 position stock and some good ammo is never a bad choice for kids.

^^^^^This^^^^^^

 

[Lone Hunter]

You might also want to go to a monolithic bullet. Try a Barnes 80 gr or such. Or Hammers Bullets (never tried them but they are monolithic) Recoil is much lighter and they penetrate great with mono's. You could also load some 55 grain bullets and load them down and let him shoot them and then load the heavier bullets for deer but only let him shoot them at deer. That way he won't be scared of the recoil. I also would make sure a kid always had hearing protection on as this causes a worse flinch than recoil.

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

I developed an awful habit of flinching when
I was younger. For me it was all about the loud boom. Ear protection was still an afterthought back then. It's taken a lot of shooting a .22 for me to break myself and every once in a while I still catch myself flinching, but nothing like I used to.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Assuming the rifle is zeroed and accurate I'd start with a 22lr and shoot a bunch.

When he's hunting does he have hearing protection on? If not the noise could be an issue.

If the rifle doesn't fit him good then he may be getting more recoil that he wants.

An AR in 223 with a 6 position stock and some good ammo is never a bad choice for kids.

Yes I shot it a couple weeks ago and wasn't super impressed with grouping around 2"s. Thought it may be the cheap scope. My 20 yo 30-06 with leupold still dead on..

So his first 2 deer were from a traditional wood stock 243. I setup an AR with a Diamondback on it and we took it once but he had trouble getting on a deer. Didn't seem to like the fit….

Yeah the 22 is a good idea. I actually started him when he was 7 with a pellet rifle never shot a rifle before just for this reason. I was scared to death of this happening and now here we are…

 

[Bgoodman30]

Maybe the trigger is to heavy for him

Not sure it's a youth model?

 

[Bgoodman30]

Which model savage? Sounds like you need to get him back to basics on the 22 and if he isnt wearing ear protection it would help tremendously if he was

Axis. Yeah he had muffs on

 

[ScLowCountry]

Go to the range and shoot the gun yourself, then do they empty brass trick, then also have him shoot a gun with a known good trigger if you find the trigger on his gun to be heavy

 

[Bgoodman30]

Exactly this. My daughter was flinching bad and also was just reluctant to pull the trigger when she was 11 and I finally figured out it was she was anticipating the sound knowing it was going to hurt her ears. So I put her in ear muffs while hunting and on the range. And at the range I got her shooting my 22 a lot putting scope on target. After she'd shoot 50 - 100 rounds, then I'd get her to shoot the 243 once or twice. The ear muffs made a huge difference and the 22 built her confidence.

Yeah sounds like this is what I have to do!

 

[backyardtndeer]

Not sure it's a youth model?

These work really well for what they are
Amazon product ASIN B004E4CZE2

 

[Bgoodman30]

You might also want to go to a monolithic bullet. Try a Barnes 80 gr or such. Or Hammers Bullets (never tried them but they are monolithic) Recoil is much lighter and they penetrate great with mono's. You could also load some 55 grain bullets and load them down and let him shoot them and then load the heavier bullets for deer but only let him shoot them at deer. That way he won't be scared of the recoil. I also would make sure a kid always had hearing protection on as this causes a worse flinch than recoil.

I won't be doing any loading but I look for these…

 

[Bgoodman30]

I developed an awful habit of flinching when
I was younger. For me it was all about the loud boom. Ear protection was still an afterthought back then. It's taken a lot of shooting a .22 for me to break myself and every once in a while I still catch myself flinching, but nothing like I used to.

I developed an bad flinch myself several years ago when I had the awful idea of getting a Mossberg 835 for turkey hunting.. It cost me several birds… I know what's happening and sure as heck don't want my son to go through what I did….