I have had a 480 Ruger since July and absolutely love the bullet performance of the gun, but have a nasty habit of making the barrel "dive". Uncontrollably I force the gun forward and down when I squeeze the trigger causing me to shoot extremely low, I know that this is a reaction to the anticipated recoil. I have tried randomly loading the gun with 3 live rounds and 3 dead rounds and spinning the cylinder before closing and no matter how many times I do this I can't help but force the gun down.

Is there a good trick to prevent me from forcing the gun to dive while shooting?

You might try just loading 1 round in the cylindar and spinning it. You also might try loading some light loads for a while. It sounds like you may have some pretty hefty ones. That's ok for hunting, but as you can see, it can make for a bad case of flinchitis. Good luck.

I am loading the 325 grain Speer Gold Dot flat point bullets with 23 grains of Lil' gun. I do believe that 22.5 grains is a starting load for that bullet. I have not tried any lighter. I could probably reduce that by a few grains and try out the 275 grain, but thats all the smaller the bullets get. I have also played with the idea of using a lead bullet as you should load those a little lighter.

What would one load for a lighter load?

I try to always bring a 22 to the range, and if I start flinching, I switch to the 22 for a while until the flinch goes away.

I load a 310 gr cast over 9.7 gr of unique for my 480 practice loads, way, way less recoil than full patch loads.

The absolute best way to eliminate flinching is lots and lots of dryfiring. Dryfire 100 times in the morning, and 100 times at night, and your shooting will dramatically improve. Pick an aiming point that is a decent distance away, and you'll see exactly what you are doing wrong when the hammer drops.

I would practice at 900-1000 fps and build to max velocity.
I have a 475 Linebaugh Maximum that I load to 1280 fps using a 425gr Cast in 475 Linebaugh cases to practice,NO way could I get any decent practice at 1500-1600 fps.
Download until you build to the level you want to be at,assuming you handload.


Sean

I do load which helps with the lack of factory rounds. I am going to try reducing my load and maybe use a lighter cast bullet if I can find one.

Any suggestions for Lil' Gun as a powder.

The pushing, as well as other reactions to recoil, are mostly a mental thing. That is, they are usually both caused and conquered by the mind. My experience has been that when I start doing that (discovered in exactly the way you describe), it is beneficial to me to relax anmd fire a round with no intention of hitting the bullseye, but rather just to relax and let the round off and observe whether the effect on me is unpleasasnt, or results in injury, or what. Of course, with a .480, you do still have to retain control of the gun. Obviously, injury is not something you are looking for. But even if the experience is just unpleasant, you might consider doing something else. Of course, if it is only a little unpleasant, maybe you can let it slide. Ear protection is important. There are plenty of handguns whose bark is actually more unpleasant than their bite.

The key is relaxation, which is why you want to try it without aiming, first. Firing .22's, as suggested above, is also good.

You are basically anticipating an unpleasant event, and doing something about it. You need to convince yourself that the event is NOT unpleasant. If it is REALLY unpleasant, you should probably stop doing it.

The above, of course, is only my opinion of my experience. YMMV.

I'd also say once you notice a flinch, immediately stop shooting the big gun for the rest of the day. If you try and shoot on through a flinch by burning off however many rounds you have left, it'll be 100 times harder to get rid of the flinch. I know, I tried it, and I still have to work really hard not to flinch with a heavy sixgun. I've never had that problem with rifles, so go figure.

MThntr
Two suggestions;
One: load some light loads for your 480 Ruger.
Two: Buy a 22 revolver and shoot it a lot.

Limit full power shooting to a few rounds per session. You will not notice the recoil when shjooting at game unless the pistol bbl hits you in the face.

I have been shooting a 44 Mag since 1970. I recently bought a Freedom Arms 475 Linebaugh.
It is a BIG step up in recoil. I have shot 480 Ruger factory loads in my FA.
Both demand concentration.
Shoot a 22 and shoot light loads in your 480.
The more practice the better.

I think the .480 even with medium loads is a hell of a lot of gun. Recoil is tolerable only to a point,from there on it's no fun.
Personally I'd suggest doing a lot of shooting with a lot less gun. I shoot quite a lot of handgun and still find myself with the start of a flinch when I shoot my .454 Casull for more than a few cylinders full. I will then go back to one of the K22's or my K38. Concentrate on sights and trigger and the flinch goes away.
I've shot quite a few deer and a few elk with the .44 mag and it's worked fine. The .454 is more than enough icing on the cake. IMHO anything larger isn't needed for North America.

FN in MT

I second the 22.It always helps me with my 454 CASULL.
It is always funny how the 22 feels after 50 454 casull rounds.
Also try some snap caps or something in the same line,load your gun with it ,point it in a safe direction ,consentrate on your sight picture and sqeeeeeez that trigger.
Do you use ear protection,if not get some soon,half of a flinch is the blast and the noise assosiated with a revolwer,esp if it is ported.
Good luck
Johan

MThunter,

You are going to have to go to a faster powder than Lil Gun for practice loads. This is an application outside the intended use of this powder. Unique, HP38 or WW231 are all good choices for this application. Cast bullets do not necessarily need to be lighter in weight than what you are currently shooting.

I strongly, as have others, suggest you invest in a .22 rimfire revolver. It will not only help with your flinching problem, but offer many additional hours of enjoyment through increased hunting and shooting oppportunities.

Also, I suggest you take advantage of the considerable collective wisdom aand knowledge of the board and stop with the "Yes, but...."s. Some folks on this board were around when the color of powder was being chosen so please take advantage of their experience.

Thanks for all of the information about my flinching. I will have to get myself a smaller caliber revolver to practice with such as a .22 or .357 to shoot .38s.

To answer some of the questions and comments, I do wear hearing protection ALWAYS, even when shooting my bolt action .22LR. And to rebut on the Lil' Gun powder at the time I began reloading my .480, the reloading data that I could find was for mostly Hodgdon and the data for Lil' Gun wasn't that much different than the others.

I do not flinch with any gun from the bench or any revolver shot Creedmore from the side of my leg. None--zero! But when shooting offhand, if I reach an empty chamber I will see the gun dive a little. I really have to think a lot to stop it, seems as if the brain gets lost somewhere.
I had to laugh at my friend when I handed him my .475. He hit the first target. Every shot after that hit the ground closer and closer to him until he tore up the ground 10 feet in front of him. One went off too quick on him and he almost hit himself in the head with the barrel. Scared me! Now THAT is a flinch!

Make sure you have excellent hearing protection, plugs AND muffs. Then make sure your eye protection offers full coverage around the sides of your eyes. This is not expensive, wal-mart offers wrap around safety glasses that work perfectly. You want to have the same protection when you run a weed-eater. I have had revolvers in the .357 class spit out the sides of the cylinder gap and cause a flinch. Also the concussion of the muzzle blast is mitigated by the muffs and glasses. The smaller gun strategy is good, but the empty cylinder hole works mostly to identify the flinch. Good Luck!
Mike.
P.S. I vaguely remember some pro shooter at a metallic silhouette match (?) using a motorcycle helmet to shield himself from the muzzle blast of his compensated pistol.

quote:

The absolute best way to eliminate flinching is lots and lots of dryfiring. Dryfire 100 times in the morning, and 100 times at night, and your shooting will dramatically improve. Pick an aiming point that is a decent distance away, and you'll see exactly what you are doing wrong when the hammer drops.

This is the BEST piece of shooting advice I have ever read, after reading it, I ordered some snap-caps for my .44, found an aiming mark and snapped away, after a many strange comments from my wife about "shooting the place up" my flinch has gone and my groups have shrunk considerably, I even had guys down the range asking if I'm now bench resting it?