DMK said:
This might help:
How to Stop Flinching or Anticipating When You Shoot a Pistol
[...]
No, that's not the problem at all, at least in my case (and I suspect, in ALL cases). I've always done a LOT of dry-firing, and have gotten where I can hold the sights perfectly still, on target, before, during , and after the hammer drops. I can also achieve a perfectly linear increase in finger force on the trigger, over a total interval of time according to my choosing in advance (from several seconds total to only a quarter-second or so), so that I CAN'T predict exactly WHEN in that interval the hammer is going to fall (and thus, NO flinch is POSSIBLE). But when I get to the range, it is NEVER like dry-firing, no matter how potent or mild the recoil is. IF your brain knows that a bang is about to happen (no matter how mild), it behaves differently than when it knows that only a click is about to happen ... THAT'S the amazing thing!
My current strategy is to load 5 dummies and only 1 live round, open and randomly rotate the cylinder (with my eyes closed) after EVERY trigger pull (with the just-fired round (if any) replaced with a live round). That way, on average I'll get 5 clicks for each bang. I always know that it MAY WELL go bang on every trigger squeeze, and the flinch will thus be there. And when you're expecting a bang, and get a click, the flinch (if you've got one) will be VERY obvious. My hope is that by being repeatedly embarrassed by that ridiculous flinching motion, it'll eventually go away out of pure shame.
To be practical, this procedure requires having a revolver (that can be shot SA) ... unless you've got a friend standing next to you repeatedly chambering either a dummy or a live round in your semi-auto (during which your eyes are closed), handing you the gun, and being ready to repeat the process each time you pull the trigger ... you'll probably run out of friends pretty soon. I use my heavy 686 (40 oz) shooting .38 special American Eagles (very mild and relatively cheap), with the relatively heavy 4-5lb stock trigger. The relatively heavy trigger makes it easier to sense and confirm that I'm getting a nice linear increase in force on the trigger during my chosen "shooting window of time", compared to the very light triggers I want on my carry guns.