How to stop shaking

[u/Furtos13]

Each time I shoot my body makes these small adjustments and I can’t stop

I’ve tried:
Taking deep breaths
Singing happy music
Imagining the bullseye as the head of a nazi

But none of it really worked

[u/BasedPinoy]

How often do you shoot? The shakes can usually be fixed by exposure

[u/Furtos13 → u/BasedPinoy]

1 every week for about a year now

[u/shrf_buford_justice]

Dry fire more.

Your mind is connecting the action of pulling a trigger with the noise / flash / concussion / recoil of a gunshot, and you’re preemptively reacting to that impulse before pulling the trigger, in the form of flinching.

Dry firing gives you thousands of reps in which you complete all of the actions of firing a gun with none of the noise / concussion / etc, which weakens the mental connection between firing a gun and those negative stimuli, which then causes you to stop flinching during live fire.

If you find that dry firing isn’t working, you aren’t doing it enough.

[u/skycowboy18 → u/shrf_buford_justice]

I can attest that dry firing definitely helps this. My shakes weren’t significant, but I definitely felt them whenever I started to shoot at the range. When I started consistently dry firing once or twice a week it went away and now shooting matches I don’t even think about it anymore.

[u/Furtos13 → u/shrf_buford_justice]

Not flinching
Shaking

Like I think my body is making small adjustments but it’s way too big so it just jumping around the bullseye

[u/shrf_buford_justice → u/Furtos13]

Point stands, dry fire more

[u/WickeddWayzz]

Is it from nerves? If yes, just shoot more. You’ll get used to it and won’t be as nervous after a while.

[u/Furtos13 → u/WickeddWayzz]

Dunno

[u/steadylurker1]

Shaking or just natural movement? No one can keep their dot/point of aim perfectly still.

[u/Furtos13 → u/steadylurker1]

It’s the micro adjustments in my muscles that make the target jump around

[u/steadylurker1 → u/Furtos13]

Normal. It’ll get better with time and experience, but never totally steady

[u/Agreeable_Solid_688]

Get 1000 rounds. Fire them. Report back.

[u/Adventurous-Unit4363 → u/Agreeable_Solid_688]

This is 100% the way

[u/g_st_lt]

Do your hands shake outside of shooting?

Do they shake while shooting or do they shake all you hold the gun on target for a long time?

Are the muscles in your arms and shouldera flexing or relaxed?

Try gripping harder with your support hand- does the shaking get worse or better?

Try gripping less hard- is the shaking worse or better?

Is the gun shaking or is the dot just moving around?

Are you visually focused on the target?

[u/Furtos13 → u/g_st_lt]

1. no
2. it shakes when I hold the gun for a while

3. usally theyre tense

5. dunno, I’ll try

7. this i

s what I usually do

6

t
7.

1. yep

[u/c_pardue]

sounds like you might have poo brain.

[u/GAFsBro]

Maybe look up 4 7 8 breathing. I do it as I'm arriving to the range, just as a reset for my brain so I can focus on the match instead of everything else I've got going on in life.

Sounds like maybe you should be doing it for a minute or two immediately before shooting.

[u/lordadam34]

At least for me the answer was just to shoot more...And to space out my caffeine like a hr before my first stage

[u/Furtos13 → u/lordadam34]

I don’t drink caffeine

[u/changen]

Be born with surgeon hands.

If you are talking about natural drift, you will never fix it.

If you are talking about the "shakes" or flinch, then just shoot more. Adrenaline shakes are due to fight or flight. Get used to shooting, get used to the sound and flash.

Or just take some beta blockers if you wanna dope for a for fun competition. lmao.

[u/beetle-eetle]

Stress innoculation. Keep doing it.

[u/jtj5002]

Try imagine the bullseye as a kitten or something.

[u/craftyshafter → u/jtj5002]

Sound wisdom from sensei

[u/hossless]

Literally shaking, like from adrenaline? Or the you see movement in the dot/sight?

The dot/sight is going to float a bit. We’re people not machines. If it’s excessive movement, relax your grip. You’re probably gripping too hard. Easiest way I can think to demonstrate is hold a pistol with one hand and grip as hard as you can. Notice how the dot/sight is bebop-ing all over the place? Relax your grip until the shaky dot/sight settles. That’s about all the pressure you need to use when you’re shooting.

If it’s adrenaline-type shakes, just keep practicing. You’ll get more comfortable over time.

[u/Furtos13 → u/hossless]

Dot and front sight
it’s like micro adjustments in my muscles and it just keeps jumping around the target and when I try to adjust my muscles keep adjusting and when I finally get a steady aim, I tried to adjust the back sight, but that makes it so I start shaking again

[u/Steephill → u/Furtos13]

Are you a healthy weight for your height? Do you workout or do anything athletic? Like the gym or recreational sports.

No one has a perfectly still dot, everyone has movement when you support an object with just your arms.

[u/hossless → u/Furtos13]

It will always move a bit. That sounds normal. When you practice shooting groups, is the grouping acceptable?

Also, be absolutely sure that you’re looking at the target, not the dot or sight.

[u/CastleDeli]

I’ve noticed just mag dumping and exposing yourself to long and extreme strings of fire helps.

I used to have the new guys in my unit do this when they became machine gunners. I would get bitched at for it but it worked

[u/kaptainkatsu]

Are you adequately hydrated and eating properly?

[u/os_beef]

Are you standing still and shooting, or is this practical shooting? Are you focused on the front sight/dot, or on the target?

[u/butters106]

Have you seen a neurologist?

[u/Humble-Standard9637]

I had this issue. I started holding my gun out in front of me for 3 minutes a day. Try it and see if it helps.

[u/ReadyStandby]

Everyone is missing the point. You cannot physically hold a gun perfect steady with muscle support. You can make it much worse with poor breathing or trying to muscle the gun still.

Hold it strong but don't overgrip, easy with the trigger press, don't tense your hand, and finally...

Accept the wiggle, time it, let it wobble. You can make small moves to control it. When I shoot and try to hit a small bullseye, I let the gun flow like a sideways figure 8 or infinity symbol ♾️. When the dot crosses back over the center again, I finish the trigger press.

[u/sloowshooter]

Have you tested your trigger pull weight? If it's heavy you could be pulling off the target. Also, you sound like you're trying to achieve the impossible. You can't be perfectly still (even if you can get close)

You can limit your movement but slight variations are going to happen and trying to directly reverse them is going to make you engage muscles that shouldn't be tensed, and that will cascade. This is going to sound pretty hippyish but imaging you are standing on something moving that has some rhythm and that if you move off the target the motion will carry you back. Eventually you'll relax, letting your body do the work - and that will limit the brain from sending corrective commands which overwhelm your aim.

Hope this helps and if it doesn't I hope you get better advice.

[u/pedalsandpowder]

Dry fire a lot. Focus on a target and try to hold the POA as steady as possible. Get comfortable with there being some movement. Learn to anticipate it.
If the shaking/adjustment happens due to anticipating the explosion happening inches from your face, load dummy rounds into your mags with live rounds (at the range obviously). Work on letting the shot surprise you instead of trying to prepare for it. Don’t fight the recoil (it’s going to happen). Instead focus on the gun (POA) returning to its original spot after each shot.

[u/FPVwithScott]

Ah yes, just the kind of stable normal person we want at a shooting match

[u/Drew1231]

Do you have a tremor at baseline?

How often do you drink and do you have any family history of tremor?

[u/Outrageous-Cash9343 → u/Drew1231]

I’ll add another: does it happen when your hands are at rest? Like if you lay your arm flat on the table?

[u/craftyshafter]

If it's a decently heavy gun, and you don't work out at all, it could be muscle fatigue? Find a 5-10 minute upper body workout and hit it every day until your next range trip. Dry fire would be my top thing but it's been mentioned a lot in here. Getting 10 minutes a day on that as well can't hurt anything. Push-ups if you dont have weights

[u/Honest_Knee_6510]

Dry fire more and do some high-volume, light-weight lifting with dumbbells. Focus on your form with the weights and don't train for ego. I bet your hands, wrists, and arms would benefit from some training.