What does "follow through" mean?

Thank you for the excellent post, Frank. Really excellent stuff. There is one thing I want to mention to you though, from my own experience as a new student.

You said "The first principle of accurate shooting is trigger control". For me, the thing that caused the most trouble was not having a secure, firm hold of the gun. Because I wasn't holding the gun securely, I tended to squeeze hard with my fingers and thumbs to hold it steady. It didn't work of course. All it did was make me more tense.

Since I have now found a hold that I like, I can relax and concentrate on sight picture, trigger control, and now follow through.

Cheers.
 
concentrate on sight picture, trigger control, and now follow through
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Yes, these are the elements of the shot process, and where you need to be putting your focus while shooting. Sounds obvious, right? Perhaps, but most are instead really focused on the target, with a desire to shoot a good group. That desire is a bad distraction from what's really important - executing the shot process well.

While shooting, then, forget about the target and shooting a good group, and put your mental effort into executing each shot well. Always remember that the target is merely a recording device that just records how well you executed the fundamentals for each shot. Do the fundamentals well, and the target will take care of itself. Oh...and only check it (the target) when you're done shooting a group (peeking between shots is a real accuracy killer). It should tell you what you already know. ;)
 
Reacquire your sights as the weapon is coming out of recoil and assume that you are going to be shooting again in the exact same spot. Do not look at the target, find your front sight.
 
I agree with most the OP's original post but with the dimension of priority or sequence. And I disagree with the "assess the situation" as part of the definition as it *can* be practiced / incorporated but does not have to be if we're speaking about the firing cycle.

Big picture, follow through is to incorporate re-acquisition of the sight picture and readiness as part of the complete shooting cycle. This subconsciously maintains the fundamentals to carry over into the next shot because you have not broken concentration. This is imperative for training for multiple shots.

"Follow Through" may be a borderline misnomer. Teachers use it but the name is not intuitive to understand. That is because the dynamics in shooting at the point of breaking a shot are both gross and fine motor based and much of the work involves multiple systems and we're talking about resetting or limiting movement rather than continuation of a movement.
 
Pep in CA,

When I took my NRA rifle instructor's course, the councilor we had was Web Wright, who, IIRC, still had two world records standing in 300m International rifle. He asked us all to define follow-through as he'd yet to find the best way of saying it. That it is a continuation past the point of shot release seems apparent, but he wasn't satisfied with any phraseology yet applied at that point (over 20 years ago, now).

One thing that puts me in mind of it, though, is Web's definition of the fundamentals of marksmanship. He said that over the years the NRA's training materials had variously had 8 or 12 or some other number of basic marksmanship principles, but that it seemed to him that if a principle is truly basic, it should never change like that. He felt there were really only two.

1. Line the gun up so the bullet will hit the desired point of impact.
2. Keep it that way until after the bullet clears the muzzle.

That's it. If you can find a way to make that happen every time, you will be the perfect marksman. Whatever specific technique gets you there is the right technique for you, and you've had some very good ones suggested already. But my point in bringing this up is you see from that second principle an illustration of follow-through: "…until after the bullet clears the muzzle".
 
Update from the OP.

I went to the range today to practice the "follow through" tips you guys gave me, but also the other 2 fundamentals. I shot my .22 rifle and my 9mm pistol, starting with the rifle, as I usually do.

At first, it was difficult to focus on "follow through", but I think I started to get the hang of it. I was keeping the sight very close to the target after the shot fired and I tried to keep it there for several seconds at least before I prepared to fire the next shot. Doing this, I noticed I previously had the temptation to shoot the next shot quickly. I had to fight that urge. I took my time. Once I got warmed up, I was plinking targets quite regularly.

Then I moved on the pistol.

As expected, trying to incorporate the tips you gave me was much more difficult for me with the pistol, mostly because the muzzle moves a lot more (I'm guessing). I was shooting at metal targets from about 35 yds.. I hit on only 1 of my first 10 shots and had some flinches. Not good at all, but I wasn't so concerned about the results as I was about keeping my focus on the fundamentals. I think I fired about 50-60 rounds before I tightened up my groups (I guess you could say I was missing closer). :-P

The next 40 rounds I saw improvement. Began hitting the target about 33% per magazine. Improvement is good. That's what I'm looking for at the moment.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll keep trying.

Pep

PS -- Unclenick, I loved your post.
 
"Follow through" simply means you should not mechanically move your line of sight after you fire, preparing yourself for the next fire. It's when you need to take your next breath and align your aim again. Follow through is a practice that prevents you from moving the muzzle off course. Many shooters wave the muzzle erratically to reload the chamber for another "boom." It's focusing your firearm in the same direction that you chose to shoot in the first place...much easier to shoot again if the line of sight hasn't move much. If it is a bolt action, after the firing, your follow through is close to the bull's eye where you shot in the first place. The magic is in the intent to get a second bullet down range with little movement of the muzzle with a follow through line of sight.
 
Consider closer targets.

There's nothing wrong with shooting pistol at 35 yards. However as you have experienced you get a "hit or miss" feedback. Knowing where you are hitting can accelerate your growth and you might be missing out on that.

Typical practice distances for me are mostly from 5-10 yards, with 15-25 being less common, and 50 very rarely for kicks.

It helps to be able to see:
Rough estimate group size
Group location
Flyers you can associate with bad behavior (yep I just jerked the trigger)

That helps you know (among other things):
Current status of fundamentals
Ammo preferences for pistol (more of an issue if you reload)
Exactly how a change in technique has affected your shooting.
If your sights are off
 
The focus on the front sight, which has been previously mentioned earlier, is paramount. Along with a proper grip and a smooth trigger press, teaching new shooters to stay focused on the front sight through the shot is key. Most new shooters will get their sight alignment, then sight picture, focus on the front sight, fire the shot, and completely lose the front sight because they will shift their focus to the target to see where they hit. We teach them to follow the front sight up in the recoil process, realign sights and back on target, and fire if desired or necessary. Repeat.

We've found that once they grasp the sight alignment/sight picture concept, we simplify the process on the firing line with the simple mantra "front sight - pressssssss". The press is said slowly to help facilitate a smooth break. We encourage them to say this to themselves during the shooting process.
 
See this post for an illustration of the importance of follow-through:
rjinga said:
...the bad habit was looking over the sight to see were the laser point was striking on non-reflective targets. That bad habit manifested itself last Saturday on my first trip in two months to the pistol range. I consistently shot a little low until I figured out what I was doing.

This (photo) is the proper sight picture for my Sig P229 handgun. So, starting today, I’m (back to) practicing focusing on the front post, with the front post covering the target, pressing the trigger, and follow through. ...
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Part of it is keeping your gun and arms from flying all over the place, over correcting, just allowing your handgun to naturally return to firing position..
 
If it was simple, we could all freeze in place as naturally as a rabbit in the grass or a squirrel on a branch. Instead, we are as twitchy as a here of fire ants.
 
Has anyone mentioned that one of the more important skills is that you need to learn to isolate your muscles from each other? You must be able to pull the trigger without moving your hand.

I believe that upper body strength training is important. Not to pack on muscles, to give you strength to remain steady and solid.
 
As the OP, I'm resurrecting this thread from a little over a year ago. It is a very informative thread and I'm sure many new members will find it interesting and helpful.
However, the main reason I'm resurrecting it is because I have yet to master follow through and I have a specific question:

Starting from the premise that my focus is on the front sight, when the shot breaks, should my focus remain on the front sight throughout? I.e., should I follow the front sight with my eyes focused on it, or should my head & eyes remain still and on target as the sight inevitably moves?

This brings me to a second point of issue. I recently watched a training video for tactical handgun that advocated target focus instead of front sight focus. The trainer argued that in a defensive situation, your focus will naturally be on the target, so it is proper to focus on the target, not the front sight, when you train for tactical handgun. This makes sense to me.

Thoughts & comments welcome, of course.
 
Follow through is not really the same thing as what you focus your eyes on. In fact, nothing in your last post is really about follow-through.

Your eyes shouldn't follow the front sight during recoil but you do need to keep track of the front sight if you want to be able to hit something past a couple yards of distance.

When shooting multiple targets, generally the best (fastest) shooters actually look at the next target and then let the gun catch up with their eyes, shooting when the sights are on the target, then look at the next target and repeat.

Choosing whether to focus on the target or the sights is sort of a non-productive endeavor. You obviously have to see both to make hits. How well you have to see depends on the distance and the size of the target. A large close target doesn't require a careful focus on either the sights or the target. But if you need to make a precision shot you're going to need to see the sights pretty clearly to make sure they're aligned properly. And since you can't focus on two different distance objects at the same time, if you have a very clear focus on the sights, your focus on the target will have to blur a little.

For self-defense shooting, it's likely you'll focus more on what could take your life than on the sights. That's why you need to have enough practice/training so that the process of getting the gun on target with the sights aligned and pulling the trigger without jerking the gun is second nature.

If you don't have that level of skill then you're going to either point and spray or focus on the sights very carefully and have difficulty keeping track of what's going on downrange. The former is FAR more likely than the latter.

What you DO need to do is to keep your eyes open while you're shooting. A lot of shooters blink involuntarily BEFORE the shot breaks. This keeps them from noticing that they're flinching and also makes it hard for them to shoot rapidly and transition from one target to another. If you don't see the muzzle flash on a fairly regular basis then you're blinking before the shot and flinching.
 
JohnKSa, thank you for your reply. It may very well be that I'm blinking as the shot breaks. I will try to avoid blinking during my next range practice session.

However, I am still confused about where my eye focus should be when the shot breaks and immediately afterward. You seem to say eye focus has nothing to do with follow through but I say it does. Maybe this is why I'm confused.

This is certain: My focus should be on the front sight as the shot breaks (for maximum accuracy). But the sight will move a millisecond after the shot breaks.

You said my eyes should not follow the front sight during recoil but I do need to keep track of the front sight. This where I get confused.

The sight will go off target. If I don't keep my focus on the sight, I must therefore focus on the target (or the next target), at least for a brief moment. In other words, I will have to leave my front sight focus for a moment after the shot breaks, focus on the target (or next target), until my sights are realigned. Then I focus on the front sight again.

Yes?
 
Follow through simply means that you intentionally keep doing whatever you were doing at the time you decided to break the shot. The idea is to keep from unconsciously affecting the shot. Without consciously following through, a shooter may actually start to relax before the shot in a target-shooting environment. Or the shooter might stop swinging the shotgun before actually pulling the trigger in a wing-shooting situation.
You said my eyes should not follow the front sight during recoil but I do need to keep track of the front sight.
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I'm assuming that you're holding the gun in a normal grip and that it's not a heavy-recoiling magnum revolver or something similar. The front sight should never leave your field of view even if it does move upward during recoil. So you keep track of its general location as it recoils upwards and recovers back onto the target, but you don't need to actually track it with your eyes as it moves. In fact, I don't think many people could actually track it accurately with their eyes even if they tried.

If you CAN actually track it accurately with your eyes as it moves upwards and then recovers back onto target in the fraction of a second that takes, then that's pretty impressive. I don't believe that doing so buys you anything, but I doubt many people have that ability.
If I don't keep my focus on the sight, I must therefore focus on the target (or the next target), at least for a brief moment. In other words, I will have to leave my front sight focus for a moment after the shot breaks, focus on the target (or next target), until my sights are realigned. Then I focus on the front sight again.
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Trying to change your focus back and forth between the target and the front sight will slow you down unless you can focus your eyes very rapidly. Maybe even if you can.

Your comments leave me sort of at a loss.

On the one hand, the implication that you can focus on and track the front sight as it moves rapidly in recoil and that you can change your focus from front sight to target and back in the fraction of a second that it takes to transition targets suggests that you have very impressive visual acuity and should be shooting very well if your trigger control is decent.

But the way you're asking the questions and some of your other comments suggest that you're having trouble with the basics.

I don't really know how to reconcile the two. I've started trying to type responses several times but they keep self-destructing because of the way the implications of your comments and questions contradict each other.

Maybe let's start with your basic skill level. If you're transitioning between multiple 8" targets at 10 yards or so, how many shots a second can you fire and still make your hits?
 
What does "follow through" mean?
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I always thought that it was keeping the gun swinging through the target when wingshooting.

I see from reading this thread that context matters a great deal and follow through means different actions, or lack of action to different people.

I'd say that "follow through" is what ever you are doing before the shot, keep doing it through, and until after the shot.
 
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