Shooting Fundamentals: Follow-Through

Author: Graham Dunne

The sixth shooting fundamental, often discussed last, is follow-through. Like any sport or physical task, there is a follow-through. Consider throwing a football. The arm doesn’t stop once the ball leaves your hand. Your arm continues forward, the thumb turning over, eventually moving towards the crotch. The throwing side heel flares out, often leaving the ground. This is how quarterbacks get their entire body behind a throw, rather than just their arm strength. 

With any semi-automatic firearm, as the weapon discharges, we follow through in three ways: 

Each time we fire the weapon, we let the trigger out to its reset point, and no further. Including when it’s our last round, or only round fired. Slapping the trigger creates additional movement on the firearm, whereas resetting the trigger is a controlled movement. After the last round is fired we reset the trigger, then consciously come off it. 

Secondly, we acquire a new sight picture rather than coming off target. In self-defense contexts, there may be a need to fire again, therefore we must be prepared by taking a new sight picture. 

Lastly, we refrain from looking for our hits. The second most common shooter error is looking for hits. When a shooter looks for their hits, they dip the muzzle and look over their sights. The motion is quick, the shooter not realizing that they are dipping the muzzle as the firearm is discharging, physically moving the muzzle down as the bullet exits. As you fire, look through the sights to the target, refraining for looking at the hits as they happen. Once you are done shooting, you can lower the firearm and decide if you like what you see. This is a self-discipline issue, and reasonably easy to correct. I have noticed that this can be a negative habit built during competition, as often times the shooter is allowed to make up shots they miss. Therefore, the shooter looks at the target after they shoot, to see if they need to make up the shot. (Competition shooting has many benefits that translate to real life applications, this is one of the few negatives.)

Now it’s on you. Get to the range and practice.

About the author:

Sergeant Dunne is a former Marine and police officer, with 30 years of service. He has served as a SWAT operator and sniper, and was a full time academy instructor for 8 years. A police Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross recipient, he is founder and lead instructor for Ragnar Tactical.