I’m probably just dense, but follow through with handgun shooting is something I never understood very well until I read this post from pistol-training.com.
All follow through is, after all, is maintaining proper alignment of the sights until the bullet has left the barrel. The way I teach this — stolen from my friend Todd Kennedy, F.A.S.T. Coin #03 — is to watch the front sight lift in recoil. If you see the front sight lift, you’ve done all the follow through you need to. At that point, absolutely nothing you do can affect the shot you just fired.
Using the front sight lift as follow through provides a lot of important information:
- If you see the sight lift, you’ve called your shot. Wherever that sight was when it started to move, that’s where your bullet hole is.
- If you see the sight lift, you know your eyes are open when the gun discharges.
- If you are watching for sight lift, you will see the front sight shift before breaking a bad shot. This may give you time to fix the error. If not, at least you know your shot went bad and know you need to fire another.
- If you’re not aware of the front sight lifting, you know you were off your sight as the shot fired.
- By watching for the front sight to lift, you’re beginning the process of sight tracking.
Follow through is certainly important, but it’s important that you use proper follow through instead of a misunderstood amalgam of follow through and recovery that may or may not be appropriate for a given application.
It’s something I plan on working on with my Glock on my next trip to the shooting spot, which should be next week. For whatever reason, 9mm ammunition is back in abundance, at least for now. The folks at the oft-frequented big box store, where I can also buy beans and coffee along with my lead, told me that they’re even managing to keep 9mm in stock now.
No such luck for .45 ACP, however, so for all intents and purposes, the 1911 project is still on hold. Which is just fine, in that my money for parts has dwindled of late anyways.
