Follow-through is a basic concept of precision shooting, but can be dispensed with, to at least some degree, when the firing gets fast and furious.

When I was a kid studying marksmanship—a study continuing to this day—follow-through was one of the Commandments written in stone. Not quite up there with “focus on the front sight” and “don’t jerk your trigger,” but about one tier down along with “breath control” and such.

“Follow-through” means when the sear releases and the cartridge in the chamber discharges, the shooter should in essence keep everything as it was. That is, don’t let the index finger spring off the trigger. Don’t let the other digits relax their grasp on the gun. Don’t lose the sight picture, because you may want to bring it back down on target.

In the early days, follow-through was all the more important, because of the lock time factor. Lock time is what elapses between when the sear releases, and the shot goes off. It is the time it takes the hammer to fall, or the striker to snap forward and impact the cartridge’s primer. In addition to lock time, we have to consider the dwell time of the bullet as it travels down the barrel.

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