Learn › Track 03 · Fundamentals

Follow-through & calling the shot

The trigger breaks. The pellet runs down the barrel and is gone. How long does that take? Make a guess before you read on, because the answer seems to make this whole lesson pointless.

Think first: Roughly how long does the pellet spend in the barrel?

Then why follow through?

If the pellet leaves in a couple of thousandths of a second, nothing you do a second later can move it. So why do coaches insist you stay still after the shot?

Think first: What does a deliberate follow-through actually protect?

  • The pellet, which is still in the barrel for about a second
  • The moment of release: a shooter who plans to relax at the shot starts relaxing just before it
  • Nothing; it is an old habit from firearms with recoil

It is also a habit. Relaxing at the moment of release is easy to learn and hard to unlearn. Older spring-piston pistols made the point brutally: they were already moving before the pellet did, so any sloppiness at the shot showed on the target.

So at the break:

  • Keep your focus on the front sight.

  • Keep the trigger held back against the stop. Don't let it snap forward.

  • Stay still, as if a second shot were coming.

A common guide is to hold the follow-through for about 1–2 seconds, or until the sights settle. Sources vary on the exact time.

Calling the shot

Follow-through gives you something valuable: a clear view of the sights at the instant of release. Take a mental snapshot of it. Where was the blade relative to your aiming point when the shot broke? That is your call.

Think first: Your sights are zeroed for your hold. At the instant the shot broke, the sight picture had drifted about 8 mm above your aiming point, alignment still perfect. Where do you call the shot?

Then check the hit and compare. Mark both on a plot sheet: a small target diagram with your call and the actual hit for each shot.

Two shooters, ten shots each. Rings are calls; dots are hits. Reveal the hits and read what each sheet says.

Calls that match hits mean your technique did what you saw. If the whole set is shifted the same way, that's your sight setting, and you adjust from the average of well-called shots (see Groups, MPI & sight adjustment). Hits that differ from calls point to a fault in the fundamentals, usually at the release.

Think first: For three shots in a row you honestly can’t say where the sights were when the shot broke. What is the most likely cause?

  • The sights need adjusting
  • Your eyes are closing at the shot
  • The pellets are from a bad batch
  • The grip doesn’t fit

Make it routine

Calling every shot turns each one into feedback. Before you look at the monitor or the card, decide your call. Then look, compare, write one note if needed, and let it go. Electronic trainers show the same idea in detail, tracing what the pistol did before and after the shot. See SCATT & electronic trainers.

  • The pellet is in the barrel for about 2 ms, but follow-through protects the release from anticipation.
  • At the break: focus stays on the front sight, the trigger stays back, the body stays still until the sights settle.
  • Calling = a mental snapshot of the sights at the instant of release. Decide it before you look at the hit.
  • Calls match hits but the group is off-centre: adjust the sights. Hits don’t match calls: fix the fundamentals.
  • Can’t call the shot at all? Your eyes are probably closing at the release.

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