Teaching your son to shoot-How not to

A father brought his ~12-year old son to the range yesterday to teach him to shoot a pistol. The kid was struggling to hit anything and the father got increasingly frustrated and let the kid know it. Another shooter finally made some suggestions about checking eye dominance. As best we could figure, he was right handed and left-eye dominant. I loaned them my 22A with red dot so the kid wouldn't have to try to figure out open sights. He did much better and proudly took the target home.

They were shooting at about 12 yards and should have been in the 7-yard lane. Makes it easier to hit something. They should also have been using the full-size silhouette targets. And lastly, don't let your frustrations out on the kid. He needs to think he is successful.