MEC Outdoors is pleased to announce the talents of Cameron Hicks as an addition to the amazing line up of incredible shooters sponsoring the brand. Currently, MEC Outdoors partners with several exceptional shooters such as Dave Miller, Dalton Kirchhoefer, Makayla Scott, Shari Legate, Travis Mears, Will Fennell, Dani Zeigler, Morgan Craft and Richard Marshall Jr.
Cameron Hicks is a fast rising star within the disciplines
of Sporting Clays and FITASC and most recently has gone head to head with
legends like Anthony Matarese Jr. and Bill McGuire.
He was M5 at Georgia State, M3 at the NE Regional, Won Bison
Cup in Virginia, M1 at South Carolina State Championship, M4 at North Carolina State and won the 2020 Gamaliel Cup FITASC and most of those were just in the
past few months!
So you might be wondering, who is Cameron Hicks and what got
him into this sport? Recently, MEC
Outdoors spoke to Cameron and answered this and more in an in-depth conversation
about him, the sport, and why he got into competitive shooting.
MO:
How old are you?
CH:
25
MO:
What is your hometown you grew up in?
CH: I am from Franklin County, VA originally
MO:
What was your first shotgun and at what age did you first learn how to shoot
and why?
CH:
My first shotgun was a 20ga. Beretta 390. I was 6. My dad was a professional
shooter and a member of the 2002 and 2003 FITASC team USA so I grew up around
the sport. Unfortunately, at the time I didn't have much of an interest in the
sport, so mainly I shot while hunting and occasionally with my dad. I maybe had
400 lifetime registered targets before I really started competing about 2 years
ago.
MO: When you
are not practicing or at shooting events, what do you do for a living?
CH:
I am a Special Forces Green Beret.
MO: That is quite a day job! Why did you decide
to join the Army?
CH: It was always something that I wanted to do growing up. I
have a bit of a family history with it and I never really saw myself doing
anything different.
MO:
What is your current or favorite shotgun you own for practice and competitive
shooting?
CH: Obviously my Krieghoff Parcours with a stock made by Jim Greenwood! But I do have a very large collection of Beretta Autos. That's what my dad shot and I have started my own collection of them. I believe I am at 30 or so now. But when it comes to shooting, I don't touch anything other than my Krieghoff.
MO:
What made you decide to start competitively shooting?
CH:
When my father passed away in 2016, I was struggling with the situation and
needed something productive to help me get through the situation. Dad had a
huge stockpile of ammunition. I kept it all for about 2 years. One day I
grabbed some shells and headed to the range and it was downhill from
there. Even now I still practice with some of his old reloads and a lot of
shells that are older than me. There would be no way I could have afforded to
do it without those old shells as a base to be able to practice how I needed to
get where I am now. The first year competing was spent just trying to make it
to as many big shoots as I could and gain experience. It wasn't until this year
that I was able to start placing at some of the bigger shoots as well as
winning a lot of local stuff.
MO:
How often to do you currently practice?
CH:
I don't practice quite as much now as I did in the beginning. I focus more
on quality of practice now. I try to shoot 150-200 targets 3-4 times a week, depending on my work and teaching schedule. Last year however, I shot 100k in
practice with maybe 5k registered targets or so. I like to think I am a pretty
driven person, so when I decided that I wanted to be a top level shooter in
this sport I did everything I could to expedite the process. I sold everything
not bolted to the floor and built my own practice facility so that I was able
to do it. I have 15 machines as well as a couple Clay Bots set up similar
to a large FITASC parcour. There for a while, I was shooting 1500-2000 targets a
weekend. I have been working on making the transition into Bunker. So I've been
focusing hard on that lately.
MO:
What do you like most about sporting clays?
CH:
I'd have to say the people and the relationships that I have made.
Meeting people who knew my dad everywhere I go has been pretty awesome as
well.
MO:
How long have you been teaching/coaching shooting? Why do you teach?
CH:
I started teaching about 9 months ago. My coach, Will Fennell, as well as Dan
Carlisle, are the ones who pushed me to do it. It has definitely helped me
as a shooter, probably more so than anything else. I always try to shoot at
least 50 targets after every lesson and I work on what it is I just
taught, no matter the skill level. I really enjoy watching my students progress
and the feedback from it. I really didn't expect it to take off like it has, but
when other shooters start seeing my students climb the ladder pretty quick, it’s
very good advertising. I teach about 10-20 hours a week now (depending on my
schedule of course).
You
can follow along with Cameron’s journey on his Instagram at cameronhicks_27.
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