WILLIAM GILBERT

Five Minutes with Eley Hawk Sponsored Shooter William Gilbert.
Disciplines:
Olympic Trap, Automatic Ball Trap, Universal Trench and Double Rise.
How long have you used Eley cartridges?
All 13 years of my shooting career.
Favourite loads and why:
Eley Hawk VIP Trap 7 ½ 24g and 28g. They are smooth cartridges that produce great patterns and breaks.
What do you love most about Eley cartridges?:
Eley Hawk has a long-standing proven pedigree and is a market leader. Eley Hawk makes massive innovations to the technology in cartridges and produces an excellent range that suits all disciplines and abilities. The quality is consistently high, which gives me the confidence to perform to the best of my ability.
Guns used:
Beretta SO5 Trap Gun, Beretta SO5 Sporter, and a W.W. Greener hammer gun.
Greatest shooting achievement:
Winning the British Open Automatic Ball Trap Championship in 2022, at the National Shooting Ground, Esker in Ireland. I became the youngest person to win and shoot 100 straight at the British Open.
Competitions won in last five years:
2023
Norfolk Double Rise - Overall and Junior Champion.
Norfolk ABT - Overall and Junior Champion.
Norfolk All Round and Dennis Rudd Memorial - Junior Champion.
East Midlands Double Rise - Junior Champion.
East Midlands Olympic Trap - Junior Champion.
University of Nottingham Shooting Competition - Individual Runner-up and member of runner-up Men's Team, winning Open Team and winning Flush Team.
2022
Liverpool University Cup - Overall Champion.
Oxford University Challenge - Winning Men’s Team.
East Midlands Inter Counties ABT - Winning County Senior Team and Overall Champion.
British Open ABT - Junior and Overall Champion.
ABT HCIT- Winning Country and Senior Team Runners-up.
BICTSF Olympic Trap Grand Prix - Junior Champion.
Norfolk ABT - Junior and Overall Champion.
East Midlands Olympic Skeet - Junior Champion.
East Midlands Olympic Trap - Junior Champion.
British Shooting Shotgun Series Round 2 - Junior Men’s Champion.
BICTSF English Open UTR - Junior Champion.
British Shooting Masters Winter Series, Round 2 - Joint High Gun.
2021
East Midlands Inter-Counties ABT - Junior Champion.
Norfolk All Round and Dennis Rudd Memorial - Junior Champion.
ABT HCIT - Junior Champion, Junior England Champion, Winning Junior Team, Winning Country.
Audrey Smith Charity Memorial DTL - Junior Champion.
East Midlands Olympic Trap - Junior Champion.
English Open ABT - Winning Regional Junior Team.
Norfolk ABT - Junior Champion.
Norfolk Double Rise - Overall and Junior Champion.
Norfolk DTL - Junior Champion.
2020
Norfolk Olympic Skeet - Junior Champion.
Norfolk Double Rise - Junior Champion.
Norfolk All Round - Junior Champion.
English Open ABT - Winning Junior Team.
Norfolk DTL - Junior Champion.
2019
East Midlands ABT - Junior Champion.
National Inter-Counties ABT - Junior Champion.
ABT HCIT - Winning Junior Team.
English Open Double Rise - Junior Champion.
Norfolk Double Rise - Overall and Junior Champion.
Norfolk ABT - Junior Champion.
English Open ABT - Colt Champion.
Norfolk County DTL - Junior Champion.
2018
Norfolk County Handicap by Distance - Junior Champion.
Norfolk County Double Rise - Junior Champion.
National Inter-counties All Round - Colt Champion.
East Midlands Inter-Counties DTL - Junior Champion.
Norfolk ABT - Junior Champion.
Norfolk County English Skeet - Junior Champion.
Norfolk County All Round - Junior Champion.
East Midlands Region ABT - Junior Champion.
Favourite ground/shoot:
I can’t only select one ground for this. My favourite grounds are Nuthampstead Shooting Ground, The Priory CTC, East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground, and Doveridge Clay Sports and Leisure. All of these grounds put on excellent targets and are incredibly welcoming.
Most valuable tips:
See it, shoot it. Only focus on the next target, and never take it for granted.
Listen to what the people around you tell you, and watch others shoot. You can learn a lot from examining how they shoot, and they can often tell you where you are going wrong. Shooting happens from the ground up. Find a comfortable stance that allows you to transfer your weight from one foot to the other and build on that.
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