Caravans and campers rolled into the club grounds a week prior to the official carnival in the hopes of securing the prime camping spots and to escape the rain further south.

The club grounds were looking fabulous thanks to the dedicated members who put in a grateful effort to showcase the lovely grounds.

Clear blue skies, calm conditions and warm sun greeted shooters on Saturday morning as 83 shooters nominated from as far afield as Roma in QLD and Bendigo in VIC and included ex Australian shooting team members and the current Fijian Olympic Champion. Over half the field consisted of AA grade shooters which shows the Flying Fox title is held in high regard across the elite shooters.

The first event, the 25t GB Corsivia Handicap Championship commenced as 17 squads took to the lanes with only three shooters shooting the possible, 25/25 which was surprising considering the class of shooters in attendance and the near perfect shooting conditions. The shoot off to determine first to third commenced and lasted four targets before local club president and handicap specialist Peter Ryan dropped a target to claim third place. Second place was taken out by Peter Larcombe from Newcastle and overall honours when to Tony Ryder from Grafton.

Conditions remained perfect for the commencement of the second event, the Bourkes Transport Industries 25t Pointscore Championship. As expected with the conditions a number of excellent scores were posted. C-grade was taken out by Gary Maytom from Sydney with an excellent 74/75. B-grade champion was Dan Thistleton who held his nerve and posted a well shot 73/75. A-grade was won outright by Karen Berry of Sydney with a 73/75. John Reid of Guyra won AA grade with a perfect 150/150, a score tied with overall winner Tony Ryder who took out his second championship on the trot.

The final event of the day was the Taree Leading Appliances 50t Double Barrel Continental Championship. With the traps switched over to continental the shooting began and the change in height and elevation fooled a number of shooters. C-grade was taken out by local club member Allan Mudford with 50/54 after a shoot off. B-grade had an outright winner with Peter Larcombe claiming his second trophy of the day with 48/50. A-grade was won by regular club visitor Rob Marko of Newcastle after a shoot off.

AA-grade and overall champions were set for an exciting chase for the title with shooters knowing a score of 50/50 would be required as a golden ticket into the shoot off. Nine shooters across two squads were in the shoot off for overall and AA-grade. Squad one took to the tracks with Phil Baker the sole survivor of the squad, clean on 75/75. Squad two showed no signs of letting the title go with Arty Del-Ben, Glen Kable, Vito Balliana and Nick Xenos all remaining clean. Shooters were re-squaded with Nick and Phil missing an identical low left hand target on their 81st. With conditions becoming darker it was only a matter of time until light would play a role in the decider. Vito would stumble on his 99th target with Glen and Arty hitting 100/100. The two club mates decided that with the light fading a coin toss would decide the winner with Arty choosing the right side of the coin.

Overnight it was as if a switch was hit on the weather with a polarising cool and strong westerly wind blowing that had shooters reaching for their winter jackets. The fourth event of the carnival, the 25t Single Barrel Perazzi championship commenced. The strong blustery wind played havoc with the clays and did not discriminate with shooters of all grades struggling. Charlie Sherry was the only shooter to post a possible 25/25 and take out the title. C-grade was won by Russell Sainsbury of Gunnedah with 21/25, Megan Wilkins of Port Macquarie claimed B-grade with 21/25, A-grade winner was Karen Berry 26/27 and AA-grade was won by Vito Balliana of Newcastle.

The main event, the 19th annual Flying Fox sponsored by Hunts Shooting Supplies commenced in similar windy and cold conditions. The annual Flying Fox event consists of 25t Double Barrel and 25t Pointscore shot as one event. A graders Steven Littlefield and Scott Anshaw put the field on notice early with a well shot 99/100 before the final wave of AA grade shooters took to the tracks knowing the door to the title was left open, however no possibles were posted amongst the elite shooters with eight settling on 99/100. Under shoot off conditions, 5t Double Barrel followed by 5t Pointscore with totals added after the 10t were shot. After a further 50 points it came down to defending 2014 Flying Fox champion Phil Baker and Joe Camilleri. Another 40 points would be required to determine a winner with Joe missing a double barrel target and Phil holding his nerve to claim his second consecutive Flying Fox title with 159/160. A-grade was won by Steven Littlefield of the Central Coast, B-grade was won by Lionel Finaly of Singleton and Gary Maytom taking another C-grade title.

The final formal event of the program, the 30t C&L Paving and Asphalt Champion of Champions Cash shoot, off 18m was underway by 2pm. A change in meterage back to 18m did not deter C-graders Gary Maytom & Allan Mudford who were the two most consistent C graders all weekend with the pair tussling it out in yet another shoot-off. Gary came up trumps to win with 63/75, over Allan on 57/75. B-grade was won outright by Lionel Finlay on 46/50 whileSteven Littlefield shot well to win his second successive A-grade championship with 49/50. Overall Champion of Champions champion would be between Tony Ryder, Steven Caltabiano and Hank MacInnes. Steven bowed out in the early goings while Tony and Hank continued shot for shot. Hank would be the first to stumble on his 58th target and pull a second barrel, however as Hank stumbled, Tony fell and missed his target entirely dropping three points in the process which gave Hank the title and cash.

Once scores were calculated and high guns were determined, the inaugural Grand Champion shoot off sponsored by Leichts Tyre & Auto, an event exclusive to Taree Wingham Clay Target Club, got underway with the overall and graded high gun winners shooting five targets handicap until a grand champion was crowned. A short shoot-off commenced and after five targets it came down to AA-grade high gun Tony Ryder and A-grade high gun Tammy Henshall. Tammy let the seventh target hit the ground with Tony hitting his next target and the crowd, thinking a winner was declared cheered in applause, not understanding a full five target round was required to be shot to declare the winner. Tony would go on to miss his ninth and 10th targets and see Tammy crowned the inaugural Flying Fox Grand Champion.

Club president Peter Ryan remarked that the Flying Fox championship is one of the must attend events on the shooting calendar and this years attendees from such high level shooters shows how well regarded the carnival is. The 2016 Flying Fox carnival is guaranteed to be bigger and better again.