The Tumut Clay Target Club has had some of its members competing at several competitions over the past few months, with young junior shooter Will Crawford recently selected for the NSW Open Team to compete at the Nationals in Perth in April 2025.
The club has also just held its annual two-day competition – full results in our next issue.
Leading up to the Snowy Mountains 2-Day Trap Carnival, club members have competed in numerous competitions over the last few months with great success.
In August, club members David Caccioppoli, Steven Crawford, Will Crawford, and Grant and Liz Thatcher made the trip to Cobar to compete in the Annual Golden Clay Competition. The NSW State Point Score Championship was held on the Friday night and saw David Caccioppoli take out the win shooting 150/150.
The following two days saw the Golden Clay Competition, incorporating the NSW Junior Masters Championships. David Caccioppoli was again successful, winning the Veteran High Gun, with Grant Thatcher placing second in the AA Double Barrel event. Junior Will Crawford had a very successful event, winning the Junior Master Point Score, Junior Master Double Barrel and the Overall Junior Master High Gun.
The Annual Casella Golden Wines 2-Day competition in Griffith saw members David Caccioppoli, Steven Crawford, Will Crawford, and Liz Thatcher competing. Will Crawford had another successful event, taking home the overall Point Score, Junior Single Barrel, Junior Medley, Junior Double Rise, Junior High Gun and also first in the AA Double Barrel.
In September Tumut held their monthly competition with 36 shooters from far and wide competing. Event 1 – the 50 Target Handicap – saw Christie Wheeler from West Wyalong winning the shoot off against David Meakin from Canberra. Event 2 was the 50 Target Double Barrell Handicap and was taken out by Steven Sutton from Tumut with a close second to Gill Neziz from Wagga. David Meakin also won the overall high gun.
In October the NSW Clay Target Association hosted the State Trap Carnival over four days at the National Grounds in Wagga. Tumut had strong representation with Nick Elliott, David Caccioppoli, Don Power, Steven Crawford, and Will Crawford. David Caccioppoli having another successful event, winning the NSWCTA Veteran State High Gun. Young shooter Will Crawford won both the NSWCTA Junior Champion of Champions and NSWCTA Junior Point Score Championship. Will also earnt a spot to shoot-off for a place in both the NSW Junior State Team and NSW Open State Team. Having to select which team he would like to shoot off for, Will chose to try his luck in the Open team which proved very successful, with him winning the NSW Team Selection High Gun. Will now heads to Perth in April 2025 with the NSW Team to compete at the Australian Clay Target National Championships.
October saw another successful competition held by the Tumut Club with 34 competitors. Three events were held at this competition with Event 1 the 25T Point Score Cash Divide which saw a shoot-off between two club members Nick Elliot and David Caccioppoli. Event 2 – the 50T Double Barrel Continental Championships – saw five competitors, with the win going to local member David Caccioppoli, with Matt Harris from Canberra taking second place. Event 3 – the 25T Double Barrel -had a three way shoot off with Tony Gray from Bega in first place and Tracy Barton from Boorowa in second. The overall high gun was awarded to David Caccioppoli.
The Club has been busily preparing for their annual competition with several working bees to prepare the grounds. Also, a big thanks to Snowy Hydro Ltd for a Community Grant which has been used to install removable shelters at the grounds providing both competitors and spectators shelter from the elements.
The Tumut Club’s Annual Snowy Mountains 2 Day Trap Carnival was sponsored by A. Murray & Sons, Switched-On Electrical, Tumut Fishing Camping and Outdoor Store, Tumut Toyota, Ray White Tumut, Trowels Takeaway, Power Ammo Wagga, Winchester, Tumut Pharmacy, National Reliability Service Australia Engineering, AKD, Crawfords Glass & Aluminium, Franklin Butchery, Tumut Jewellers, The Star Hotel, Pie in the Sky Bakery, Agstock Tumut, The Comb Over, JBE Electrical, Rural 4×4 Tumut, Tumut Outdoor Power Centre, Tasco Petroleum, Two Tarts Tumut, and Steven Crawford Photography.
For anyone interested in tyring Clay Target Shooting contact Phil Green on 0400 265 814 or Adam Yan on 0437 312 803.
