About Hugh Devereux-Mack

Hugh Devereux-Mack is the public spokesperson for the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners (COLFO), New Zealand's largest voluntary shooting-related organisation. COLFO was founded in 1996 and was run entirely by volunteers for 29 years. In September 2025 Hugh became its first full-time contractor, supporting its political advocacy and its response to changes in New Zealand's firearms laws.

Hugh has hunted and shot since he was six. As a teenager he shot at the Holland & Holland shooting school in London, and he has also shot in the United States, where he hopes to one day hunt bear. At high school in Blenheim he restarted the clay target shooting team and went on to win national titles.

He studied at the University of Canterbury, completing a Bachelor of Music in performance violin and history, a Bachelor of Commerce, and a master's in strategic management and consumer behaviour. While studying, he volunteered during the Canterbury earthquakes.

Hugh got involved with COLFO after the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack. He offered to help with social media, wanting to tell good stories about the shooting community and push back on licensed firearms owners being blamed, and he later became COLFO's spokesperson. He writes COLFO's regular column in Rod&Rifle magazine and is the former Operations and Marketing Manager of the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association. He also hosts COLFO's digital town hall interviews with people across New Zealand's shooting community.