Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Is Mitchell Maxberry Still Shooting In NZ?

Does anyone know whether Mitchell Maxberry is still shooting in NZ? He has moved around a bit within a number of the NZ clubs last shooting at the Cheltenham Rifle Club. He caused a bit of a ruckus with the National Rifle Association of New Zealand (NRANZ) over safety concerns shooting at the Trentham range. The NRANZ terminated his membership (effectively ending his competitive shooting in NZ). He sued the NRANZ in the NZ High Court making a number of allegations. Last I heard, the NRANZ restated his membership in July 2015. I take no position regarding the merits of his allegations, though I suspect the resulting outcome may have been a Pyrrhic victory.

Have not heard from him in a long time.

I used to hang out on NM forums, I"m sure ones like national match are still around, I"d check with them.

I emailed a couple buddies in Kiwi Land. Maybe I can find some information.

Thanks guys. I was able to reach out to Mitchell through other channels. He’s still resolving his membership problems with the NZ folks. I hope that he works things out because I understand that he is very passionate about competitive shooting (and is quite a good shooter) and it would be sad to see someone denied access to a sport they clearly love. Unfortunately he has ruffled a few kiwi feathers (pun intended) on some of the safety issues on the range. I’m not in a position to hold an opinion on issue, other than observing that both sides have become rather entrenched in their points of view. Mitchell may simply need to accept that, regardless of the merits of what he is saying, the Kiwis are not going to change their position on the matter, and the best thing that he can do is accept he has done all that can be reasonably done and to now drop the matter and focus on his primary passion, competitive shooting. If someone gets hurt because his concerns were ignored, that is regrettable, but it is what it is. And I say this as one who has, on more than one occasion, been in exactly the same position as he is now.

I miss talking with Mitch...he's one dang good LR shooter. He's in this photo on the far left. I'm in white long sleeved sweat shirt sixth from the left front row. These were the top 20 shooters in the Palma Match at Camp Perry in '94.

Top 20 shooters at 1994 Palma Match Camp Perry, Ohio by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr