With no windows, the weathered, grey, galvanised structure stretching 33m might once have belonged somewhere else.
Evidently something to do with the other sheds around it, it seems to have been built in several stages, above and below normal house height, 6m at its widest.
It has two chimneys, and a glance at plumbing on the haphazard lean-tos indicate a toilet and bathroom, while a gloomy passage pressed between it and next door’s concrete-block shed leads about 10m to an entry door.
But neat, boring symmetry makes the shed’s most remarkable feature unremarkable.
The long, narrow "west wing’’ makes up almost two-thirds of the complex’s length.
Cartoon-like timber weatherboards along this low, monopitched gallery were recently clad to add to the variety of pressed steel enclosing the thick layers of brick and armour built into the butt of the western wall.
"The bullet hits the angled plate and deflects down into a sand trap," marksman Stuart Murray explained.
"There’s a brick wall behind that, and another iron wall behind the bricks, just to be sure."
Within the shell of mismatched steel is a fully certified indoor rifle range — home range of the South Otago Smallbore Rifle Club, where members have quietly been honing their aim for generations.
"It was originally a hen house," club president and member of 55 years Stuart Murray said.
"Whether it was all henhouse or just that end of it I don’t really know. That’s before even my time."
Smallbore shooters compete to shoot subsonic .22 ammunition into 4cm diameter circles down a 20 yard range with no optical sights.
The Otago club’s key members, including Mr Murray and Tony and Diane Black, are all national-level sharp-shooters, selected for New Zealand indoor rifle squads at this year’s North v South Island championships in Nelson.
When Mr Murray first joined in 1968, the range was rougher.
"It never had any ceiling here. That was just an open gable straight up to the iron roof and it got pretty cold some nights, but there must have been around 30 members back then."
On each flank are seats for two spotters to observe through nautical telescopes and a coach.
A closet where the cards are marked out of a perfect score of 101, insulates the range from the club lounge, a high-ceilinged museum of period couches and tables.
"We still have groups like scouts or schools come and shoot with us as guests,’’ Mr Murray said.
"But most of the township won’t even know we exist. You can be right outside and you can’t hear people shooting.’’
Many visitors come expecting noise and gunsmoke and instead find something deeply absorbing and meditative.
Zen Buddhist koan describes the connection of archer, bow and target: "Fundamentally, the marksman is aiming at himself ...’’
Enthusiasts such as national champion and club member Mr Black invest seriously in cutting-edge technology to improve their control in that space, while visitors using the club’s classic competition rifles find themselves beginning a journey of fast improvement.
Rifle shooting once filled the social space as comfortably as rugby or netball in rural New Zealand, and the South Otago Smallbore Rifle Club was part of a network of about 10 local clubs.
These days, the club keeps the sport alive on a shoestring, raising funds to cover insurance, rates and ammunition.
"We’re still functioning," Mr Murray says.
"Despite all the changes in laws and regulations, we’re still here."
