Trip to Bhimashankar

[SMJ]

Hello everyone,

Sharing a few pictures from a recent trip to the jungles of Bhimashankar - what an awe inspiring place! We stayed at a beautiful jungle resort which owns around 200 acres of property. The property also has 2 'tanks" or lakes (water holes created for the wildlife) and is located in the midst of reserve forests.
Decided to leave my SX and NX 100 at home and instead take my IHP 35 and SDB 65 rifles as well as my IHP pistol. Since I very rarely get to shoot (I am hoping to change that very soon) I decided to just have some fun plinking rather than serious target practice. I did not get to shoot either of these rifles after I bought them and I learned that my SDB is much more powerful than my IHP ( both need serious make overs though) and is also much harder to cock and trigger pull is also far heavier compared to my IHP. It seems the O breech seal on the SDB is of much better quality than the IHP.

In the pictures of me shooting you will notice a boundary wall as a back drop to the beer can targets. In my personal opinion this was NOT the safest or best of backdrops considering the shooting was being done in an area which are reserved forests (the wildlife sanctuary is around 10 kms away) and the area behind the boundary wall is a wildlife corridor- therefore I was not at all happy but had no choice as I was told by the management that forest department officials often visit the area and the property and that it was best that I do not take my air rifles out of the porch of my "bungalow" as far as possible and shoot from the porch.

Spotted the following (pictures taken):-

Birds
Coral Tit
Nilgiri Wood Pigeon
Could not take pictures of the various spur fowl, egrets etc that I saw

Reptiles
Oriental Garden Lizard
Juvenile Russells Viper

Insects and Arachnids
Praying Mantis
Giant Wood Spider

Also came across some droppings as seen in the pictures - either deer or hare droppings not sure

Sorry for the poor quality of the images as my photography skills are pretty naff....

[Sakobav]

SMJ nice pictures and serene area..russel viper they are nasty ... glad you clarified on back stop and about plinking
cheers

[SMJ]

ngrewal sir- thanks! Great place- the snake was mis identified - it is a russells kukri - a non venemous species

[marksman]

Do not forget to keep a common object (matchbox/lighter/pencil/etc.) beside a photograph for comparison so as to determine the size.,Thats what I do and seek help in case I find it difficulty in identifying the subject.

Marksman