A fantastic riser...but it won't be for everyone.
After shooting a 25” riser for several years, I decided I wanted to try switching to a 27” setup. As a taller archer with a wider wingspan, I was curious to see if I’d notice a difference, but as a left handed archer, there often aren’t a lot of options. I wound up going with what I could easily get, which was a Gillo GT 27. When I had first started looking for my first high end riser a year ago, I almost went with a GT, but had ended up with the Hoyt Xceed. One factor was cost (I could get the Hoyt used), but the other was my concern that the GT had too many moving parts to be trustworthy. But with few options, and knowing a few archers who shoot the GT personally, I decided to give it a shot…or rather several thousand shots.
After 3 months of shooting the GT almost daily, I feel like I have enough feedback to share initial impressions. The short version: it’s a fantastic, smooth riser perfectly suited for barebow…but with some real quirks and issues that might not make it for everyone.
The Good
Out of the box, the GT balanced like no other bow I’ve ever held. I thought my Xceed was well balanced, but the GT felt almost magic. Due to its asymetrical geometry and design, with two 12ozs weight on the front the riser felt like it had hidden gyroscopes or magic inside. Swinging the bow forward and back, side to side, it almost didn't move, and when it did swing it settled immediately. I ultimately wound up adding an internal 3oz disc weight to the bottom hole, used my classic 12oz custom aluminum midweight, and a 12oz Yost lower weight.
And, to the ire of the old guard of barebow purists, I added two back dampeners and a front top dampener (sometimes a top weight, still experimenting). This is the real beauty of the GT: you can basically attach weight or dampening to it however you want. With 6 stabilizer bushings (3 on the front, 3 on the back), three holes for proprietary weights, and a slew of proprietary accessory weights, there’s effectively no combination of weight you can’t try. Tinkerers will love it. While I was tempted to try the popular Hammer weights, it balanced so perfectly with my existing weight kit I decided to just keep it as is.
My first time shooting it was apparent how even with minimal weight or dampening, the GT hung stable and shot smooth. I first shot it with WNS C5s, and then Uukha SX50s, and with both it shot beautifully with a variety of arrows at a variety of draw weights. With the Uukhas the shot is buttery smooth, with nothing but that well known low-end frequency hum from the carbon limbs. With my weights and dampeners, there’s almost no vibration at release.
While I wound up sandinging down, and ultimately replacing, the stock grip with my go-to Jager Pinnacle 38, I will say it's one of the nicest stock grips I’ve shot. The fact that it’s solid wood is great, because you can sand it down as much as you want as well, so I still plan to play with my original.
The Quirky
I am a constant tinkerer. While I’m absolutely a believer that one should find and settle on a tune as early in the season as possible and stick with it, I also will tune a lot during my tuning sessions. This is where the GT took some getting used to.
The limb bolts require loosening and tightening a small set screw in the side to adjust–not a big deal, but it takes some fiddling and adds a step, and you need to be mindful to put the set screw BACK. With other setups, where you use two hex keys of the same size at the same time, I never once forgot to tighten things down, but I’ve almost forgotten several times with the GT.
The floating limb pocket, while adding more adjustable weight range, sometimes didn’t actually move when I adjusted my limb bolt, so I’d have to loosen the screw for it and make sure it moved into place. Again, not the end of the world, but one more thing to be mindful of.
Speaking of those limb pockets, it takes getting used to measuring bolt turns for tuning. Normally you can just count your turns out from the bottomed-out position of a riser, but with the GT you have to be mindful of its limitations from the neutral position. I record the distance of the pocket from the riser now in my notes, but I do miss the days of “two turns out.”
The lateral limb adjustment also has two small set screws you remove completely before making adjustments…again, not huge, but yet another small thing to adjust and keep track of…
The Bad
So, my first issue with the GT is that all those “small” things add up. When I’m tuning my bow, I feel like a NASCAR pit crew worker, making my adjustments with several different hex keys, and then making sure I tightened down all the possible set screws. It’s not difficult, but it’s definitely more fiddly than my other risers, and slows the process down.
And, those small set screws: when I’m tuning outdoors, I have a small panic attack every time I remove them, fearing I’m going to drop them and lose them in the grass. I bought extras, and I’d recommend everyone does. I’ve waxed my screws, as I’m pretty paranoid they’ll come loose shooting (although to their credit, they have not).
Unfortunately, I’ve had multiple screws round out and seize already. That floating limb pocket bolt I had to adjust? Out of the box the pocket wouldn't move, and trying to free the screw (per the instructions) I rounded the head…not a lot, but more than I would’ve liked on a brand new bow. The tiny set screw in the lateral limb pocket? Seized and stripped, and only came out when we gave it some muscle with a spare, slightly bigger, hex key, to which the screw is still forever stuck on.
That limb pocket attachment screw gave me problems again. One day my group just moved inexplicably. After trying to diagnose the issue, I discovered it had loosened, making the limb pocket cant slightly. I tightened it down and it returned to normal, but the idea of my limb pocket moving was unsettling. See that white ring around the screw? That's where it was sitting off center.
The first time I put in my Uukhas, they got stuck. And I mean stuck. It took two of us pulling on it to get it apart. I sanded down the limbs just a hair and they went on and off easier. Then I made lateral adjustments a month later, and they got really stuck. I remember when I watched this happen to Jake Kaminski on his YouTube channel, I thought “How the hell did he do that?” Little did I know I was next in line. This unfortunately was when the lateral setscrew stripped and seized, adding to the frustration. Had our range’s coach not been there with extra tools, I would’ve been screwed.
I later learned this is a common enough issue, and means the internal lateral set screw has to be backed out just a hair. I figured this out on the Gillo Facebook group, which kind of reminds me of a technology forum, with people posting regularly trying to troubleshoot why this or that is seized, stripped, worn, or loose. From that forum I’ve learned about the different ways people fix or work around these issues, and it’s definitely a helpful community…but I’m also a little bothered that the help is needed at all.
I’ve since figured out one of the big issues is the hex keys Gillo sends to you: simply put, don’t use them. Mine are deformed and eaten up from minimal use in a way I’ve never seen, and have led to most of my problems. An archer at our range, a machinist and craftsman, recognized that the allen keys are a much softer metal than the screws and warp easily. None of my other metric keys fit cleanly, so I ordered a set of Wera allen keys, and they work fantastic. I’d highly recommend getting your own set of keys, and ones that are designed to prevent stripping. The Wera’s have a proprietary design that flares out for this exact reason.
I can hear the critiques now: “You just don’t know what you’re doing, you’re just rough on your gear.” For what it's worth, I'm not a brute when it comes to tools and using them generally speaking. I'm an electrician by trade, and much of what I work on is old, seized equipment, where a stripped or broken screw is catastrophic. I've never stripped, rounded, or have anything seize on my other bows, even cheaper ones, so I was surprised to have these problems with the GT.
It’s definitely important you read the included manual with your GT, and be warned the wording is not exactly intuitive if you’re a native English speaker. I’m not saying this to badmouth the writing–I understand and appreciate folks taking the time and labor to translate things from Italian–but if you find you have trouble reading technical manuals, the Gillo manual will definitely be a task.
The Verdict
Here’s the thing: the GT has problems, yes. But they’re all surmountable for the most part, and once you get used to them it’s smoother sailing. In my opinion, the scales are still tipped favorably, which I think should tell you how well this riser handles while shooting given my gripes. To me, it’s still worth the trouble. But, I think it’s important that you’re honest with yourself: if you’re rough on gear, if you’re the kind of person who forgets to re-set a screw, the kind of person who doesn’t look over their bow regularly, if you’re anything but meticulous with your gear, then I honestly think the GT isn’t for you.
But, if you take your time and are patient, you’ll absolutely fall in love with GT. If I had to guess, down the road it will evolve into a much more user friendly interface that will be essentially perfect, but in the meantime just know it’s a labor of love. Honestly, most of my concerns about the GT have been validated, but in my mind that shows that it’s performance is well past what I imagined or expected considering I'm still shooting it. I don't know if it'll be my forever-riser, but it would take a stellar riser to replace it.
But, seriously: buy your own damn allen keys for the love of God.