I've been still playing with these GTO ammo and think I found my new SQUIRREL hunting round. I shot the GTO and put a few holes in my floor. I have a 330 page hard cover book that I use for trapping the pellets during a chronograph string. It usually stops lead hollow points easy. I thought that because it is half the weight of others, it would slow fast.-wrong! 12 rounds tore through the book, the carpet, padding then slammed into the concrete floor underneath. When I pulled them out, they were barely damaged! Only noticable damage was the from the barrel groves. Interesting I would say.
View attachment 8505 Heavy lead rounds and hollow points are always nice, but a hard, light round also has its benifits. Here are my thoughts and observations:
1)GTOs do not get chew up from the barrel as much (less of a dirty barrel and seems to help accuracy)
2) flat trajectory. You can pretty hold on zero from 18 to 45 yards (97% of all my shots when squirrel hunting are under 40 years). The flat trajectory also help avoid hitting tree branches.
3) I you have lower power gun, the hard alloy will "crack" skull and "bust" through a squirrel's brain and cause just as much damage as a hp, I think.
4) A gun or animal will not never be contaminated by lead.
5) These GTO have no flyers! I've shot many group 25-35 year this winter and have NONE! Not one shot was from a bad pellet.
The only disadvantage from 11.75gr GTO's are they are very affected by the wind. With a .023 bc, the will be worthless in windy conditions. But if you squirrel hunt in a thick protected woods and at close range, who cares if it is windy? Even if you do want to shoot them at 75-100 in zero wind condtions, they have less than 10 ft/lbs of energy anyway at that point and falling fast. Still worthless in my opinion.
Benifets clearly outway the disadvantage for me. I think GTOs will be my new round for close range. Thoughts?
