First of all, big time kudos to Brian Graham of Hammer Bowling for taking the time to both e-mail and phone me for making certain that all of my drilling questions were answered. It's gratifying to know that a question can be answered by someone within the framework of an organization in a timely manner AND with professionalism. Brian and Hammer aren't the only ones that I've encountered with this type of class. However, it's still refreshing to hear someone on the other end of the phone that's actually listening to a customer voicing a concern.
Ball specs were as follows:
15.03 pounds
3.0 oz. TW
2.75" pin
Wound up drilling this with a pin-PAP of 5.25" and placing the HART about 2" left of the thumbhole. Not a carbon copy of the #6 drilling, but, just enough core and pin placement tweaks to accomodate what I wanted the ball to do with the type of game I possess. The ball finished up with just under .25 oz. of negative side weight, just about where Brian and I had envisioned without the need for a fourth hole.
For the record, I feel like garbage. The cold and flu season couldn't make it through the winter months without saving up some major league energy and whollop me in the last 24 hours. I'm achy, weak, and feel like my head weighs 40 pounds. Not making excuses, simply foreshadowing my encounter with the ball.
Wow. This one's nice. All I need now is a little energy to get the ball down the lane to the breakpoint, and this ball's wonderful. Very smoooth, predictable move off of the breakpoint with a "moth drawn to fire" move to the hole. In comparison, a full four or five boards stronger than a WMB drilled with a similarly aggressive drilling. This was more movement than I had originally expected, as the WMB has been my "hooking piece" in the arsenal for about a year. Hit and carry were equally impressive. Only once today did I think I threw a shot worthy of carrying the corners and left a 10-pin standing. Left of couple of weaker 10-pins, as well. However, this was primarily due to my lack of strength rather than the ball. Made a couple of errant throws with the ball that failed to make it back to the pocket. Again, not the ball's fault. I'll accept 100% of the blame. Our shot is fairly easy. However, there's still at least 4.5-5 units of oil outside of five. It's not the arid deserts of the Sahara like I've encountered at some houses. All in all, a very pleasant piece of equipment to have in my bag.
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