I brought a spare ball into a pro shop to have the span adjusted and to my surprise they had a new Reign ball out on display.  Owner said he had gotten some in early.  Anyways, it was the new ball I had decided I wanted when it was released so I went ahead and bought it then and there.  I want to make it clear that I'm not by any means a great bowler.  Only been at it for 2 years, but I'm starting to get a lot better and so far am carrying a 175 average in league.  I wanted to purchase my first high performance ball and the Reign seemed to be exactly what I had in mind.  Something really angular and strong off the break.  Also I wanted to have the drilling done based on my PAP.  The pro shop guy took my PAP by looking at the track on my spare ball (though I had only rolled that a few times so I can't imagine it had much of a track) and I explained to him the reaction I was looking for and told him to punch it up.  Picked it up the next day but did not have time to roll it then and there.  It was drilled so as the pin was dead left of center, sort of over middle finger, and about .75 inches above.  Anyways, took it out later and the reaction was simply not at all what I expected.  My old ball is a Brunswick Wizard and I expected a drastically different reaction from that.  What I got was damn near indiscernible.  I'm not a high rev player (which I explained at the time of purchase) and I tend to roll straight up the 5 board with speed.  I expected to be able to play much more in to out using this ball and still get recovery.  Quite frankly I saw no difference in reaction.  Is it possibly that I just don't put enough rev's on the ball to get it to react any differntly?  Or, is it that the drill really wasn't the right one for me?  I'd appreciate and thoughts you have.  

Also on a side note.  Is it normal when a pro shop drills a ball to use a scribe to mark up the ball? I mean I realize its just cosmetic and that a bowling ball ends up looking crappy after a couple weeks of bowling anyway, but isn't it normal to want your new ball to look new?  Not only was my new Reign all scribed up from finger holes to thumb but the guy also did the same to my previously unmarked spare ball when he fixed the span.

Edited on 9/24/2009 4:07 PM

I'm a lower-rev guy as well, and my Reign is stupidly strong downlane and lets me move deeper inside than all my other equipment and still carry.  So I doubt that's your problem.  More than likely, this drilling is too weak and low-flaring to allow the strong pearl coverstock on the Reign to do much.  Again, hard to say how weak this layout is based on your PAP, but for most bowlers, that's a low flaring layout.  This creates a lot of length, but also it tends to make the ball labor a little bit.  When the lanes get dry, you'll probably notice a big difference (the Wizard will want to hook too early and not drive through the back part of the lane compared to the Reign), but especially since it's a blended house shot, it's going to just make them overlap more.

Have your ball driller actually watch you throw both balls, explain to him what you actually want, and he'll probably end up redrilling the Reign I'm guessing to put a stronger layout on it.  You may also go to another ball driller for a second opinion.  Normally surface adjustments are the recommended thing to do when a ball isn't working well, but if you're having trouble getting a highly polished skid/snap pearl to do much when it finds friction outside, that tells me the drilling itself is just wrong and you're taking too much of the core's influence out of the ball.

Some of it is your low rev game, the rest is probably the shot.  I've seen house shots where a friend's Virtual Gravity was only two boards stronger than my old weaker equipment.  Do you have another center to try the two balls at?  You should see quite a bit more length and reaction to the dry with the Reign.  The drilling might be pretty normal did the pro shop tell you your PAP?

Some like scribe marks, some do not.  The shops that use them do so because a sharp scribe line should be more accurate than a grease pencil.  I like the marks, but I can easily understand that many do not.  If they bother you, make sure to let the shop know.  They can be removed with a resurface, but I wouldn't do it until the ball needs it.  But maybe they can do a potential next ball without them.
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Telling it like it is.