Here's the background. I'm left handed, above average revs, about 17 mph. I wanted to get a new ball before I go to JOG to replace my SR300, so I went to a different pro shop because my normal guy isn't at the shop during the summer due to travel. At that point, I carried an SR300, Tropical Storm, and Power Drive Sanded. The SR300 fit perfect, but rolled over the fingers through the midlane and backend. The Tropical Storm comes off my hand later than the SR300, causing me to pull it. The Power Drive Sanded's thumb wasn't consistant, and caused me to drop the ball early. I went into this pro shop and had a talk with the guy there and we decided to drill up a Red Zone. Perfect fit with my SR300, and he fixed my PDS.
I've gotten about 20 games in with the Red Zone, and I must say I'm impressed in a different way. I've owned a Red/Black PBA Inferno and a BVP Ambush, but I didn't really like the way those rolled. I took a chance with the Zone, mainly because I have a $25 rebate towards it, which made it the cheaper in the end as the Thunderstuck Solid I was also considering. This is the first ball I have with a full-roller drill on it, too.
This ball has a big early backend, with a lot of hitting power on the right conditions. At first I was a bit skeptical about the carry with the Red Zone, but after tonight I have found it's a bit weaker than I was expecting. Which is perfect. I was a little worried it would overlap too much with my PDS. On more oil, the ball made it to the pocket, but carry was questionable, leaving back row pins often. Once I broke the pattern down with my PDS, the ball came alive! I was throwing it almost straight up 6 and this ball just smashed the pocket, nothing left standing.
I ended up moving to my brother's lane, where there were 5 people bowling and moving the oil around. I threw a bigger swing here, right foot on 20 aiming for the 5 board as my break point. Man, this thing moved in a huge uppercut and just smashed pins. I ended up shooting only 180, but had there been lights on (they just turned 'em off for extreme bowling) and if I was actually aiming, I think I would've shot higher.
All in all, tonight was pretty good. Threw 20 games for quarter night for about 10 bucks all together and learned more about my new Red Zone.
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---Ryan
