Columbia 300 U Turn Particle Pearl
Weight = 15.04 lbs
TW = 2 1/2 oz
Pin = 3 Inches
Quick Profile
High End Tweener with a High Track (5 1/2 > 5/8 Up) and 15-15.5 mph ball speed at the pindeck.
Everything else is in my profile including a few recent vids.
Layout
4 1/2 x 4 5/8 (No Weight Hole)
Pin sits under ring finger (About 1 3/4 above midline) and CG shifted to the right a pinch.
Generic Picture of Layout
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Pictures will be added tonight & video coming soon.
Ok this is a first for me having a Particle Pearl ball in my arsenal. I was intrigued and thought that a Pearl ball that would clear the heads, but at the same time give me decent read in the backends with some stored energy from the back would help.
Lane Conditions
So far so good. First initial impressions is that I got all 3 of those characteristics out of this ball last night. Last night I tried this ball on 20 yr old lanes. Pattern felt like it was about 37-40 feet with Medium Oil and a Xmas Tree type pattern. More oil in the middle and blended towards the gutter. The pattern was confirmed by a friend of mine who worked at the alley and was on his break. A few games of open play was done on the pair I bowled on and some carry down was evident due to the plastic house balls.
We have a new Head Laneman/Mechanic from another local house and I've noticed the patterns getting longer ever since he started his new job. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because the house I'm practicing at is known for light oil or just real bad broken down shots. It was nice to see some oil out there for once.
Getting to know the ball
Ok now to the ball. Kind of a neat ball with Grey Smoke swirls that compare to the Smokin' Inferno and Burgundy Pearl Mix that is sort of comparable to the Track Heat I threw it side by side with. I threw the ball a total of about 10-15 shots wit this ball as I was throwing other stuff side by side with it.
Best Line to the pocket
I tried several lines with this ball. On the Xmas Tree pattern, chasing the oil line to get it through the heads seemed to do the trick. Lay down point was the 25 Board, ball crossed the 18 board at the arrows and bellied to its' breakpoint approximately the 5 board around 40-45 feet down lane. The ball had a real nice angular arc to it. Surprising for a pin under layout! This ball did have some pop to it. It wasn't a hockey shape or an arc shape on the backend, it was in between if you could imagine that. Ok, now that I think about it, it was a strong arc.
Carry
One thing I noticed about it was how it mixed the pins around. Pocket shots carried well and I didn't leave any corner pins.
Recovery on this ball is impressive so far. We'll see how this ball fares off on other conditions. I particulary want to see this ball perform on aggressive backends and see how it reacts towards it.
Overall
Compared to my Heat which is drilled Pin over bridge and CG on my midline, I was able to play about the same line as the Heat. The Heat had more of a smoother arc shape at the same breakpoint, but in comparison I noticed an edge in angularity and pop with the U-Turn PP. As I use this ball more in league (Different house with AMF Synthetics) and tournaments, I will report back to you. Kind of an intriguing ball and its' performance def. surprised me. This is my first Columbia 300 ball since the Reaction Rev I bought in 2002. Great job Columbia on this combination of your classic stair step core with bottom flip block along with a Particle Pearl cover.
Hope this initial report helps you guys out. I will have videos up soon as usual to give you guys a visual. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Thanks go out to ballreviews users OG1, mrbowlingnut & achappy for their insight on the ball in a previous post!
Best Regards,
Ram Bam Bigelow
Edited on 3/3/2006 5:05 PM
