Okay, so it's the first night of a new sport pattern and all we are told is that it is 47 feet in length. During our 10 minutes of practice, I notice all my equipment is hooking late even though I am playing up the boards around 15-16. Naturally I use a maroon scotchbrite to dull up my 3 strike balls with a noticeable improvement. I quit sanding before the practice ends and proceed to shoot 804 over 4 games. We end up taking 29 out of 30 points. Before I leave, the guy I was bowling against tells me I totally messed up his game by burning up the heads. He said no one else in the league was using dull equipment and if I continued to do so I would more than likely end up getting my A$$ kicked in the parking lot. I just laughed it off and went home. How crazy is this? I don't believe I violated any USBC rules by sanding during practice. Any thoughts?

Let me know if you need any help in the parking lot with those idiot wannabes !!

He's just pissed because you bowled better than him and made the right surface changes.  You can make changes in practice, just not once the actual competition starts as stated in the Rule 18 post above.  I wouldn't worry about him.

I'm not a fan of shimwreckers either but I've never threatened one before.

Just because the pattern in 47 feet in length doesn't mean it requires an aggressive surface. Unless you are very speed dominant, it may have been wiser to wait for the shot to develop.  You may have bowled better.

it might be true you don't need an aggressive ball for that, but thats the way he wants to play and the others have to adjust to that. Why wait for a shot to develop when he can just shoot a 804 right out of the gate? I thought that a strategy in itself that you make a shot better for you and to give your opponents a shot thats not available.

Players hear 47 feet and think they need charcoal.  Players don't see the ball wheeling on the back and think they need something stronger.  In my experience this line of thinking can be a mistake.  I'm not saying he should worry about anyone else but had he been patient there may have been more out there than 804.

thats true never know what could have happened

Look at the bowlers specs.  At 17/220 his ball hasn't ever wheeled.

It's not one bowler's responsibility to make sure the shot stays nice for those around them. Sure, there are definitely circumstances where it makes sense for everyone to get on board and play the lanes a certain way with certain types of equipment (or to avoid other types of equipment), see USBC Open Championships team event, PBA events, and other long-format tourneys. In those circumstances, it kind of sucks to have someone blowing the lane up and making things difficult if not impossible for everyone else to score.

With that being said, that doesn't mean the person doing it is doing something wrong. Hell, the pros intentionally try to trash their opponents' lines during practice. It sounds like this guy's 804 helped his team dominate, which means the strategy (and I'm not sure you can call it that since it doesn't sound like he did it with designs on shimwrecking the other team) worked. What he did was perfectly within the rules. To me, the guy who threatened him sounds like a total d-bag who, if I condoned violence, should be taken out to the parking lot himself! 

It's not one bowler's responsibility to make sure the shot stays nice for those around them. Sure, there are definitely circumstances where it makes sense for everyone to get on board and play the lanes a certain way with certain types of equipment (or to avoid other types of equipment), see USBC Open Championships team event, PBA events, and other long-format tourneys. In those circumstances, it kind of sucks to have someone blowing the lane up and making things difficult if not impossible for everyone else to score.

With that being said, that doesn't mean the person doing it is doing something wrong. Hell, the pros intentionally try to trash their opponents' lines during practice. It sounds like this guy's 804 helped his team dominate, which means the strategy (and I'm not sure you can call it that since it doesn't sound like he did it with designs on shimwrecking the other team) worked. What he did was perfectly within the rules. To me, the guy who threatened him sounds like a total d-bag who, if I condoned violence, should be taken out to the parking lot himself! 

A perfect example of this is Brian Valenta on the Badger over the summer.  He was throwing stuff sanded way down that gave him the edge over everyone except Bill O'Neill in the last game.  It also forced Valenta to use major loft since the heads were totally trashed.