Normally, in the past 2-6 years, my standard drilling always placed the pin somewhere below the fingers, anywhere from outside the ring finger to under the middle finger. This always allowed (or forced, depending on your point of view) me to use weaker balls on heavier oil patterns than they were intended for. Over the past year of so, I have also placed pin just outside the ring finger, which gives me slightly more length than the lower pin position.

Over the past 6-8 months or so, I have drilled several stronger balls with the pin over the bridge (usually centered between the fingers) with the CG either directly below or kicked out 1-1.5". This started when a ball I wanted to use hooked too early for the oil pattern I was on. So I re-drilled it this way and it worked.

So I tried some stronger balls, notably a Dyno-Thane AU79 and an Intense Inferno, and drilled them this way. Normally, this drilling gets more natural length and USUALLY allows you one to use a ball on weaker condition that it would normally be used. HOWEVER, for these 2 balls, this drilling did not seem to allow this. Luckily neither one was made flippy and I can still use them on medium to medium-heavy oil patterns, although I only encounter those in practice session. Also this drilling did not work on a Sonic-X solid, a muchmilder ball than the above two.

This drilling did allow me to use the following balls on milder oil patterns: CrunchTime, Fuze Igniter, Rush.

I remain puzzled by this behavior: why some balls work and others do not.

Thanks, Anthony.

Cover surface does play to an unknown degree.
Of the ones that did "push", I polished or polished more the Igniter and the Rush, but not the CrunchTime.  I have not changed the surface on those stronger balls, the AU79 and the Intense,; the AU79 already comes highly polished. The Intense is back up to standard Brunswick finish (400 grit + their high gloss); I thought it would go longer with this high RG drilling, but it hasn't. (Still a great ball though; hits almost as hard as my CT.)