I drilled my first No Mercy just as suggested. With the pin above/right of my ring finger and the HART to the left of my thumb. This is an oil ball, no doubt. It rolls pretty early and has a strong break point, and usually keeps on hooking, no quit on the back end.
I was skeptical of all the HART stuff at first, but after attending the Pro Shop Seminar for this ball, Hammer may really be on to something with this core concept. Steve Szabina got this ball to me early, about a week before the seminar, because he wanted me to be able to throw the ball during the seminar, which we did. (The CG ended up being negative on this ball after drilling, so as to get the HART close to desired position)
The seminar house had Pro Anvil Lane, and they put down the house shot and then PBA Scorpion on some other lanes. This ball handled both very well. I was able to open up the lane on the fresh condition very well. No quit on the back end, very continuous motion through the pins.
At the seminar, the attendees received a No Mercy as part of the fee to attend. After all the information given to us by Ron Hickland, I really wanted to see if different layouts would really make a difference.
So, I drilled my seminar ball with the pin over the fingers on the bridge, and the HART was about 1 1/2 below right of my thumb hole, which Hammer says this is a very weak position and not recommended. After throwing it, I knew why! THIS ball was a fricken DART! It was almost a dry lane ball, easily 12-15 boards with my feet straighter than No Mercy #1. Unbelievable how much difference there was in the two balls, and NO extra holes in either one. #2 rolled really well, just seemed lazy the whole way down the lane, with a smooth back end motion, almost dead. On the right lane condition, it has been really good. The back ends really need to be hooking for this ball to work well. I had a good shot with this ball at the 2007 Tour Trials on the Chameleon Pattern right off the gutter. This tournament was bowled on wood, so there was a lot of friction on the back end, this ball made the lanes look slick. I bowled most of the two hour practice session with this ball, and never moved my feet. After the practice session, I made the mistake of buffing this ball up some, and it goes too straight now, very weak on the back, 8-10 weak on the back. Also, since then I have bowled about 100 games with No Mercy #1 and it is still very good. A little loss of back end motion, but nothing a good cleaning would not fix.
There is a layout for just about any type of player to use this ball. I would not suggest the HART away from the track layout unless you have a very high rev rate.
Sorry I don't have any other specifics about layout, top weight and such. With this core design, static weights just don't matter. The pin is about 4 1/4 inches from my PAP on #1 and about 4 5/8 from PAP on #2.
I really like this ball, and this core design. I hope they come out with some kind of pearl reactive version, that could be dangerous!!!
Thanks for reading!
MikeA
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