I'm having a few problems finding the right mix of balls in the two leagues I'm bowling in, especially on Thursday night, where my average has fallen below 180. So, I thought I would try my hammers this week. I'm taking six bowling balls with me, one being the Columbia blue dot so that means five hammers. The lanes are freshly oiled before league begins, a medium pattern, usually light on the outside and heavy in the middle. My problem has been with having my medium lane bowling balls doing well the first game with a 22 over 10 shot, then becoming too much. Trying to move inside I've been having consistency problems with making the corner, or too much corner, using a 32 over 15 shot. So...I thought I would try the following this week:

Hawg - heavy....sanded surface, just in case...out of box surface.
Hawg Wild - medium heavy, drilled in an ebonite #1 drill pattern, out of box.
Black Widow - ebonite #2 pattern drill...for medium heavy, out of box surface
Raw Hammer Doom - medium, primary ball, out of box finish.
Purple Vibe - medium light
Columbia Blue dot - spares

I hope I can use the Doom for the first game, moving gradually inside during the second game...and hopefully the third as well. If not, then switch to the Black Widow to move to a 32 over 15 shot and make the corner. It that fails, then move back outside with the Vibe which hits and carries quite well for a lighter ball. Last week I got caught in a situation where the outside was too dry for any medium ball, but had carrydown which kept a lighter ball from hitting well, lots of oil in the middle and just couldn't consistently get the ball into the pocket without slowing it way down and losing hit and sometimes breaking too much leaving ugly splits.(I was using Roto Grips...Horizon and Epic Saga. For me the Horizon is a smooth arc type of ball and can't make the corner when I move inside.) I hope the black widow and doom combination will solve that problem. The Hawg and Hawg Wild are for the just in case there's more oil out there than usual. Comments welcome...even scathing ones!

Chuck :-)

You seem to have enough equipment to score.  I do understand what your saying about being caught in between.  From what it sounds like i'm willing to bet that all you need to do is change the length of when you come out of the oil.  The lanes being dry will help you.  The only thing you really need to do is find out how far you need a ball to ride the oil in the middle before hitting the dry outside.

I personally don't think it's an equipment problem as it is playing the wrong part of the lane.

I would think you could take 3 balls with you to handle the different amounts of oil.  Then just change your line angle coming out of the oil.  If you get caught in between then just change hand positions or ball speed as an adjustment.

I have always found that THS are usually best playing inside; from the 3rd arrow in.

I hope this helps you out.