In regards to the Deadly Aim, for what I have seen from my equipment & other bowlers, is that this ball NEEDS head oil to be effective in the backends... I too saw that this ball is very continuous motion in the backends, but after talking to several other staffers and they see the same motion which is more continuous that a big backend motion.

Have you played with the surface adjustments on the ball? I have applied FF polish on the ball to give it more length and do see a difference in the backend motion with the ball (added length = more backend).

It is a different motion than what you see in the current Hammer line, which is refreshing to see. This ball works best on the fresher patterns and can chase the oil later in the games, but would recommend other balls if you are looking for a long & big flip motion in the backends.

Hope this helps you out!

I had a staffer tell me, "This ball would be the dead nuts if the lane was 5 feet shorter."

plowboy, not to sound rude but i wasn't trying to get a long and flip motion from my deadly aim. i kind of want a  earlier and smoother roll from it with some surface changes so that i can use it on a fresher pattern. is the coverstock on the deadly aim that much stronger than hammer's other releases? the second layout that i used was a 55x 3 1/2 x 45 because i thought that it wouldn't burn up too quickly with that pin placement and larger val angle. when you chose the distance from your pin to your pap for your deadly aim did you intentionally use a longer pin placement and a larger val angle? have you drilled any since with a stronger layout?

  i have a friend that is also a hammer staffer with a very strong release (500+ rpm's) and he told me that his deadly aim made the same hook/stop move until he took the surface down to 500 grit and polished it with storm's 1500 compound. he said that it rolls well now but i thought that it would make the deadly aim burn up even sooner. did the other staffers that you talk to make surface changes also or use weaker layouts like you did?