I picked up a used (but good condition) 15lb Typhoon.  The span was very close, but the pitches a bit off.  I plugged up the fingers and redrilled back through.  I plugged the thumb and drilled through 3/4 of the plug material.  After drilling the 1 1/4" hole and tapping in the slug, a HUGE chunk of the cover flew off!  In 10+ years of drilling, I have never seen this before.  I sent a quick note to Lane #1 asking whether they have seen this before.  Their response was, Thank you for your question, you must have grazed the edge of the slug and hit the cover with the hammer.  Real helpful...  after a follow-up note, I received no response from Lane #1.

SO...  I decided to clear plug the big chunk and retell the story as often as I can during leagues/tournaments  .


Anyway, enough complaining.  I used the original layout.  This put the pin 3 1/4" from my PAP.  The ball has a small weight hole (~ 7/8") on my PAP.  I hit the cover with a 500 grit abralon, followed by a 3000 grit Trizact pad, and finished with powerhouse factory finish polish.  I knew this ball had a strong cover, so I wanted something that I had a chance of throwing during league.

League shot is a standard medium/heavy volume house shot with lots of free area.  Typically I play 10 out to 5 and gradually move in as the night goes on...  The Typhoon was significantly stronger than anything else in my bag (Wrecker, Solar Flare, Green Mamba).  On fresh, I was lined up 15 out to 5.  The core really revs up easily.  Looks like a have an extra 50 rpm on my release.  The cover (in the polished state), is just strong.  I needed to get into a lot of oil early in order to get enough push down the lane.  When the ball hit the dry, it was a very quick response.  Probably one of the more angular solid balls I have seen in quite some time. 

On the fresh, the hit and carry were quite good.  Probably slightly above average for me.  Lots of messengers and no signs of 10 pins.  However, a few shots did leave solid 9's.  After the lanes began to transition, it was a different story.  I had to move a little deeper, but keep a similar target down the lane to get back to the pocket.  A little wide and it 2-8-10 city...  any tug and it was over reaction and through the face.  As good as the reaction was on the fresh, it was that bad/difficult to control during transition. 

To be fair, I think the ball (core/cover/layout) is just too strong for my house shot.    Even with the polish, it was way stronger than I had expected.  I think a bit of surface would help smooth out the backend.  However, I am going to need to see way more oil that my local center puts out in order to throw it. 

For me, it is a very strong covered ball, with a strong fast revving core.  Not necessarily a good fit for a typical league shot, unless you need some help to get the ball around the corner.  With a polished surface, the ball was very touchy during transition.