I've had the Golden Jackal about three weeks now. In the box finish, I found little use for this ball. But it's not uncommon for my game that a sanded finish, low RG, high flare,  asymmetric doesn't fit what I need unless bowling on flatter oil.


Last week, I decided to add a little shine to the cover to see what it would do. As it turns out, with a polished cover, this thing is a house shot killing first and second game ball for me. At least over two outings anyway. Last week, I started with a bad front five in the first game until I changed to the polished GJ, then threw strikes for the next 15 balls. By the end of the second game, it was suffering from oil depletion(five man scratch league) so back in the bag it went.


This week(last night), I went 279 first game with it, leaving a flat ten for the first ball in the tenth frame, then seven more strikes before running out of my carry limits to the left.


The conditions were a walled up 7 to 7 "house hack paradise" shot that gives a ton of area to the right with a river of hold in the middle. At least until the heavy hand guys burn out the area between 15 to 25 around the end of the second game using sanded equipment.


So in short, pretty good ball if you find the right surface for your game and conditions. Pretty much like every other ball being made right now.


I will give it props for appearance though, with the polished finish, it's a head turner. Which is unusual for a Motiv ball as most of their stuff does not have overwhelming shelf appeal.

Good post, review milo. Isn’t this cover already shiny and polished though? What did you do wet sand with abralon, and repolish it? What product, polish did you use. Just curious.

Good post, review milo. Isn’t this cover already shiny and polished though? What did you do wet sand with abralon, and repolish it? What product, polish did you use. Just curious.

Motiv says the box finish is 4000 Grit LSS, but of course no two Motiv balls are the same when you open the box. Mine had a very dull finish, probably closer to 2000 if I had to guess as there was no shine to it.

I have been using NEAT pads the past couple of years instead of Abralon, so I hit the box finish with the "A" pad, which is supposed to be 2500, then used Ultimate Black Magic polish to bring it to a shine. It's not "see yourself in the mirror" shiny like a Storm factory shine, but a bit below that level.

After the polish, I can still see the deep sanding lines from the factory, but the surface is polished.