This is the review in Bowlers Journal for January 07

Banger Bowling: Hole Pounder
48 Hook; 16 Length; 16 Breakpoint Shape
Core Design: The Hole Pounders symmetric Visionary core is single density. The Rg is 2.54 with a Diff reading in at .040. We saw 4" of track flare with a 4.5 and 3.5" drill patterns.

Coverstock: The ControlHookReactive pearl reactive cover comes highly polished at 1500-grit. Banger designed this all-new cover to match the aforementioned core. This cover has very limited friction in oil, yet responds very aggressively when it encounters dry boards.

Manufacturer's Intent: Banger intentionally or not produced a "WOW" ball. A "WOW" ball is a ball that both draws attention and makes people ask, "What the .... are you throwing?" Balls which attract attention often go long and turn with the blinker on high. In more simple terms, entry angle impresses many with both it's look and hit. And we all love balls that can potentially give us those flyin' bird dogs Norm Duke talks about.

Test Results: When determining a ball's overall hook rating. I take into account the reaction in oil and, naturally, in friction (dry). The Hole Pounder's hook rating on heavier longer patterns would be in the low 40's, whereas on shorter and drier patterns, the rating would be in the mid to upper 50's. In other words, this ball is a dart in oil, yet the move was quick, strong and continuous when it encountered friction. The ball's hitting power and carry was also impressive when used on the recommended condition.

When to Use: An appropriate condition would be many medium to lighter patterns which have some area to throw at. The Hole Pounder will work when playing inside angles and an angular move off the dry is desired. Straighter players can simply bump the dry on a wet/dry pattern and have recovery room right, but may not have sufficient friction when missing left. When bowling on sport patterns, we found scuffing the surface with various scotch brite or abralon pads will help blend its read and make the reaction more bowler friendly. Blending the read refers to increasing a ball's friction in oil and slowing it's response off dry. This ball will let you know where the oil and the dry is. All release types will love the crisp reaction and and explosively hitting power. Controlling the aggressiveness with this and similar strength balls takes skill and having a good feel for the pattern on which you're bowling. You must know where the oil is and where the hook spot is to be successful.
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David Atwood
President Banger Bowling
"When you need the balls to find the hole"
1-800-982-9188
www.bangerbowling.com

Bought 2 of these balls at nationals, first ball, pin over ring finger W/ mass bias 3 1/2 inches from CG line, surface polish broken with 2000 abralon. clean trough heads, heavy arcing roll starting midlane. Hits like a tank, rolled it for the first time in my home league shot 700. Second ball, pin on CG line over fingers very clean through heads and midlane, very hard finishing ball, rolled it for doubles and singles at nationals hit so hard kept leaving the back row.  Thanks to David, John, and Charlie very good people.

MOST IMPRESSIVE!

SPECS: Pin is above my Bridge and the Mass Bias is out about 2 inches PAP is about 5 inches out with pattern.

Mountain Bay Lanes: A little different all the time but when I have used this ball it has been like this, Heavy 7 to the gutter medium oil inside 7 with alot of backend almost to much with my Hercules or RavageIV. First week with it I pulled it out to start the night with had nice flat line with the ball went 10-11 at the arrows and 7-8 at the breakpoint. HPP got down past the oil which was down to about 40-43 feet and made a easy sweeping turn into the pins and BOOM they all went away. I liked how gentle the ball turn the corner almost like urethane just a feth of a lot later and stronger, had a pretty good amount of zone past 7th board alot of stuff doesn't turn on that and this was strong enoungh to make it back when I screwed up and put it out there. On the break down this ball was gold moved left slower than everyone else but the ball did not jump off the dry which gave me an incredible amount of room to use in the last game, I did not have to move as drastically as the other power players on the lanes with me that night my angle didn't go through the roof like it usually does in this place.

Sabre Lanes: DRY!!!!! They may have used the oiler last week but we are not sure! Essentially 10-10 for 38 feet and not alot of juice in the middle and even less when there is a a guy throwing to fingered inside of 15 all night
Pulled HPP again and cranked away went 13 at the arrows out to about 5 and back to the pocket it would come with that sweeping turn real easy to handle on a dry shot just gorgeous. Really not much to say here the ball ate the lane alive from this line.  I thought I would do some experimentation as long as we were losing by 200 pins each game. Moved out left fast as they broke down beating the break down to the left eventually I was playing around 17-15 at the arrows and keeping the ball inside more ball still hooked in the oil nice easy turn to face the pins and they just exploded on contact WOW! ball would jump just a little if I throw it to wide here but I had far more control over it than the other people on the pair.

UPDATE: I had the thumb slug pulled out and put a different one in with a little different feel to it and the difference is night and day, the ball is stronger than mentioned in the review above! a good 3-5 boards on any condition, and the hitting power has improved along with it. I would still say the ball will handle meduim-dry conditions the best with this drill pattern. Ball is still amazing and has not lost any reaction after about 30 games and has no track visiable! Great ball with great versatility!


Overall: WOW! is still all I can say this ball is incredible on light to medium conditions with this setup I have never had more control on a ball on light oil unless the ball was urethane it is just amazing! Hit and Carry were incredible at both houses this thing was lighting the pins up to something fierce, Messenger central and most of the messengers were not needed cause everything was already gone. Controllable hook, great hitting power, reads lanes consistently shot to shot, overall a great piece to had to the arsenal this will be in my league bag for a long time. Can't wait to buy a Hole Finder, Dave Atwood is a great guy and wish him all the luck, he keeps making bowling balls like this he won't need luck though it will take care of itself!
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Mainzerpower

I drilled one of these a few weeks ago and after some different alterations I have decided to post now that I have a full idea of this ball.

PAP~ 5 3/8 x 1 up
Ball Speed~ 18-19 MPH
Rev Rate~ Higher

Layout~ 5 3/8 x 4 3/8
Surface~ Out of the Box (1500 Polished)

After I drilled this ball I went to league on a normal 39ft house shot and bowled. It got through the fronts with no problems and once it saw friction it was pretty easy to see its move. For me it was a little to jerky in the back off the dry. After a few adjustments with feet, mark, angle, etc... I decided I wanted to put a weight hole in the ball. I took a 1 inch bit placing a hole on my Vertical Axis Line and took the side weight back to 0. I wanted this to start the ball up a little early to control the mids better and to tame down some of that jerk in the back. It was very close to what I was looking for after those changes. The last change I made was to take the surface down just slightly to about 1000 abralon. Now it reads the mids and continues very nicely through the pocket.

Overall this ball is very good! I am looking forward to drilling another one and putting everything closer to my axis to get the ball started up a little sooner. This ball is a great start for this company! I will be putting up my review on the Solid in the next day or two..
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George Palumbo
Banger Bowling Amateur Staff Member
www.BangerBowling.com

Had 2 Hole Pounder Pearls drilled up recently, thus far very positive results.
 1st one 2 3/4 pin, placed 3/4 under right finger, balance hole 5 1/4+ 3/4 up.

medium/high revs, ~ 17mph, right handed
Cover left out of box condition(1500)

Initially ball read mid well and made smooth return to the pocket, which was the intent of the drilling. Transitioned very well with minor adjustments on the lane, would not seem to jump left if placed in the dry too early just seemed to read shot well. Pin carry is impressive with flush shots almost a given and light hits pins seem to stay on the deck just knocking each other over. Shot 300 with this one in 8th game used. If lanes are heavy oil I'd take cover down to at least 1000 grit but standard house shot OOB seems to read well.

2nd ball
also OOB condition 3 1/2 pin placed 1/2 above right finger, no balance hole needed.
This drilling has more length for me and a slightly more aggressive return, not skid/flippy more of a long and strong reaction. Pin carry remains the same very good. This drilling gives me more room on the lane as they breakdown. These are very good entries into the market and am glad to have them in my bag. I look forward to getting some HP Solids punched w/ reviews to follow.


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"This is bowling not a beauty contest, not how but how many"

Team Banger Member

Ball: I drilled this ball with the pin 4 1/4 from PAP 2 3/4 above my midline. The CG is stacked below the pin and on my midline. X Hole 4 3/4 from grip center on my midline.

Lanes: I have thrown this ball on several different patterns and different lane surfaces. The house pattern that I threw it on was 35ft buffed to 42 ft with the oil line on 10 board, the oil tapers from 10 board out. I have also thrown it on the Viper, Shark, and Cheetah Patterns.


HOOK:
Heavy Oil: For most bowlers this ball would not be the choice for heavier patterns. The Hole Pounder Solid would fit that slot. It was playable on the Shark Pattern as long as I kept the line very tight to the pocket without getting it wide of 15board.

Medium: The HP pearl excels here. It is very predictable for a reactive pearl piece. There were no guessing games as to what this ball would do. It cleared the heads with ease without overreaction off of the dry. At the same time of it being predictable it corners strong in the backends.

Light: I would not consider this a light oil ball, but as long as you can find some oil to carry it down the lane it could be used here.

TOTAL HOOK:
If you keep the use of this ball on medium patterns it will shine. Avoid the extreme dry and oil.

CONTROL:
I was suprised at how well the HPPearl handled conditions with fresh backends. Normally I have a problem with pearls overreacting and jumping through the face. It is very forgiving and is not extremely speed sensative. I did not have an issue with over/under with this ball. The HPPearl fits the phrase "benchmark ball" very nicely.

EXPECTED REACTION:
I expected more of an inconsistant reaction.....fortunately the HPPearl did not give me that. I expected to have to make a surface adjustment. Pearl reactives with this layout (for me) can be very unpredictable.

STRENGTHS:
Sport patterns and PBA patterns were not a big hurdle for the HPPearl. Many balls over shoot the breakpoint on these patterns, this was not an issue during this test. KEEP this ball on the medium patterns, that is where you will see it do what it does best.

WEAKNESSES:
AVOID EXTREMES!!!!! Extremely long patterns and extremely dry patterns. On the heavier stuff it will skate too far, and on the lighter patterns this ball will not layoff, it will keep coming.

COMMENTS:
Banger has a very nice ball here that has slipped under the radar of most of the bowling public. A consistant readable reaction....yet strong at the backend with plenty of recovery. The HPPearl does a remarkable job on sport patterns and tougher lane conditions. Another plus is that this ball takes advantage of the wall when you are faced with it.....yet it does not overreact when you miss to the outside of the lane early.

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Carl Hurd
C-G Pro Shop (owner/operator)
Youngstown Ohio


Tag Team Member #1

TAG TEAM COACHING!!!!!!/Co-Founder

After watching my girlfriend strike a lot with her HPP I decided i had to get one. I laid my HPP out 4 x 4 which for me is pin over my ring finger with cg stacked below my ring finger.


I got to throw it in a 20 gamer( yes 20 gamer ) the last 4 games of our 10 game block on Chamelon pattern and it saved my life(216,231,258,246). I was struggling to say the least and it evened out the pattern for me. It let me play in and not have to worry about getting the ball down the lane. This ball is very smooth through the fronts and doesn't make a u-turn off the dry. It's controllable and hits very well. Rolly for a pearl ball which i love.

On a house shot this ball is the nuts. Like I said before most pearl balls tend to either go 50 ft in the oil, or hook 50 ft in the dry. The HPP blends out that over/under. The cover is very easy to tweak and I am really excited about this first Banger ball. Hopefully the new Finders come out soon because I am looking forward to what else they can come up with.