I picked up a Neptune to help combat some of the super-dry lane conditions my local house provides for league bowlers. I drilled my Neptune with a 6" pin to PAP distance, a 3.5" mass bias (spot marked 6 3/4" from the pin on a line drawn through the cg) to PAP distance, and a 5 1/4" pin buffer distance. This placed the pin just below and outside of my middle finger and the cg in the positive thumb quadrant. The ball weighed out statically and didn't require a weight hole. I adjusted the surface by applying a coat of Ebonite Extender Polish overtop of the box finish. A photo of the ball along with my stats are in my profile.
My first league night after drilling the ball was "supposed" to be the 39' Chameleon pattern. As typical with this house, the lane machine did not function properly and the lanes were absolutely flying to start the evening (later found out that the oil pump in the machine wasn't producing enough pressure, therefore the pattern had a significantly lower volume of oil than normal). After a few warm-up shots, I quickly saw that all of my other equipment was out for the night (literally hooked at the arrows), so I decided to give the Neptune a shot. Lined up with my feet on 21, crossed 12 at the arrows out to around the 5 board. Once it reached the end of the pattern, the ball had a surprisingly strong "flip" on the backend and missed the head pin left. The ball pushed through the heads surprisingly easy... much better than anything else I own..so I knew that I had some sort of shot. I made a few adjustments, both on the lane to get a little deeper and with my hand position to get a little more forward roll and less backend reaction, and ended up standing around 28 on the approach and shooting for the 8-10 board at my breakpoint (usually where the lane number reflect back onto the lane surface.. around 45' down the lane). Great length and a strong, controlled backend reaction. I had a little room to miss outside, due to the stronger recovery of the ball, but couldn't pull the ball inside (again, bowling on a very low volume version of the chameleon pattern). Overall, I had very good control of the breakpoint with this ball (compared to the other bowlers who where trying to throw their more aggressive equipment with tons of speed). I experience an phenomenal carry percentage...think I left one pocket 10 pin and 1 pocket 7 pin over the course of three games. Ended up shooting 650 to be high set on the pair.
Providing there is enough friction, this ball seems to carry well from inside angles. Easy length with a fairly strong move on the backend. With my layout and surface prep, the ball definitely needs some friction to work best. I would think that this ball could tend to be over/under if a decent volume was present on the lane or carry-down existed. I have tried a number of other "dry-lane" reactives and all of them either hooked too much/too early, were very inconsistent at the breakpoint, or just had no recovery on the backend. The Neptune seems to have all of these characteristics, making it a great choice for drier lane conditions.
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Three-fourths of the mistakes a man makes are made because he does not really know what he thinks he knows. - James Bryce