I have my Scorcher drilled 3 3/8 stacked.  This is the heaviest rolling ball that I have ever had.  It will not skid and flip, or cover every board in the house.  What it does is roll down the lane like a heard of hungry cattle looking for the green pasture.  This ball along with it's heavy roll has a hard-heavy arch on the backend. Don't be fooled (YOU NEED OIL) or it will burn up in the heads.  If you like the skip flip style then stay away from this ball, try a Gargoyle with a strong drilling,  but if you want a ball that enjoys the soup of the day, then this is the ball for you.

When I got this ball I intended to use it only on heavy oil conditions.  This ball does exactly what I thought it would do and that is hook better then any other ball that I have tried on heavy oil.  It has great hitting power and carries as good as any ball I have tried.  I would not recommend this ball if you can only afford one ball.  If definitely is not a ball I would try on dry or very dry conditions. If there is lots of oil out there then this ball is a great choice.

What a hooking ball.med to real wet lanes. I have a high ball speed,lots of
revs,and my scorcher is drilled maxed out for me.The only suggestion I have
is not to max it out.With my speed I believe the shell burns up on me before
it has time to react.But all in all I think this is a great ball.
    Brent Couch
     Test Staff

My stats:
Right Handed Tweener
15.0 to 16.5 mph (typically, but dependant on shot)
Above avg. Hand

Likes: Best oil ball ever created.

Dislikes: This ball stinks so badly, it can give you a headache. It would be nice if they could have added smells to it, like Storm has done to cover up the stench.

I went out and tried this one on fairly oily synthetic heads, and wood backends. This ball hooks a ton, and needs a lot of oil. Like all the other stuff I have thrown from Visionary this ball hits the pocket like a ton of bricks. From the other reviews I have read on this ball I expected it to hook early and set in the pocket. From my experience this ball arcs back into the pocket much stronger than one would think, and doesn't over/under like a lot of stuff on the market today. The Schorcher hooks a couple feet earlier than my Granite Gargoyle, but as I said doesn't lose any hitting power. I believe that Visionary's particle technology is far better than any of their other competitors in the industry. I'll give this one a 8.5 out of 10. It deserves a much better rating, but I don't bowl anywhere that I would need this thing any more than about 6 frames of the first game (but that's why I have my granite). If you bowl on a ton of oil or don't have any hand by all means buy this ball. Visionary is definitely the best kept secret in the bowling industry. Try one and you won't regret it.

UPDATE
The Midnight Scorcher has become one of my favorite ball for oily lanes. I added a little polish to this thing, and the ball is incredible It arcs the entire lane, and hits as good as anything else on the market. If you want a ball for the soup I believe this is the best thing on the market. I'll increase my first review of this ball to a 9 out of 10.

Ball Specs
Weight: 15.05#
Top Wt: 2.4 oz.
Pin: 2-3"


Drilled using an approx. 10:30 pattern--pin directly above the ring finger, CG mark about 1.5" right of center, and mass bias slightly below and to the right of the thumb hole.  Kept ball in out of box condition (320 Wet-sanded) This drilling gets the ball farther down the lane before getting into its roll in the back part of the midlane.  The DC [offset] core produces a large flare, and combined with the aggressive nature of the "retro-active" coverstock allows the ball to make a hard arc into the pocket and hit with little or no deflection.  If you're looking for a skid/flip reaction, I would not recommend this ball.  THIS BALL NEEDS OIL!!!!  It is very condition specific, so I don't get to use it often; nonetheless I feel that my arsenal would not be complete without it.  I give it an 8+ out of 10 due to its lack of versatility.
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Leroy H.
roystriker@verizon.net
Visionary Test Staff Member

Info/specs on me are in the profile.

My Scorcher is 16 pounds, has a pin out distance of 2-3" and is drilled pin next to the ring finger with the CG kicked out far enough to the right to put the MB on the VAL.

I needed an early rolling drill on a very high load particle ball to combat my Thursday synthetic league.  The oil pattern is 40 foot flat no buff, sometimes walled 10-10 sometimes not.  No matter what carrydown forms after the 6th frame of the first game.  To compensate 90% of the league playing up the five or ten board and creating a wall, I use the Scorcher and play deeper than everyone else.

On the lanes this ball rolls extremely heavy and early, it gets about 20 feet down the lane before it digs into the surface and starts to roll.  The reaction shape is a very even arc that is continuous until it falls off the pin deck.  The Scorcher doesn't cover very many boards, probably about five in the heaviest oil and carrydown which is more than enough to get the job done.  It flares a decent amount, around the vicinity of 4+" even in sludge.  

The point I was trying to make with this ball on this condition was to use something that started very early, utilizing the heavy head oil, and also something that wouldn't go beserk once it hit the dry.

It's possible for me to play a tight line like 15 to 10 staying inside other bowlers, or play deep like 20 to 10 with slow speed as well.  As long as you have a ton of oil the Scorcher is managable from many angles, and won't loose carry or hit from that.

Obviously a higher track will make the ball start earlier than a low track will, it's semi speed sensitive because we're talking about the floods here.  Since this ball wasn't designed to cover many boards you can't swing it way out and expect it to bounce back.  YOu can tug the line some and it will hold, but once dry becomes more apparent the ball will move sooner.

The more oil you see the better the ball will play, it will grow a beard after the first game once it absorbed more oil, which will cause it to roll harder and earlier.  As I said before it will hit and carry like all other Visionary equipment does on the floods, which is a plus.

The only down side is that since the ball abosrbs all this oil, it makes clean up a pain in the rear.

If you need more hook/roll apply some oil to the ball before league starts, where you'll get that is beyond me but Visionary says to do so...


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Stunt 101

Pin_Krusher IS a serious threat to modern day bowling wood as we know it today.

After a great deal of digging, my driller found this ball from one of  his distributors. That was no easy task, seeing as how Visionary was out of them! On to the review:

Specs: 16.12 lbs
             Pin 3-4"
             Top 2.6 oz
Drilled: pin next to ring, cg stacked below, small weight hole on pap, box finish

  Have not thrown this ball in competition just yet, as it is intended to be my flood ball. I have, however, tested it in a couple of patterns.

Condition 1: Medium-heavy volume 10-10 taken down to 40 feet.

  On this pattern the Scorcher could be played from a variety of angles, but carry was off an on, as the ball dug its teeth into the clean backends and lost a bit of energy.

Condition 2: Heavy volume up front 10-10 and taken down to 36 feet.

  On this pattern the Scorcher was simply an animal. It got rolling very early and gave a smooth and predictable arc to and through the pocket. The ball could be played anywhere from down and in to deep inside on this pattern, as the heavier volume up front allowed the ball to do what it does best: chew through oil.

  Overall this ball is impressive. It appears that the more oil you have, the more this ball will impress you. I've heard that it doesn't polish easily, and I would not advise trying. This ball was meant for oil, thick, soupy, oil, period. If you throw it on the conditions for which it was designed, you will not be disappointed. No surprise, this is another winner from Visionary.
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Bowling is without a doubt the dumbest, most pointless, most idiotic excuse for a game that has ever been invented. So, what time are we bowling tomorrow?