i was wondering that myself. everytime i bring a visionary ball to my driller he always comments on how hard the covers and core are because he has to go slower when drilling the holes. also all my visionary stuff shows FAR LESS wear and tear on them than my other stuff.
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" bowling is for one thing and one thing only to make money"

Jason Wonders (VP of Advertising at Visionary)told me that they don't soak up as much oil as other balls, aren't as porous, and can last without resurface or rejuvenation for many times over normal modern balls.  He said he had a gladiator solid untouched for 500 games and still reacts the same.  Told me this when asking how to take care of them compared to my old arsenal of Storm balls.  

I have had my set of 6 Visionary balls for a month now, I bowl 10-15 games a day.  They are doing great, and I have noticed multiple things about how much durable they are than my Storm balls were.  First they don't seem to really scratch as easily.  Also there's a ball return in the alley I bowl at that always put little dings and scraps into my Storm balls.  They were really bad, every shot you could see it.  Well with my Ogre Solid on that lane 3 games in league, the dings were very very light, and hardly any on the ball.  So that seemed to prove something totally more durable with the coverstock than any of my Storm balls.  Every one of my storm balls on that lane I've used look terrible after just one game and still have the marks even after 3-4 resurfaces.   I can't really easily find them on my Orange Ogre, have to look real hard and there are only a few.

So I have seen this same thing, they definitely are way more durable.  Not sure if it's that they are harder or more flexible, or more elastic, better composition and don't dent cause of that.  I also swear they don't cause the lane to break down as fast either, I'm guessing cause of the non-oil-soaking qualities of them.  I can play a line way longer with them than my Storm balls could ever handle doing.

I don't know about harder except for the Ogre urethane's cover is advertised as hard urethane and my driller did comment he thought his drill bits were getting dull when he drilled this ball for me. Visionary does tend to make their covers to last and I like that. I have an SS since it came out and it still looks great and still reacts like new.
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Len

Yeah from what Jason Wonders told me basically the Ogre Urethane reminds him alot of the old pink urethane hammer or blue pearl urethane hammer.  So it's definitely a very hard urethane, since those two balls are of course are very good spare balls and were for dry conditions back in the 80's and 90's.

with a little investigateing I''ve found that the current Visionary covers are listed as being harder then most other covers on the market includeing LaneMasters!.the older Vis covers are softer.works for me
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The harder I try the harder they fall

Edited on 4/1/2010 10:23 PM

well it's not much of a difference between most manufactures but there is a difference in the numbers.
most Vis balls are listed in the 75-77 range
storm seems to run 73-75 for solids and 74-76 for pearls
lane masters list 73-74 for most

what I have found with visionary over most other balls I've used is that the visionary equipment is cleaner in the heads for the most part.what that means for me is I now can use stronger lay outs,cover preps and roll the ball instead of haveing to loft the first ten feet.it's also easier to go to lower grits on the surface vrs. high grit and polish and if you want skid/snap  a harder shell ball will have that in spades.

I really don't care who makes the ball as long as it works for me and I've used plenty of different stuff over the years.
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The harder I try the harder they fall