The Brunswick Santa came early this year

[dougb]

Well I finished selling off all of my 15b equipment and after reading reviews, watching ball reaction videos, and consulting with Brunswick staffers I ordered myself a new 4-ball 14lb arsenal. I had great success with both the original Melee and the LT-48, so I built the arsenal around those cores. Here's what I got:

Melee Cross for the first game/fresh oil
Melee Jab for second or third game/medium oil/when I want to open up the lane
Gold Rhino Pro for light oil
LT-48 for light/dry/spares

Drilled up the first three and left them OOB. Had a chance to play 5 games with them, so these are my first impressions. First two games were beat up lanes and the Jab was amazing. Skates through the fronts, starts to pick up in the mids, and make a continuous move through the pin deck in a way I haven't seen from Brunswick before. But it's super smooth. I'm going to make a lot of money with it.

On the fresh, the Melee Cross was exactly what I wanted. Like it's predecessor, this ball doesn't do anything dramatic but roll up predictably into the pocket and carry. Exactly what I need. Three people came over to me while I was throwing it and asked what it was. And I love the old school look!

The Gold Rhino Pro has been vexing for me. I had an original Gold Rhino Pro, love the new LT-48 which has the same core, so I was very excited. This ball is almost too clean on the lane. OOB it went really long and then flipped more than I wanted at the very end of the lane. I knew the Fortify reactive was flippy, but wasn't expecting it this much. So I hit it lightly with a 3000 pad and then today it rolled earlier than I wanted but with more of the classic Brunswick roll. I'm going to play with the surface until I get it right (benefits of having a spinner).

I still need to drill the LT-48, which is a ball I love.

I tried to upload pics but even after I shrank them down to the right size I could not get them to work for the life of me. Maybe it's a Safari thing or I'm just doing something wrong.

[John Anderson]

Thank you for sharing your arsenal with us. For the pictures, try using imgur.com to upload them too then use [img] [ /img] tags around each direct link to the pictures.

[dougb]

Okay, here we go. The Brunswick beauties!

[dougb]

Sorry I do not know the dual angles. I have a driller who knows how I bowl and always gets me the reaction I want.

But I am low revs (around 225rpm), low speed, high tilt. PAP is 4 3/8 over and 1/16 up.

The Jab has a weight hole but the Rhino balanced out fine.

[RobLV1]

I've not thrown the Rhino, but I've seen it used a lot. I use the LT-48 quite a bit. From what I've seen, the Rhino has the stronger core number, but the LT has the more aggressive cover. Overall, I think that the LT is the more aggressive of the two balls. In terms of the cores, they are shaped the same, but they have varied the weight distribution to change the numbers and the reactions.

[dougb]

I've not thrown the Rhino, but I've seen it used a lot. I use the LT-48 quite a bit. From what I've seen, the Rhino has the stronger core number, but the LT has the more aggressive cover. Overall, I think that the LT is the more aggressive of the two balls. In terms of the cores, they are shaped the same, but they have varied the weight distribution to change the numbers and the reactions.

The LT-48 is one of the best balls I've thrown in a long time. I waited to drill it because I want to see how the Rhino is first. I'm going to play around with the surface until I find what I like.

[John Anderson]

Very nice pictures. I especially love the look of the Melee Jab. Now the Brunswick Santa needs to make a stop to my house and deliver me some masterminds.

[dougb]

I was surprised how nice the Jab looked on the rack. But you should see it on the backend!

I put a light coat of Snake Oil polish back onto the Rhino and took it out. Got to play on a freshly oiled pair (THS).

First two games the Cross was perfect. Pretty direct line to the pocket and no issues at all as I started to move the oil around. It was starting to bleed energy toward the end of the second game so I grabbed the Jab and moved two boards left. Stayed with the Jab for three more games. I think I was ten boards left of where I started and the Jab had no problem just rolling back. It actually wanted more room. It was like it kept saying, "Go ahead and throw me out farther and I'll show you what I can do for players who don't have a lot of hand!" I've never seen so many messengers with any ball.

By the sixth game it was pretty beat up out there. I moved four right from where I was at that point and tightened up the line with the Rhino. Threw 6 strikes in a row. The ball reminds me of Burgundy Ringer but cleaner in front and with a stronger reaction. It is definitely different than the LT-48 and the original Gold Rhino Pro.

This was exactly what I set up these balls up to do and they played the lanes exactly as I intended.

I'm going to drill the LT-48 so I can move farther right and play it off the twig.

I continue to be impressed with the stuff Brunswick is putting out.

[rv driver]

That's a nice pic of some very nice balls! I've been sorta drooling over a Melee Cross lately. Would love to find one under my tree...

[dougb]

That's a nice pic of some very nice balls! I've been sorta drooling over a Melee Cross lately. Would love to find one under my tree...

If you like your Blood Moon you will like the Cross. I think everyone could use a ball like this.