Hammer Special Effect Bowling Ball Review

The Hammer Special Effect uses the same asymmetrical Huntsman core design as the original Effect. The difference is that this ball uses a solid reactive coverstock instead of a pearl, but it remains glossy out of the box. The Special Effect gave us a very strong reaction, creating big traction in the midlane and a very angular motion at the end of the pattern. The Factory Compound box finish gave it more length than the 3-D Offset Assault, but it didn’t lose much traction in the midlane. The combination of traction and angularity allowed us to cover a large number of boards for a glossy-finished ball. The HK22-based Cohesion Solid coverstock is very strong, having no trouble handling longer or heavy oil patterns, even with the box finish. While this aggressive ball could handle our heavy oil test pattern, we found that it provided its best overall reaction on our fresh medium oil pattern.

Stroker

Stroker was very happy with the amount of downlane motion that the Special Effect provided him out of the box. He was pleasantly surprised to see such a big move when the ball came out of the pattern. He needed to move farther left with his laydown compared to where he was playing with the Black Widow Mania or the original Effect. This opened his angles more in the front, projecting the ball farther right than where he played with those bowling balls. There was no quit in the Special Effect at the back end for him. The ball drove very hard at the breakpoint and through the pin deck. There was no straightening out in front of the pocket with this ball. As the track area started to hook even more, he had to keep moving left to keep the Special Effect in the pocket, and the big selling point was how much it continued at the back end for him. He was able to keep snapping