Motiv Lethal Venom Bowling Ball Review

The Lethal Venom joins the Venom Recoil, Black Venom, and Blue Coral Venom in using the Gear APG Asymmetric core design. This ball also features the Leverage MXC Solid coverstock, coming out of the box at a 3000 grit sanded finish. This shell has been used previously with more aggressive core designs on the Evoke and the Subzero Forge. The change in coverstock made the Lethal Venom stronger than the previous Venom release for us. Despite having more total hook than other Venom releases, it didn’t quite flare enough or create enough traction with the box finish on our heavy oil test pattern. Lower sanding grits and more aggressive layouts will be musts for bowlers looking to use this ball on longer and heavier volume patterns. We loved the combination of midlane traction, control, and continuation that the Lethal Venom gave us on our other three test patterns.

Stroker

Stroker loved how controllable the Lethal Venom was on the medium oil pattern. The ball picked up extremely well for him in the midlane, offering a very good combination of total hook and continuation. This ball let him start farther right and stay tighter with his angles without over-skidding in the oil or jumping left when it encountered the friction. He was very impressed with the hitting power this ball had as it went through the pins. With the tighter angles, he thought there were a few shots that were going to hit flat and leave the corner pin, but they resulted in the 6 pin coming off the side wall and smacking the 10 pin. As the track area started to get drier, he made small moves left with his laydown point to get the ball farther down the lane. This was all the ball needed to keep striking later