Brunswick Brute Strength Bowling Ball

Layout: <a href=" https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0cevxbzr37506a/%282015-07%29%20Brute%20Strength%20%2885%20x%204%20x%2040%29.jpg?dl=0" target="_blank">85° x 4” x 40°</a> When I first threw this ball, I put the same layout on this as I did the Melee Cross (since the original Brute had the same layout as my original Melee, I felt it was appropriate). Similar to the Melee Cross, I wasn’t a huge fan of this ball. I felt that it didn’t really read the spot well, and was fairly lazy going to the pocket. I had seen other people have a lot of success with this ball, so I decided to give it another try. Like the Melee Cross, I hit the ball with a 2000 pad, and that seemed to wake it up. Now it reads the midlane like I was originally expecting, and makes a hard arc to the pocket. I’ve used this ball on both house and sport shots. On the house shot, after hitting it with the 2000 pad, and letting it shine back up, this ball has been my go to ball the last few weeks. I’ve shot back to back 800s (802 and 837) with it. It has no problem kicking out the corner pins, and I’m able to just move 2-1 inside as the lane begins to break down. In my Sport League, we’ve been bowling on the old Chameleon pattern (39’). That pattern transitions very quickly. The Brute Strength really tames the amount of overall hook that this pattern has at the center we bowl at, but doesn’t sacrifice hitting power. I compared this ball to a few balls, both in my current and past arsenal. First, the ball it directly replaced, the Melee Cross. I found that the Melee Cross and Brute Strength both had similar overall amount of hook, with the Melee cross having more in the back end, and the Brute Strength a little more up front (which is the exact same thing I noticed comparing the Brute and Melee, so this wasn’t that much of a surprise). Compared to the original Brute, I can use the Brute Strength when the lanes are fresh, and when they start to transition, I can stay right where I was standing and ball down to the Brute and have a similar shape to the pocket as I did when they were fresh. Compared to the Gold Rhino, I found that these balls have similar overall shapes, but the Brute Strength is a little more up front, most likely due to the surface adjustment (and the Rhino being shinny).