Experienced players surely know the perfect bowling ball for a medium-to-dry lane. The choice depends not only on their master skills, but also on the good bowling ball and lane conditions.
Find an outfit not only up to your personal preferences to increase the chances on dry lanes bowling balls, but also keep in mind that dry lanes present unique challenges to a bowler, providing plenty of frictional force.
You need a high-performance utterly polished bowling ball giving almost no frictional action on lane surfaces and a direct, predictable shot to win. There are several options to choose your perfect strike ball.
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Bowlers’ personal needs
Most bowlers use equipment corresponding to the lane conditions and their game preferences. They are familiar with most peculiarities of materials, weight, durability, and shape and know how to act in different situations to provide controlled shots.
A straight ball should be ideal for the ones, who are in the first stage of perfomancing the game.
Gaining experience, there is no need to worry a lot about the hook, power, and speed. Moreover, it is needless to pay for a high-tech ball.
An experienced player mostly chooses a ball to handle easily and to achieve the desired result without testing all existing balls. But if you read this article, you are probably still looking for your perfect ball.
Lane surfaces
The lane condition also brings some peculiarities to a game and when you attempt to bowl it is better to be familiar with these specifications. The ball’s behavior and the ball hooks depend on the surface the dish moves on.
Bowling lanes may differ in length and have different surfaces: dry, damp, or semi-dry. Depending on how familiar you are with the conditions of the exact lane, your ball will definitely respond in a specific way, relying on whether the surface is completely dry or damp.
Mostly wood is used for the bowling lanes as it is the softest and gives more friction. A bowling ball absorbs grease in some way, so they are usually more oil in the heads to protect the surface on the wooden lane.
Some synthetic lanes are less oily and provide better friction with solid surface balls. This allows for slowing the ball down and changing direction.
Hybrid or medium lanes may have mixed conditions along the whole length. Or can meet uneven oil-patterned lanes. So, a correctly chosen bowling ball may be effectively used on most surfaces.
There are a lot of techniques used on wet lanes, but our scope today is to find the best bowling ball on dry lanes. Here you may find some top tips to strike on completely dry lanes, so you can manage this when you face the problem.
What does medium-to-dry mean in bowling?
Each bowling lane has a different oil density. Oily surface maintains the lane and increases the reactivity of high-performance balls.
Medium lane proposes an average oil density. It allows you to master hooks, and reactive control and to enjoy the best bowling moments.
A dry lane may contain oil, but it is still much drier than a regular bowling surface. While running, the ball absorbs less oil and performs more actions. So, it is better to find your best bowling ball for a dry lane.
How to choose the best dry lane balls
A bowling ball for dry surface doesn’t differ in size or weight from other balls. But they all have different specifications, and you’d better take them into account, choosing the most suitable one for your bowling behavior. Even small peculiarities can make a big difference in your game.
Weight
Did you know that the correctly chosen heaviness may lead you to success and protect you from injuries? Choosing the one for you, keep in mind that its weight should not be more than 10% of your body weight.
The general rule of thumb suggests that men and women bowlers require different bowling equipment. Male bowlers should select between 14 and 16 pounds of balls, meanwhile, female bowlers can accessibly take balls of 10 to 14 pounds weight. The lightest balls are the best ones for children, their usual weight is about 10 pounds.
But these measurements are approximate as the newcomers are recommended to use a light ball, meanwhile, intermediate bowlers prefer heavier bowling balls for dry lanes.
One more hint to select the correct weight, if a specific ball seems too taxing for your body and fatiguing for your hands, you’d better take a lighter ball. This prevents you from injuries. Meanwhile, be aware that too light a ball may provide you with high levels of unpredictability, that can be not easy to adjust.
Coverstock material
Most bowling balls that suggest little to no frictional interaction can respond perfectly to dry lanes.
Dry tracks are more suitable for a surface that has a shiny texture and a smooth, shiny surface. These conditions require the use of poly urethane bowling balls and plastic balls.
To move directly and quickly without losing energy, a bowling ball should be extremely polished, with a smooth and shiny surface, and provide frictionless action with no fuss.
For an impactful back-end reaction, urethane balls serve the best to hit the pins smoothly.
If you aim to start a game and throw a straight ball, stop your attention on a polyester ball, as it is designed to make straight throws. Bowlers use such bowling balls for spare ball shooting, mostly ten pins. But keep in mind, a polyester ball won’t serve to produce any hook or extra hitting power because of the heavy pancake block inside it.
Decent hooking potential of a coverstock
Some bowlers experience different coverstocks to improve their scores in hitting. Indeed, it has a sense since covers have hook potential.
Urethane balls were designed to hook with control. Having a light hook potential, they seem perfect for a dry lane. Urethane coverstock manages a slight action with slow movement, to increase your entry angle and to throw a spare ball that results as a strike ball on dry lanes.
Urethane coverstock helps to control and adjust the hook, polyester ball is brilliant for a straight controlled ball. Reactive pearl coverstock helps to run in length with more hooks.
Hybrid covers on a ball for dry lanes provide a pretty strong hook along the great lane length. Meanwhile, balls with solid covers produce a strong overall hook in the skillful hands of intermediate bowlers.
Core
Among the best bowling balls for the dry lane, you have two options of cores to choose from, symmetrical cores or asymmetrical cores.
The ball’s symmetrical core provides more control and predictability, especially at the final part of the lane. This gives the ball more stability and allows you to hit the ball accurately, minimizing the opportunity to hit erratic shots.
It looks like a symmetrical ball creates a smooth, regular arc. Such balls have a kind of block inside designed as an engine, a heart that supports the ball hook. A bowling ball with a symmetrical weight block will never give a hockey stick reaction on the back end because of this smooth, consistent arc.
Unlike asymmetrical balls, run harder at the end of the lane as they maintain the energy. It is more complicated to control the ball at the back end snap, as the dry lane exaggerates it. But the design of a bowling ball with asymmetrical cores can be successfully used on dry lanes.
Aesthetics
The appearance of a bowling ball is not just a sweetness to your eye and following your style, the ball aesthetics also influences some aspects of bowling. Ball speed, weight, hooking ability, and the aesthetics of a ball are among the key factors for most bowlers.
If you believe in taking psychological advantage among your opponents with the look of your bowling ball, you’d better consider the best color and pattern when choosing your best bowling ball.
Price
There is a great variety of prices for bowling balls up to any pocket. It is a good idea to buy top bowling ball from well-known brands as they are more experienced, tried and assure you with warranty.
Meanwhile, there is no need to spend extra funds on the best bowling ball, no matter whether they are urethane balls or plastic ones, if you want to practice only straight throws on an average lane. If you just want to master your bowling style on a bowling alley, you’d better select cheaper bowling balls for dry lanes.
Top bowling balls for dry or medium-dry lanes
Selecting the right bowling ball according to your style and preferences, we suggest you the list of mostly bought dry lane bowling balls.
1. Ebonite Maxim Bowling ball
Bowlers caring much about their gaming style often use The Ebonite Maxim as their best bowling ball. It’s pretty light, about 10 pounds, which makes it ideal for beginners, women, and children. Due to its weight, it allows you to throw any shots without slipping on the dry lane for hours without exhausting your hands and body.
The Ebonite Maxim looks like a three-piece core of polyester coverstock. Filling materials and the main core produces straight, predictable ball motion on dry lanes. But choosing this type of ball, make sure you do not need twists, cause hook potential is low.
It is produced in three bright colors: purple, gold, and black, and it is usually sold undrilled, you can easily make holes according to your finger sizes and your bowling style.
The advantages of the Ebonite Maxim bowling ball are its lightweight, polyester cover, and outstanding direct rolling movement. This makes it the best dry lane bowling ball for its price.
The disadvantage is poor hook ability. Besides, it is not durable enough for some purposes and not relevant for extreme oil lanes
2. Hammer Black Widow Spare ball
The Hammer Black Widow Spare can act well exceptionally on dry lanes.
It has an urethane coverstock and helps you to perform brilliant ability to hook with its possibility to direct throws on dry lanes.
Excellent spare shooting is provided by the Hammer Black Widow gas mask core. The core performs predictable straight movements of the ideal strike ball. Unpredictable, erratic shots will not spoil your game anymore, even on oil-patterned or medium lanes. The gas mask core presents the ball durability that prolongs the lifetime of the equipment in case of frequent use and abuse.
Among its advantages, the Hammer Black Widow Spare ball presents a straight, predictable movement, and reactive resin ball cons. That makes the best bowling ball on dry lanes and uneven oil lanes.
The extremely aggressive back-end reaction of the Hammer Black Widow Spare can be its onliest disadvantage. Some bowlers may use it for special purposes, but for beginners, it can be extremely exhausting to struggle with its power.
3. Radical Counter Attack Pearl Bowling Ball
It is known for its ability to perform well on the longest lane length. With its strong break point reaction and friction rate, the Radical Counter Attack ball presents powerful but predictable pin power, that carries over and over.
It is a 20-reactive pearl coverstock with appropriate durability, rigidity, and stiffness for dry lanes. But at the same time, it works perfectly on medium-oiled lanes. But keep in mind, this bowling ball can be tricky enough and behave uncontrolled on medium-heavy lanes.
The advantages are its suitability for both dry lanes and medium lane conditions, its appropriate durability of reactive pearl coverstock for dry lanes, and its great pin violence and pin carry the action. That makes it ideal in its price range.
The disadvantage of the Radical Counter Attack Pearl is a necessary control and adjustment in changing oil conditions.
4. Pyramid Path bowling ball
The Pyramid bowling ball is a great sample of an affordable and suitable ball for dry lanes.
The Pyramid Path bowling ball serves both professional players and amateurs. Being covered by polyester, it provides a predictable ball motion and outstanding direct rolling action. Thanks to the pancake core, it can be easily controlled from the beginning of the dry lane until it hits the pin deck. Moreover, it can be curved as you want.
It is produced in different weights from 6 to 16 pounds and in different colors such as black, red, orange, and green. So, you can easily afford such a ball for dry lanes not only to impress your friends, as it doesn’t require any high-leveled skills.
Among the advantages of this dry lane bowling ball, you may notice, is the price. The Pyramid Path bowling ball is one of the most budget-friendly dry lanes bowling balls. The coverstock is scratch-proof, and it can be easily used by amateurs on dry lanes.
As for disadvantages, it is rarely used by expert bowlers, the cause doesn’t show much hook potential as well strike ability.
5. Pyramid Path Rising bowling ball
I want to introduce your attention to one more of the Pyramid Path bowling ball for dry lane, called the “Rising” ball. The reactive pearl cover and innovative 139 symmetric core, serve great in different lane conditions, no matter whether they are dry or with limited oil. The core simplifies outstanding control and provides back-end action.
The Pyramid Path Rising bowling ball for dry lanes suggests great flexibility during drill layout designs, direct motion, and decent hook potential with its 1500 grit factory finish. These are the main advantages of such balls.
As for the disadvantages, the Rising bowling ball is not popular among professionals and aggressive hook lovers.
6. Storm Tropical Surge bowling ball for dry lane
It can serve the best for bowlers who admire impressive twists. Its core with enhanced range provides an extraordinary curve. With its weight block, the Storm Tropical ball can be easily controlled by presenting hooks in a bowling alley.
With its bright striking design and abilities, it is suitable for bowlers of all levels and can work as the best storm bowling ball for beginners who want to master their game and increase their level, especially in dry lane conditions.
The Storm Tropical Surge is produced in pink and purple colors in a variety of weights from 10 to 16 pounds. Any bowler may choose the one to perform brilliant curves even on dry lane condition.
As for disadvantages, it is a lack of angular motion.
7. Brunswick Rhino bowling ball
The Brunswick Rhino is another great ball for dry lanes as most experts will tell because it has a lot of benefits among others.
It has a reactive pearl cover and a light bulb symmetrical core that corresponds to simplifying pin carry motions and controlled shots. At the same time, the such core gives you an opportunity to drill correct holes up to the measurements of your finger for the best bowling shots. In this case, the balance doesn’t suffer at all.
The Brunswick Rhino bowling ball shows excellent predictable movements without any mess on dry lanes. Can be successfully used for a straight-line strike ball and spare ball, avoiding sudden erratic shots.
It is produced in different weights from about 10 to 16 pounds, which is convenient for most players. And sold in a variety of colors.
The Brunswick Rhino is a good entry-level bowling ball for amateurs who still need to master their abilities. It serves the best when you throw straight to manage a hook.
The advantages of the Brunswick Rhino bowling ball are its shiny exterior of different colors and weights; it provides great lane length in medium and dry lane conditions and is one of the best bowling balls for a straight-line strike.
The advantage is that it is not suitable at all for aggressive hooks and can be worn down quickly.
8. Brunswick Twist Dry Lane Bowling Ball
One more representative of Brunswick is the Twist Dry Lane bowling ball. It is suitable for players who want to challenge a reactive ball for dry lanes.
Its R-16 coverstock has a perfect hooking ability, and its Twist differential symmetrical core provides brilliant control to make the Brunswick Twist the best bowling ball for curves on dry lanes.
9. DV8 Alley Cat Bowling Ball
I added this ball to my recommendations due to its price. It has appropriate specifications as a bowling ball for a dry surface. It is durable enough to perform a good game with its sturdy pearl reactive coverstock and rumor-symmetrical core. Together, this performs as a controlled lane carry and initial glide.
The advantages are a symmetrical weight block to increase control and overall smoothness; providing good enough lane carry and balanced shots in light oil patterns, and convenience for all-leveled bowlers with its price.
The disadvantage is that the DV8 Alley Cat bowling ball is not suitable for hooks.
My personal preferences
There are a lot of different types of balls, and each of them has different specifications that may correspond to the lane conditions or your personal style, aim, or even mood. It is pretty complicated to find the one correct bowling ball for yourself, believe me.
I strongly recommend observing the list of best bowling balls above and making the correct purchase without any hesitation.
But keep in mind, you, the practicing bowlers, definitely require more than one bowling ball for dry or for a medium dry lane.
Not to waste many funds, I would recommend the Pyramid path ball as it is worth testing. The Brunswick rhino will serve you the best for mastering straight shots and decent hooks. These are among my favorite balls for dry lanes.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What bowling ball is good for dry lanes?
Counterattack. Pearl Bowling Balls. This is the longest ball in Radical Counter Attack’s lineup. The dry-lane route has the best length control versus the initial response and friction differential.
How do you bowl on extremely dry lanes?
Bowling extremely dry lanes brings many challenges. I used to practice a lot and have several tips. I always take a true spare ball. Furthermore, I widen the delivery angle and never forget to increase the speed.
That is the most common advice for newcomers. And yes, one more, I rarely attempt the hooking potential of balls for dry lanes. To start, you’d better avoid rotating your bowling fingers more than one-half inch of rotation.
Is urethane bowling ball good for dry lanes?
Yes, urethane cover is the best and safest bowling ball for dry lanes as they provide good traction and low friction in dry lane conditions.
Do bowling balls hook more on dry lanes?
Hook action is bigger on dry lanes because greasy surface prevents rotation somehow. So, yes, a decently thrown ball presents an unpredictable uncontrolled route on the track.
Conclusion
You can spend weeks, months, and even years looking for the perfect bowling ball. But if you bowl nearly 3 times a week, read this article, and increase your skills, after a month you know for sure what the best bowling ball for you is.
Bowling balls for dry and medium lanes differ, some are less controlled due to reactivity, and others are slow and present high performance.
Every bowler has a different bowling style, aims, preferences, and power. But be sure if you throw the ball hard, increase your speed and release quickly with the right ball this will lead you to a strike. Reduce using aggressive bowling gear on dry lanes. Aggressive balls are only good for heavy oil conditions.
The presented list proposes various types of bowling equipment for the intermediate bowlers and for the ones who come to master recent skills, it doesn’t matter what budget you are ready to spend for your new bowling “friend”, keep in mind to check the lane conditions before the game.
Definitely, these recommendations hit, and outlined balls help you to make the correct choice and the right purchase, and who knows, maybe one day we meet on a dry lane to present our skills and dry lane bowling balls performance.
