I'm finding this subject very interesting being a senior citizen and who is just getting back to bowling and not real boned up on all the new weighted ball technology. When I was a youngster growing up in new England the only type of bowling was candle pin and the way you were successful was consistently repeating the basics of bowling, starting with approach etc. When I got out of the service I noticed that ten pin bowling had arrived in N.E. and I got hooked. I did very well with a 196 average with the old unweighted rubber balls and trying to find a high board that would take the ball into the pocket, I earned a lot of free bowling by teaching the kids how to bowl on weekends, After I got married I found little time to bowl so lost interest until retirement. I now bowl in a handicap league with a bunch of other old duffers and fully enjoy it while using a 25-30 year old ball thats no longer suited to synthetic lanes so I was told so I looked for a used more up to date ball and bought and redrilled a Storm X Factor. As per my username I am a full roller and the ball was drilled with a full roller pattern and now finally to the point. The semi roller patterns seem to be usually drilled with the pin at the 1 o'clock to 2:30 position with varying distance from the Center position.bMine was plugged and redrilled with the pin in the 7:30 o'clock position which left the new thumb hole in between the finger holes in the old drilling. I have never thrown a big hook and the hook I throw now may cross 3-4 boards at the most. I still find that the ball has no eyes of its own and that the same consistent behavior on my part is necessary to have decent scores. We all have to tweak our adjustments to each lane for each game and on any given day. Many of us who are just recreation bowlers use redrilled balls because its cheaper and we are in it just for one day of the week fun. We just don't have that same competitive spirit we had 25-30 years ago and used stuff just seems to do the trick for us. I would love to have a 196 average now but in reality?????????????????? Lets roll

I'm not sure what your point is, but the point of the post was to discourage people from plugging a ball and changing the drill pattern to "make it hook more" or trading or buying a used ball that has been drilled radically different than how they want it drilled . I would suggest you not redrill a used ball unless it has been drilled previously with a pattern that you liked enough to drill back over.

When they plug and redrill a ball to change the span, do they plug and redrill both finger and thumb holes or either one? Or does it depend how big the change is?

Usually just the thumb hole, unless you are changing pitches in the fingers, or something like that.

Agreed CG, you can keep the drilling pattern the same and shift the thumb location. Now that being said, it does nothing for the pitch of the fingers. So if you want an ideal fit, you'd have the fingers fit too.

Do most people opt for the fingers and thumb plugged? No Most customers that buy used equipment do so to save money and they try to save as much money on the plugging/drilling too. But everyone has a budget and its going to always be better then a house ball to have a used ball with only the thumb fit. Most people that buy used equipment either move up to new equipment and get totally fit up, or remain a fairly infrequent bowler (maybe one league in the winter).

Erin

When I had my equipment re-drilled to close up the span, my driller just re-slugged the thumb since we moved the pitch forward some and plugged and re-drilled the fingers. Most of them was about half an inch closer to the thumb. I might not being going back to him to do the drilling this time, but its more because he works out of his basement and sometimes it can be hard to get a hold of him.