Columbia 300 Pulse Bowling Ball Review

The Pulse is back in the Columbia 300 lineup. We’ve seen numerous iterations of this nameplate since its initial introduction, including balls with different-colored pins for remakes, and then the offshoot versions of the Impulse balls during Columbia 300’s Hopkinsville, Kentucky days. This Pulse features the new Pulse PowerCOR weight block. The result is an ultra-low RG of 2.468″ and a medium-high differential of 0.045″. The coverstock is a solid HK22-based version of Hyperflex that comes out of the box at a very dull 500/1500 SiaAir finish. Between the solid dull coverstock and the quick-revving core, the Pulse PowerCOR starts very early and is very predictable throughout the entire lane. Across our patterns, all three of our testers felt that the Pulse hooked very early. When they tried moving left and opening their angles, the ball struggled to make the corner and get back to the pocket. We matched up better with this ball after making some surface adjustments.

Cranker

Cranker had his best reaction with the Pulse on our heavy oil test condition. This pattern played slick enough for the ball not to burn up as much as what he saw on the other conditions. He was able to play a small swing from around board 20 off his hand out to board 11 at the breakpoint downlane. He could be firm with his speed and aggressive with his release, and the ball wouldn’t change directions very hard downlane. He ran into trouble when the oil in the front started breaking down. Trying to move left and open his angles in the front more got the ball farther right downlane, but it didn’t have the energy retention to