It’s interesting returning to the game after a while and not having really followed the market.
So much has changed with bats and there are so many new options when buying a bat. Throughout most of my younger playing days, online retail didn’t even exist!
So when I decided to buy a few bats to test out, one name that I knew I could trust was Hunts. I used to play with Hunts bats and would see them used by others in most games. The performance was always brilliant.
The 2 bats that I bought are:
Insignia Super Select @ 2:9.8
Aura 1000 @ 2:10.7
I was not happy with scuff sheet that had been applied (not Hunts fault as was applied afterwards) to the Aura so stripped it and in doing so had to also remove the stickers. I wasn’t a huge fan of the stickers so not really a problem. In fact the only thing that I found a bit disappointing on both bats was the way that the stickers had been applied as it just seemed to lack a bit of precision. Before I decided to remove the stickers from the Aura, I had already shaved the edge of the large sticker on the face as it overhung the edge of the bat. It was only sticking out a bit but certainly enough to annoy me…. and if given out snicking one off the sticker would have been even more annoyed. On the Insignia, I also cut a little off of the super select sticker as again had been applied unevenly and was sticking out a bit on one side.
After removing the scuff and stickers from the Aura, I gave it a light sand just to clean it back up.
Not a big fan of the snake grips they both come with so swapped these out.
On to the balance. The Insignia was perfect as it was but the Aura felt a bit bottom heavy and clunky to me. It was a shame as I had picked one up earlier in the year at around 2:9 and it felt sublime but the heavier bat just didn’t feel as well balanced to me. After putting the snake grip back on as a base and adding a second grip, it feels perfect again. It’s odd isn’t it that sometimes adding a little extra to the dead weight of a bat can make it feel so much better and it really does. Before the second grip, I kept picking it up and thinking that I’m not sure it was in the running for match bat selection…. after the second grip, it was straight back in the race.
OK, so on to the most important bit…. performance! Straight away it is noticeable that the pressing on both bats is very different. The Insignia is a much softer press and has had a fair bit of work with the mallet but can already see the grains opening up a bit. In terms of feel, I love it. Totally pingtastic and has that lovely soft springy quality that just tells me the rebound will be amazing. The Aura also pings very well but with the harder press I’m not sure I like the feel as much.
So there we have it….. Can’t wait to get both of them in the nets and test fully :-)
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Topic: Couple of nice Hunts bats (Read 10214 times)