I love this bowling ball drop idea! 

Brent the little chute you saw on the Arizona web site may be a hand held drogue chute.  I'll have to go look.  Lots of jumpers prefer it for the near instantaneous deployment of the main, and fewer malfunctions, when compared to the older "rip cord" type that is deployed with an internal spring propelled drogue packed in the back of the pack on top of the main chute.  Patrick, set me straight on that, you would know.  I know all base jumpers (people who jump off towers, bridges, large rocks) all use the hand deployed drogue.

I'm sure you can drop stuff.  Just don't hit anyone.  The late Gene Schumacher was  an expert in meteor caused craters and studied it for the nuclear testing program (ie. big boom make big hole).  I'm sure the USGS has excellent information on how far into the ground your bowling ball would go!

Bob St. Marie