Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, it’s important to learn about the varying weights of darts.
Choosing the right weight for your darts, is an important factor in order to help you gain some consistency in your play.
Firstly, you need to know that altering certain aspects of a dart can lower or increase its weight.
Secondly, you’ll need to choose a dart with a weight that complements your throwing technique.
In which case, below we’ve discussed all the factors associated with a darts weight.
What Causes a Darts Weight to Differ?
First and foremost, the reason you’ll find difference in a darts weight is a result of its construction. For instance, darts that are made from steel are heavier, compared to those made of plastic or another type of steel. Although the difference in weight may be marginal, it can still make a huge impact on your game.
Steel Tip Darts
The weight of steel tip darts is measured excluding the shaft and flight. Most players use brass steel tip darts at a weigh of between 18 to 23 grams. Whereas, when using a dart made of tungsten steel, the weight may range from 23 to 26 grams.
The authorized weight limit of a steel tip dart as prescribed by major organizations shouldn’t exceed 50 grams.
Soft Tip Darts
Soft tip darts are measured by considering the complete dart, including the shaft, flight, and barrel. Soft tip darts commonly weigh between 16 to 20 grams. These darts are of course slightly lighter than steel tip darts.
Previously, soft tip darts used to be much lighter. However, with the improvement in technology, soft tips have become heavier. At present, their average weight has increased from 12 grams to almost 20 grams.
Dart regulations state that a soft tip darts weight should not exceed 25 grams.
What Dart Weight Suits your Game Style?
After discussing how weights can very, depending on the type of dart. It’s time to talk about the most suitable weight to enhance your performance.
There might be some difference in opinion, but most players agree heavy darts are more difficult to control. Therefore, in order to calculate the best possible dart weight for you, you need to do some experiments.
Firstly, try some heavy darts and see how you perform. Use a similar strategy with a lighter set of darts. This should give you a better idea of the best weight for you.
Best weight for soft tip darts
As discussed previously, the weight of a soft dart is lighter than a steel dart. The simple reason for this is that the impact on the electronic board can cause damage, if the dart is too heavy.
For this reason, most players avoid using a dart weighing over 19 grams for electronic dartboards. This is a reasonable weight, which helps the player to throw the dart in a controlled manner.
Additionally, a variety of e-darters prefer light darts. They can achieve the required weight of a dart by introducing some minor changes. Although, these alterations won’t cause any noticeable difference in the flight behavior of your dart.
Best weight for steel tip darts
The usual weight of a steel dart is obviously more than a soft tip dart. As this helps them to stick into the board more efficiently.
Usually, the weight of a steel dart may range from 22 to 27 grams. This is a perfect weight range for beginners, as they can experiment with different dart weights while staying in these limits.
In fact, the minimum recommended steel dart weight for beginners is 23 grams. It can go up to 25 grams in some circumstances. Since heavier darts are fast, playing with them will have a differing effect on your throw and score.
In addition, heavy steel darts require more power to throw, which may affect the hit rate. The only advantage of heavy steel darts (26 or 27 grams) is their ability to easily penetrate into the dartboard. As, a result, the player would experience a fewer percentage of rebounds.
After experimenting with some different dart weights, you can quickly learn what dart weight is suitable for you.
Different Throwing Styles
Your natural throwing style can determine what the best weight of dart would be to help improve your game. Below we’ve outlined a couple of different throwing styles and suggested what we feel would be the best weight of dart to coincide with.
Direct and Straight Throwing Style
If you find that your natural throwing style is a straight and direct one, you’d be better off choosing a heavier weighted dart.
- soft darts shouldn’t exceed 20 grams
- steel darts shouldn’t exceed 26 grams
With a heavier weight, the trajectory of a dart would remain stable and straight. Increasing the chances of hitting the target.
Indirect and Ballistic Throwing Style
On the other hand, if you find that your throwing style is more of an indirect and ballistic one, a lighter set of darts would be better suited.
- soft darts should stay between 16 to 18 grams
- steel darts shouldn’t exceed 23 grams
What Parts of a Dart are Responsible for Increasing Its Weight?
In fact, there are a few parts of a dart, which are responsible for increasing its weight. For instance, the barrel adds more weight to the dart than any other part. The dart shaft serves as a connecting piece between dart flight and barrel.
The shaft also adds a significant amount of weight to the dart. However, the overall weight also depends on the material of the shaft and barrel. For instance, if you are using a shaft made of plastic, it will cause a minimum increase in the weight of any dart.
Is It Possible to Change a Darts Weight?
If you want to alter the weight of your darts, you can do so through a few different methods. Although the changes you can make are limited, it’s possible to make some difference. For example, the barrel is the main part of a dart. This can be simply be unscrewed and changed to alter the weight.
Conclusion
It’s difficult to suggest exactly what weight of dart you should use. As it’s all simply down to personal preference. Therefore, we’d suggest that you test out different weights of darts, and record your score for each.
Then you should have a much better feel as to which one works best for your game.
