r/Darts Weekly Challenge #12

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Checkout 55 using the 1 segment at least once.
Medium Challenge: Checkout 77, using only doubles and triples.
Hard Challenge:  Score 100 points in the bulls.

This week's challenges all came to me very quickly.  I pounded them out within a single practice session, and all within, literally, about 15 minutes.  I don't know why exactly other than to say that I was "on".

The easy challenge went S20, S1, D17.  I was aiming for the 1 segment first but missed into the 20 bed, leaving 35.  Then I decided to try for the T1 to leave 32 but hit a single one instead, and hit the remaining 34 with my last dart.  The few rounds I attempted before this looked quite different.  I went for (and hit) the 1 first, leaving 54, which I tried to take out with S18, D18, but missed the double every time. Such is life.

The medium also came with a few rounds.  I started trying for the T15 to leave 32 but after a few misses there I thought about the rules of the medium challenge a bit and decided to shift my strategy a bit.  The 15 is surrounded by even numbers whereas the 19 is surrounded by odd numbers so I figured if I missed the 57 into the T7 or the T9 I'd still be pretty well set for a triple double finish.  As it happens though, I hit the T19 leaving 20, which missed outside on the first dart, and then hit with the third:

The hard challenge I git with my very first attempt at it, and hit 125 points in the bull no less.  Sometimes you're hot on bulls, sometimes your not.   Or to borrow a different idiom: Sometimes you get the bull, sometimes the bull gets you."  Today, I got the bull.

Each of these challenges was gotten using different sets of darts.  Easy: 23 gram Sleex wearing medium slim Condors; Medium: 26 gram Scoundrels; Hard: 24 gram Bottelsen Vintage Hammerheads.

r/Darts Weekly Challenge #11

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Hit the S12, S9, and S11.
Medium Challenge: Hit the D12, D9, and D11.
Hard Challenge:  Hit the T12, T9, and T11.

I got the easy quickly, though two of the shots were squirrely.  I was using my 23 gram Steve Beaton spring-point Elkadarts wearing medium red-glitter Condor onesies:

The medium challenge was surprisingly quickly gotten. I figured I'd be happy if I only got the easy one this week with a hundred or so near misses on the medium and hards, but as it happens, I hit the doubles within my first few attempts at it.  These are the smooth 21 gram copper UFO's wearing medium pear shaped Condors:

The hard challenge this week eluded me to the very end and I never hit it, although I did have half a dozen or more very near misses, like this one, where my third dart hit the wrong triple just on the other side of the wire:

Incidentally, these r/Darts weekly challenges are a perfect companion to the RMD routine.  If my first dart misses its target making the hard (or even the medium) challenge ungettable, then the other two darts are easily (and productively) spent chasing those map pins around the board.

My Lightest Ton-80 Yet

During a session of Modified Rotational Doubles tonight I hit this little beauty, my 56th maximum:

These are the 11 gram brass UFO onesies wearing Reflex conversion points.

r/Darts Weekly Challenge #10

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Checkout 50 using any 18 segment.
Medium Challenge: Checkout 84 using any 18 segment.
Hard Challenge:  Checkout 122 using any 18 segment.

I got the easy and medium challenges this week and as happens more often than not for me with these r/Darts challenges, I came agonizingly close on the hard... many times!

Here I went S18, and then missed inside going for the D16, and happily hit the D8 with my last dart.  The darts themselves, incidentally, are a nice looking (I think Durro) mixed material dart.  Tungsten up front, and brass in the back half the dart.  They are wearing #4 Cosmo Carbon stems which I think are a few millimeters too long for them.  I'll pick up some #3's at some point and see if that improves their configuration.

The medium challenge came in my first two darts trying for it.  I hit the T18, D15 like a boss.  I must have been channelling a bit of Peter Wright on this one :)  The darts are an 18 gram brass Lloyd style barrel that I favor sometimes, wearing medium nylon stems and standard poly flights:

The hard was frustrating this week.  I never got it.  The closest I came was the below shot where the third dart is literally touching the wire of the inner bull.  I missed into the single bull probably 20 times total during my attempts.  I also hit maybe half a dozen instances of T18, T18, and then a miss at the D7.  More often than not that third dart at the double was a choke (a wide miss).  The darts below are 24 gram Designa Dark Thunders wearing medium-standard Condors.

r/Darts Weekly Challenge #9

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Checkout 71.
Medium Challenge: hit the skinny single segments for 4, 7, and 12.
Hard Challenge:  Checkout 142.

Happily I had a quite a successful session just now, and hit all three challenges for this week.  The hardest one to get for me, was the medium.  My darts just did not want to find that skinny single 7!

The easy was quickly gotten and it felt nice.  I hit the 39 and then the 32, and I still had one dart left in my hand:

The medium challenge took me the longest.  I hit the single 4 and the single 7 several times but then choked on the single 12 probably a dozen times.  Then I started trying for it in reverse, and hit the skinny single 12, skinny single 7, and finally the skinny single 4:

The hard felt good to hit, especially since it is sorely tempting to chuck that third dart at the 60 after hitting it twice already.  I only went 60, 60 with my first two darts about three or four times in tonights session, and finally nailed that D11 on the last attempt.

All the challenges were hit using the same darts tonight, and what's more, unusually, with the same stem and flight combo.  I was throwing my 20 gram Durro UFO's that I am dubbing the "MMA's" (which stands for "Mixed Material Arrow" since they are a combo of tungsten and brass!).

I also noticed that all the challenges this week are numerically connected.  142 is twice 71, and all three challenges only use four digits: 1, 4, 7, and 2.  Coincidence?

r/Darts Weekly Challenge #8

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: hit at least 3 marks in the 15 wedge.
Medium Challenge: hit at least 5 marks in the 5 wedge.
Hard Challenge:  hit at least 7 marks in the 3 wedge.

Despite my recent trend of only being able to get the easy and medium challenges, this week I hit all three, and in a single session to boot.  All three were gotten using my 18 gram Accudart Revolvers, a fluted, stainless steel offering from the once-great dart maker.  Below you can see I hit my 3 marks in the 15's with a single triple, and missing the other two (into the 2).

And below, I sunk the first two darts into the triple five before I completely choked on the third, landing it in the 20 bed not far from the bull.  You can barely see it in the lower right of the pic.

And finally, a seven mark in the 3's with a T3, T3, S3:

All three of these shots were hit with the Revolvers, but each has a different stem and flight configuration as I was experimenting with them, looking for the best set up.  In the first pic they are wearing short standard Condors, and in the second and third pics they are wearing short Gear Fit Stems, but different flights.  The blue ones are standard Fit Flights, while the green ones are slim Fit Flight Airs.  I continued throwing the darts for quite a while after hitting these three challenges and decided the best config for these darts is the short Gear Fit Stems and Shape Fit Flight Airs.

18 gram Accudart Revolvers

This is a pretty interesting modern offering, in the sense that the dart has a couple of primary design features that are less commonly seen on modern darts.  First and foremost, is seems like 95% of the darts for sale out there are tungsten darts of one density or another with even brass, once the mainstay material of steel tip darts, taking a back seat.  Brass darts are still made and sold, but the overwhelming majority of dart players out there feel that their chances of hitting those tight groupings in triples are heightened by going with tungsten.

But these bad boys are neither tungsten, nor brass.  They are stainless steel. A material that is highly uncommon in darts and has an even lower density than brass (stainless steel is ~ 7400 kg/m3, while brass is in the neighborhood of ~ 8400 kg/m3).  I only have one other set of steel darts (don't think they are stainless) and it clocks in at 17 grams despite being roughly the same size and shape as my 23 gram Bottelsen GT's.

The second primary design feature of this dart is the fact that the grip relies entirely on slight fluting along the length of the barrel.  My guess is that the name 'Revolver' comes from this design as if you look at the dart nose-on the profile of the barrel is slightly reminiscent of the cylinder of a revolver (which is also (usually) fluted).  All in all I think the fluting on these darts could stand to be a bit deeper, but it is a nice design feature and I like it.

After having thrown them for a while I think that may favored configuration for them is as follows. Short length Gear Fit Stems with Shape Fit Flight Airs.

The case it come in was basically a standard folding darts case encased in clamshell packaging for store display and advertising purposes:

There was also, on the back a very interesting, if esoteric, chart to help you select what darts "are best for you.":

I do not really know what they mean by "Response" or "Compensating", but I can tell you grouping is a factor of accuracy, not material ;)  On this chart, I completely grok Brass and Stainless Steel, but I cannot imagine what they mean by listing Nickel and Tungsten as separate materials. Darts are rarely (if ever) made from just nickel, or just tungsten.  Usually it is a tungsten-nickel alloy.  Even more ungrokkable, however, is "Black Magic".  What the fuck is that supposed to be?

Anyway, I like these darts.  Well done Accudart.

r/Darts Weekly Challenge #7

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Checkout 63.
Medium Challenge: Checkout 99.
Hard Challenge:  Checkout 139.

I missed weeks 5 and 6 due to travel.

The easy one this week came quickly. I was throwing my Mystery Darts at the time. I was going to go 39-D12, but missed the first dart into the S13, leaving 50. I then decided to go 18, D16, but missed the second dart into the T4, leaving 38.  Happily I hit the D19 on the last dart for a 63 checkout:

The medium soon after.  I was throwing my Brass Squigglies.  I was going to go 57, 10, D16, but I missed the first dart into the S19.  I then, intentionally, went D20, D20 for the double-double 99 checkout.  It felt nice:

The hard challenge, checking out 139, remains elusive.  I spent some time on 60, 39, D20 with no love, then some time on 60, 57, D11 with no love.  I'll keep plugging away at it and will update this post if I get it!

The closest I came was this T20, T13, and then a miss outside on the D20.  This non-hit came off my 11 gram brass onesie UFO's: