Spike Spiraline

Here is a pic of my new "Spike" style Spiraline flights. The entire ensemble is as thus:

Flights: Spike Spiraline
Shafts: short Hacksaw
Barrels: 24 gram Powerpoint Dimplex

You can also see there my Unicorn wooden dart case. I seem to like the flights, I am not sure about the shafts, and the darts are not worth a dime. They are not very well weighted, and I could never quite find a shaft length or flight style combination to really make them fly true. If they wanted to improve them they'd either have to make them longer and thinner, or forward weight them.


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Converting Soft to Steel

Although I don't really play soft tip anymore, I still like all my old soft tip darts, and it is hard to find good steel tip darts in the lighter weights. Thus conversion points is a very good option. O-rings will keep them tight, and you can even put hammerhead style tips on most soft tip darts. Although with hammerhead tips you will need to pick up some "blue" Lok-Tite at the hardware store.


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More spininng flights. The product name is 'Spiraline' but most sites will just call the spinning flights. I have only ever seen a few criticisms of this flight style. One was that they create more drag causing the dart to fly slower. If that is true then it doesn't seem to be a problem for me. The other is that you cannot put flight protectors on them because they will not fit. As you can see from the photo, this is not true. In fact I'd say it is pretty essential to have the flight protectors on spiraline flights because they are more apt to split since they angle in to a "V" shape.


As always, click the image for a larger picture.

Spiraline Flights

I just recently got an order of spinning flights from http://www.horizondarts.com They have a decent selection and there are few sites out there these days where you can get them. If you have never played around with these flights you definitely should. Their benefits are many. In-flight wobble reduction, greater accuracy. And plus they are just more fun to throw.


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12 gram Crown Jewels by Harrows with steel tips and Spiraline "spinning" flights. This is my preferred flight, but they are hard to find these days.

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These flights are unlike any I have seen thus far and appear to be known as "Delta II" flights. They have good surface area. Not bad.

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My first Hat Trick with my Hammerhead GT's.

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This is reportedly a Maverick made by FreeFlight. It is an old design and I am told it is no longer in production. If anyone has a set and is willing to sell it please let me know. I am also interested in broken darts or incomplete sets in this model dart. Thanks!


As always, click the image for a larger picture.

I have recently been asked about the darts in the picture of the Hat Trick a few posts back. They are my 23 gram Warriors by Shooter's Edge. They are fixed point darts and I have never seen anything like them. The shaft they take is the top portion of the "Spinster Aluminum" shafts. It took a little while to learn how to throw them properly as the gripping is also different. The dip in the middle appears to be a finger placement but I do not use it as such (as I rarely, if ever, place a finger on the point when throwing). There are a few other designs and weights in this dart but this was the only one I could find when I discovered their existence and sought them out.


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Among my dart friends we have a special feat we call the "Doubles Trick." It is like a Hat Trick but instead of all three darts in the bull, you need to hit all three of your marks during doubles practice (I guess it doesn't have to be practice, but if you aim all your darts at the double ring during a live game you are just goofing around...) Slop doesn't count of course. As you can see in this pic, I was doing doubles practice, clockwise, and hit my first three marks. Cheers.


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This is a pretty good close up of the wear on the blades of my Bandit. It is still a phenomenal board. It has a ton of life left in it. I took this shot a couple of weeks ago after hitting the trick with my Warriors. Click on the photo to get the full image and then make sure you are zoomed in. Most browsers will shrink an image to fit the window.


As always, click the image for a larger picture.

2nd Lifetime Maximum

I recall the day I hit this Ton-80 very well. I'd had these Freaks for not very long just a few months and I recall thinking they should help me find the sweet spot better since they were so skinny. When this max popped out of the board I was quite happy since it was the first one I could take a picture of. I figured if I could repeat my first ton-80 that they would just start rolling off my fingers. I have 25 of them as of this writing, and I am hoping for more (I am back blogging this by more than three years).

The top is a 15 Gram Red Dragon Featherlite. The bottom dart is a 27 Gram Harrows Axis. Both are fixed point and both fly well. The Featherlite could probably get away with a smaller flight but the Axis definitley needs a standard.

As always, click the image for a larger picture.

First Ton-80 Ever

I remember my first ton-80 like it was yesterday. I was at work and these were in the days that I had dartboard hung in my office. I nailed the maximum with my 28 gram GT's and I had two witnesses to boot.

These are 12 gram Harrows Chrome Jewels. I don't really play soft tip anymore, but I put a set of conversion points on them and I do well throwing them. This is the lightest set of darts I own and they fly every bit as well as my 28 gram Widows. Go figure.

As always, click the image for a larger picture.

These are the heavier ones: In order from left to right: 28g smooth Black Widows, 28g Hammerhead GT's, 25g Shooter's Edge Crossfires, 25g Bottelsen 9/32 Edge grip Great Whites, 24g Dart Freaks, 24g 20/20's 24g Harrows Powerpoint Dimplex, 23g Shooter's Edge Warriors. The Dart Freak and the 20/20's are known as Penetrators and Chunky Stubbys on some sites.


As always, click the image for a larger picture.

The full practice set, ranging from 28 gram to 12 gram. These are the darts I typically throw during practice. A wide range of weights and styles, although I definitely lean toward 24 gram, and I prefer standard dimplex flights on almost all of them.


As always, click the image for a larger picture.

These are the lighter darts in order from left to right: 24g Harrows Powerpoint Dimplex, 23g Shooter's Edge Warriors, 23g Harrows Rhinos, 22g Halex 80% Tungstens, 22g Voks Raptors, 20g Halex Nickel Silvers, 16g DMI Radarts, 17g Halex Nickel Silver, 12g Harrows Crown Jewels. The last three darts in this group were all soft tip when I bought them but I only throw steel tip now so they all wear conversion points. The 12 gram darts are amazingly accurate. The Voks are "soft-steel" which is their term for convertable, but they have tungsten inserts which makes them a bit heavier.


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20/20's

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Display Case for showcasing nice sets of darts. This was put together by a friend of mine in Seattle (as evidenced by the Spaceneedle in the photo). The best part is that it is all magnetic based, so the platforms that hold the darts are adjustable. You can comfortably display up to 6 sets of darts.