How to Choose Darts for Beginners: Know What Is Right for You

Suitable darts can really increase your chances of winning. But there are so many types of darts in the market right now with different materials, shapes, weights, and so forth. How to choose darts that are best for you?

No worries! In this blog, we’ll show you what to consider and other additional factors when choosing darts.

You can also download our infographic: Click here

Select the Material

Darts are made from different materials. Some of the most common options are plastic and metal (such as silver, brass, and nickel).

If you’re a beginner, silver or nickel can be a great choice since these materials are affordable, quite durable, and easy to hold.

In case you want to be more professional, consider tungsten. It is widely preferred by a lot of pro players due to the good weight distribution and excellent resistance for heavy plays.

Choose the Barrel That Fits Your Grip

Same thing, barrels – where you mainly hold when throwing – come in different sizes, shapes, and textures. For example, the surface can be smooth or has a little or a lot of knurling.

It’s certainly your reference to choose the barrel. But it should be comfortable when gripping the darts. Just in a few rounds of playing darts, you’ll know what your comfortable grip is. You can try more types of grips to know what gives you the best performance when playing (2, 3, or 4-finger grips, middle grip, rear grip, front grip, just to list a few).

Some suggestions that may help you find the right barrel:

If you…	then the suggestion would be…
use the 3-finger grip	shorter barrels
use the pencil grip	normal cylindrical barrels
grip in the middle	scallop in the middle of the barrel
want the drip to be more firm	barrels with knurling
have a big hand	large barrels
want to keep track of where your fingers locate	barrels with some registration marks (grooves for example)

Pick the Right Darts Weight

The weights of darts range from 12 to 50 grams. Most players will choose from 16 to 25. But let’s not limit yourself to popular preferences. Try out different things to see what works best for you.

> See the darts weight that top professionals use.

Lighter darts take less effort to throw but they can go out of the way they’re supposed to travel (affected by the wind for example). By contrast, heavier darts need to force to throw but they are likely to go more straight and true.

Some darts are heavy towards the end, while others are towards the front. Try different weights with your grip:

• If you hold more to the back and the darts are more front-weighted, the darts might divebomb during their flying path.
• If you hold more to the front and the darts are more back-weighted, the darts might flip during their flying path.

Note: It’s important to remember that your preferences may change as you play more games of darts. This does not only apply to just the weight but all the considerations for how to choose the right darts for you.

Soft Tip or Steel Tip

Darts with a soft tip are normally for electronic dartboards. Meanwhile, the steel-tip darts are for the traditional bristle boards. If you choose the wrong tip for your dartboard, it will cause a lot of damage to the surface and soon the board won’t be in a good condition for play.

> Learn more about Soft tip vs Steel tip darts

Choose the Flights and Shafts

Flights are the wing-like part at the end of a dart and a shaft is the middle part between the flights and barrel. There are two types of common flights.

• Standard flights which are narrow and smooth increase your throwing distance
• Dimpled flights that have tiny bumps on them help stable the movement of darts

If you’re a beginner, the advice would be to start with the standard flights and medium shafts first. As you keep on playing, you’ll know what you need to change for your own good.

Consider Your Budget

You can get a good standard set of darts for 20-35 dollars from a sports store. Some top-tier darts can cost up to 200 dollars with excellent quality and modern looks. Chances are you will need to look online to purchase high-quality darts if there’s no local store specialized for this game.

Fit Your Darts with Your Style

Last but not least, don’t hesitate to show others your styles. Darts have different looks on them. From the color scheme, design, and images, choose those that most accurately describe yourself, your stories, or your persona. Isn’t it cool when people see the darts and instantly realize it’s yours?

Summary

To answer the question of how to choose the darts that are best for you, we’ve provided a list of considerations, including the barrel, weight, grip, tip, flights, shafts, budget, and style. Hope these help. If you are a beginner, just start with the standard set of darts. Then, try out different kinds of darts as your preferences will change over time as you keep on playing darts. Eventually, you’ll find out the ones that work best for your own good.