Most beginners need to experiment with dart weights. It's cheap to try every dart weight, size, and type to discover the one that suits your playing style.
Dart players add weight for four key reasons:
- You want to try a heavier dart without buying new ones.
- Your darts vary in weight (which is common with cheaper darts).
- Switching from soft-tip to steel-tip darts
- You want darts that don't match your weight.
Most players can benefit from changing the dart's weight. I'll show you how to weight your darts with cheap but effective things in this article.
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How to Add Weight to Your Darts
There are many reasons why dart players prefer heavier weights, and you might be surprised at some of the ways you can add weight to your darts.
How to add dart weight:
- Tungsten putty
- Darts add a gram.
- Get heavier dart parts.
We'll explain these three options below and help you choose the best one for your needs.
Tungsten putty
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Tungsten putty isn't meant for darts, but its density makes it a great option to add weight. Tungsten putty is the best way to balance the weight of your darts if one is heavier.
Weigh a little piece of putty to your specifications. After finding the right weight, add tungsten putty to the barrel, flatten it, and screw in your stems and shafts. Simple!
Tungsten putty goes directly into the dart's barrel, making it hard to explain. This video shows how to add tungsten putty to darts.
Buy car-part-specific tungsten putty instead of fishing putty. Fishing tungsten putty is sticky and will grease your dart barrel.
Finally, if you want to drastically raise your dart's weight without DIYing, the next product may be best.
Add a gram
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Darts Adding a gram is the simplest way to add weight to darts. Add a Gram to Darts: To each dart, add 1 g.
If needed, Add a Gram comes in 2-gram increments.
Add a gram of screws between the barrel and stem to centralize weight. This is especially crucial when adding weight to a dart, since adding weight to the front or back will affect its trajectory and force players to change their throw.
Heavy Dart Accessories
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Heavy parts and components are the third way to make darts heavier.
This one is harder to build, therefore I recommend using one of the first two products above, but you can change the components to change the dart's weight.
Aluminum dart shafts weigh more than nylon ones. If you add a dart flight protector, a regular dart flight composed of thicker material will weigh more than a narrow dart flight designed to be lightweight.
You can even add an XL dart point, which may take some getting used to, but you can do all of these before using a specific product.
What Gram Weight of Dart Is Best?
If you want to change your darts' weight (ignoring those switching from soft tip to steel tip, which are naturally different weights), it's probably because you're not comfortable with it.
Throwing darts accurately requires comfort. Without a smooth drawback and release, you'll struggle to play!
You may be seeking the "best weight" for darts, but there isn't one. Individual tastes and throwing techniques determine dart weights from 12 g to 30 g and higher. As with most things in life, averages fit most people.
Darts' best gram weight? Beginners should use 21- to 24-gauge darts. Players can focus on accuracy rather than power at this weight.
Are heavier darts better?
People add weight to their darts because they think heavier darts are better. In general, heavier darts are preferable for beginners, although there are limits.Increasing the weight by 1–2 g may not increase your throw, and you may struggle to adapt and lose accuracy. This is because you'll likely need to adjust how you hold and release your dart with a new weight (or weight distribution).
Switching from soft-tip to steel-tip darts is the exception.
Soft-tip darts are lighter than steel-tip darts; thus, while playing on a bristle dartboard, the increased weight is needed to keep the dart in the board, especially when the throw line is further away.
Conclusions
If you need to add weight to your darts for whatever reason (we've covered plenty in this post), there are products that make it easy and cheap. Tungsten putty and Add a Gram each cost $5 or less and take minutes to apply.
Note that adding weight to your darts may not improve your game. To balance the weight of all three darts or transition from soft-tip to steel-tip darts, you must add weight to your darts.
Weighting your darts has various benefits, but if you're a beginner, it won't help much.