DARTS!!!!

LiquidChaos66

So when I bought my house from my dad he had left a few things behind... Lots of it was garbage and yard debris. BUT one of them was a set of darts and a nice horse hair dart board! Who else plays darts or knows cool stuff about it that I don't? Suggestions for improving my game or care for my dart board and darts?

onestrangeone

Played 4-5 tournaments every week-end for 6 yrs. won enough to pay off my truck, the ex's car and all the booze that went with it. still have a board and my darts. Invest in some flight protectors, these are metal caps that fit on the end of the flight, rotate your board once a month or so. The point should be smooth and round not needle sharp. Practice a lot, 301, 501, baseball, golf and cricket are good games to practice with. Just like real golf it's about repeating the same motion every time. oh yeah, cork the wall around your board!

LiquidChaos66

Whats the purpose of rotating the board?

onestrangeone

It helps the board wear evenly, the hair fibers are on end so the point slides in between, eventually the fiber starts to lay on an angle and if you keep pounding the same spot they will start to break. A good board will last a long time and you don't want to make soft spots on it.

First Warrior

I lived in ST. Croix in the 70's and every bar had a dart board. The boards were always in use and just about everyone carried their own darts. I won beers and lost beers with darts in those days. Multi national culture in those bars.

LiquidChaos66

onestrangeone:

It helps the board wear evenly, the hair fibers are on end so the point slides in between, eventually the fiber starts to lay on an angle and if you keep pounding the same spot they will start to break. A good board will last a long time and you don't want to make soft spots on it.

good to know! I have no idea when it was rotated last but ill do that tonight. I have a bunch of flights on order. I should get them on Thursday. Nothing special but in will be new and not all jacked up like my dads. The points and shafts are in killer shape so I wont have to worry about those for a while.

my goal is to get fairly decent and play with friends at bars and maybe win a few drinks myself. lol right now I would just embarrass myself. LOL! I don't know if I will go as far as I would in my billiards days and carry my own supplies and cue. but I don't think it would be a bad Idea after a while to carry my own darts... after getting used to their weight and flight.

kswildcat

I use to play alot of soft tip so cant help you on taking care of your board or steel tip points or your wall..lol Not going to say I was great but I won way more games then I lost and have had several perfect games in 301 (6 darts out). Use to get asked alot to teach someone how to throw. My best advice is to keep playing. Find the stance your comfortable with and find your mojo.. Do not fall into the I need fancy dancy darts, the more money your spend will not make you a better player. Do not buy a big dart case and fill it with several different sets of darts. Find a good weight of dart and knurl location that seems to best fit you and practice practice practice. I played with $4.95 darts I bought at Gibson's (kinda like a regular Walmart) and would go to the bar with like $10 and play darts and drink all night and usually have way more money then what I walked in with... The local bar owner had a deal were if your threw a hat trick (3 bullseyes) you got a free beer. That lasted until I threw 28 of them one night..lol On a soft tip board I wouldnt just aim for the area I wanted to hit I would aim for a particular dimple.. I guess you could do that as well later on if you take a pen and make lil marks on your board.. Back when I played alot the game that seperated the men from the boys was cricket... To me that is the best game to play to get better

kswildcat

double post

matkn293

Same thing that has been said. Practice practice practice. Then practice some more. Find a set of darts that is comfortable. There are a million styles out there that are at all different price ranges. Only thing you need are extra flights. Maybe some I rings so the shaft does not loosen all the time. I liked the rotating shafts so it saved the flights longer. May want to have an extra set of shafts in case of bounce out and they bend. Start with 301, 501, and cricket. The 01's help with different numbers than your cricket where the numbers are constant. My 2 cents.

kswildcat

Another thing well worth mentioning is flight selection.. Pretty much 2 throwing styles, I call them dart and lob.. Dart is pretty much were u zing your dart fast at the board and it does not drop much if at all (this was my style) and lob is were you kind of lob it with an arch at the board. Seen good players with each style.. This brings my opinion to flight selection, the thin skinny flights for dart and the bigger, wider for lob (as I said my opinion). I ALWAYS used the thin skinny flights, same exact flight actually (a dog growling while flipping the bird and it said have a nice day..lol).. I used a crown royal bag to carry my darts.. All I kept in there was 1 set of darts, extra tips, like 10 sets of extra flights and 2 spare sets of shafts.. I was a creature of habit and used the same tips, same flights and same shafts.

LiquidChaos66

Got confirmation last night that my flights will arrive Thursday. rotated my board and tossed the 1 remaining dart that has a decent flight on it a few times. Gonna research the games you guys mentioned... I have NO CLUE what any of them are. lol

Patrickbrick

When I was 21 to 24 I never paid for a drink that had a board in it, man I miss darts. Our house is small and Colleen won't let me put my board up, not even in the garage. O well life goes on, I do miss cricket though.

avengethis

I don't play a lot but I keep a set of darts in my glovebox especially for when I go out to the bar. Throwing those crappy plastic things they call darts suck. I paid maybe $10 for the set but just having a nice weight to them helps be consistent. Cricket is my jam!

kswildcat

I havent played in years. Was a phase here were it got real popular with tournaments and all that, now they play texas holdem or some other card game.. We use to play alot of 301 dollar a game, quarter a bullseye.. Could usually get some action playing that but once you wanted to change it up to cricket they were done.

LiquidChaos66

got my flights last night. Man... Im not good at darts yet. lol!!!! practice time.