Replacing Broken Dart Shafts

I’ve been practicing throwing darts with my new electronic dart board for a few weeks now and I’ve learned one thing – the regular darts that come packaged just don’t cut it.

Of course, as a beginner I wasn’t in a position to make such a judgment since just about anything would do. Apart from broken tips which were easily replaced with the ones included with the board, the most common problem I had was broken shafts – especially the part which holds the flights in place. That was really a bummer since there weren’t any replacements included. There are four clamps holding the flight in place. When one broke, I tried to get by with just three and it worked for a while. But when two broke the dart was rendered useless.

I still haven’t figured out why this happens exactly – does it break when another dart lands almost on top of it? But I’m using soft tips and doesn’t seem as if it’s strong enough to cause damage. But what other explanation is there?

This is what a broken dart shaft looks like:

I had no choice but to buy new darts from Walmart – this time 18 gms instead of the of 14 gms that were included by default. But it wasn’t long before even those started breaking. At first I thought I had no choice but to continue buying new darts. But when I did some research I found that aluminium shafts were available which were unbreakable. Since Walmart didn’t have them the last time, I ordered a new set of Arachnid 80% Tungsten Soft Tip Darts. They looked really sexy and I like the sleek Tungsten barrel. But they would take at least 4-5 days to arrive and in the meantime what was I to do? So I went off to buy a temporary dart set.

But I got a pleasant surprise when I saw these babies hanging on the shelf:

And just over a buck! Perfect I thought. I wondered if I regretted buying the Arachnids, but decided what the heck – it’s nice to have some sweet gear right? :D So I got back and fitted on the aluminium shaft on to my old dart barrel just so:

It’s a slightly longer shaft than the plastic ones I was using, but I hear that improves the flight. So I’m back in action waiting for my Tungsten dart set to arrive in the mail :)