Most beginners will need to spend some time trying to find their ideal darts weight. The only issue with this testing phase is that it’s not cheap to test out every weight/size/style of dart to find the one that best suits your play style.
That is unless you are Peter Wright (World Champion) who changes his darts every tournament and once changed darts three times in a single day!
There are therefore four main reasons why dart players would want to add weight to their darts:
- You want to test a heavier weight dart without buying a brand new set
- Your darts are not all equal weight with one being heavier than the others (common with cheaper darts).
- When switching between soft tip to steel tip darts
- You want to buy a set of darts that are not available in your weight.
Whether you are a beginner or experienced player, modifying the weight of your darts is something most players can take advantage of. In this article, I’m going to cover how to add weight to your darts with some cheap and effective items.
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How To Add Weight to Your Darts
There are a number of reasons why dart players want heavier weights and when it comes to putting this into actions, you may be surprised by some of the options you have to add weight to your darts.
How to add weight to your darts:
- Tungsten putty
- Darts add a gram
- Get heavier dart parts
Below, we’ll cover these three options in more detail and help you decide which is the best choice for you depending on your own personal requirements and needs.
1. Tungsten Putty
Tungsten Putty is not necessarily something specially made for darts, however the density of the material makes it an incredibly useful and effective way to add weight to your darts. If you’re looking to balance out the weight of your darts (one may be heavier than the others), then adding tungsten putty should be your first choice.
Simply take a small piece of putty and weigh it to your exact requirements. Once you have the ideal weight, you’re going to add the tungsten putty into the barrel, flatten it down and then screw in your stems/shafts as normal. It really is that simple!
Adding tungsten putty to your darts is not easy to explain as you’ll be inserting it directly into the barrel. Therefore, check out this useful video below for a visual guide on how to add tungsten putty to your darts.
When buying tungsten putty, try to ensure you opt for the car part specific product rather than tungsten putty used in fishing. This is because the tungsten putty for fishing is incredibly sticky and will oil up your dart barrel.
Finally, if you need to significantly increase the weight of your dart and don’t necessarily want to use a DIY option, the next product is likely going to be the better option.
2. Add a Gram
Darts Add a Gram is a very straightforward concept and arguably the easiest solution for anyone wanting to add weight to their darts. The darts Add a Gram does exactly what the name suggests and will add 1g in weight to each dart.
Note – the Add a Gram product is also available in a 2g increment as well if needed.
The Add a Gram product screws between the barrel and stem to ensure the added weight is in a central location. This is particularly important when adding weight to a dart because adding weight to the front or back of the dart will be more likely to alter the trajectory of the dart forcing players to change their throw.
3. Heavy Dart Accessories
The third thing you can use to make your darts heavier and add weight to them is to use heavier parts and components.
This one is trickier to implement and my recommendation would be to use one of the first two products above as an easier solution but if you want, you can modify the weight of your dart by changing the components.
An aluminum dart shaft as an example will weigh more than a nylon shaft. Similarly, a standard dart flight made from thicker material will weigh more than a slim dart flight that’s designed to be lightweight – especially if you also add a dart flight protector.
You can even add an XL length dart point which would definitely take some getting used to initially but all these additions can be made before you look to use a dedicated product.
What is the Best Gram Weight for Darts
If you’re looking to change the weight of your darts – ignoring anyone switching from soft tip darts to steel tip as these are naturally different weights – then it’s likely due to the fact that you don’t feel comfortable with your current weight.
Feeling comfortable when throwing a dart is essential for throwing with accuracy. If you don’t have a smooth drawback and release, you’ll struggle to play well!
You therefore might be looking for a “best weight” when it comes to darts and unfortunately, this doesn’t exist. The reason dart weights vary from 12g – 30g+ is because of individual preferences and throwing techniques. As with most things in life though, there are averages that suit most people…
What is the best gram weight for darts? The best gram weight for darts is 21g – 24g for most beginners. At this weight, players don’t need to generate as much power when releasing the dart so they can focus more on aiming the dart for accuracy.
Are Heavier Darts Better
Another reason why people want to add weight to their darts is because of the perception that heavier darts are better. Well, following on from the above, heavier darts, in general, are better for beginners but there is a limit to this.
Increasing the weight by 1g – 2g is not a guarantee to improve your throw and in some scenarios, you’ll struggle to adapt to the weight and could even lose accuracy. This is because you’ll likely need to change how you hold and release your dart with a different weight (or weight distribution).
The exception to this is those switching from soft tip to steel tip darts.
Soft tip darts are significantly lighter than their steel tip counterparts so when you play on a bristle dartboard the added weight is needed to ensure the dart stays in the board, especially because the throw line is further away.
Final Thoughts
If you need to add weight to your darts for any reason (we’ve covered enough in this article) then it’s useful to know that there are products on the market that make this incredibly easy and cost-effective to do. Products like tungsten putty or Add a Gram cost less than $10 ($5 in some cases) and take just a few minutes to put in place.
As a side note, adding weight to your darts is not necessarily going to make you a better player. If you want to add weight to your darts you need to be doing it for a very specific reason which is often to balance out the weight for all three darts or to switch from soft tip to steel tip darts.
There are other reasons to add weight to your darts but if you’re a relative beginner player, there won’t be many benefits from doing this.
If you want to add weight to soft tip darts, check out our roundup for the best soft tip darts currently on the market
