What Dart Weight Should I Use? A Practical Method
"What weight darts should I use?" is the question we are asked more than any other, and the honest answer is that there is no correct weight — there is only the weight that suits your throw. But that answer is useless on its own, so here is how to narrow it down properly.
First, what the number actually refers to
A dart advertised as 24g means the barrel weighs 24 grams. The assembled dart, with point, shaft and flight, weighs more — typically a few grams more depending on the components.
This matters for two reasons. Steel tip darts are legally capped at 50g for the complete dart under the standard rules, so you will never run into the limit in practice. And it means swapping to heavier shafts or longer points changes the dart's total weight and balance without changing the number on the box.
The range that actually gets used
Our catalogue is a reasonable map of what the market wants, because we stock to demand:
| Weight | Sets we stock |
|---|---|
| 18g and under | Few |
| 20g | A handful |
| 21g | Moderate |
| 22g | Deep |
| 23g | Deepest |
| 24g | Deepest |
| 25g | Deep |
| 26g | Moderate |
| 28g, 30g | Few |
The shape of that list is the real answer: 22g to 26g covers the overwhelming majority of players, and 23g to 24g is the centre of gravity for the whole sport. Lighter and heavier sets exist because some players genuinely need them, not because they are beginner or expert options.
How weight interacts with your throw
Weight does not make a dart more or less accurate. What it changes is how much force you need and how much the dart resists your mistakes.
Signs you may be throwing too light
- You have to push or flick the dart to reach the board, and your arm feels like it is working.
- Your darts land high and group vertically — a scattered column rather than a cluster.
- Small variations in your release produce large variations on the board.
Signs you may be throwing too heavy
- Your darts drop low on the board, especially late in a session.
- Your arm tires quickly, and your accuracy falls off noticeably after twenty minutes.
- You find yourself aiming above your target to compensate.
Note the pattern: too light tends to scatter, too heavy tends to drop. If your darts are grouping tightly but in the wrong place, that is an aim problem, not a weight problem — and no change of weight will fix it.
A practical method for finding your weight
- Start at 23g or 24g. Not because it is correct, but because it is the middle and you need a reference point.
- Throw at least a hundred darts before judging. A new dart always feels wrong for the first twenty.
- Look at the shape of your grouping, not where it sits. Vertical scatter and a sense of effort suggests going heavier. Consistent dropping and arm fatigue suggests going lighter.
- Move in 2g steps, not 1g. A single gram is below the threshold most players can feel reliably. Two grams you will notice.
- Change one thing at a time. If you change weight, barrel shape and flight shape together, you have learned nothing.
Before you change weight, check these
Weight is the thing players reach for first and it is frequently not the problem. Cheaper things to check:
- Your points. A hooked or blunt point bounces out and feels like inconsistency. See our guide to dart points.
- Your flights. A larger flight slows the dart and makes it sit flatter; a slimmer flight lets it move faster and drop more. Far cheaper than new darts — browse flights and shafts.
- Your shaft length. Shorter shafts shift balance forward, longer shafts back. Another cheap experiment.
- Your grip. Where you hold the barrel changes everything downstream. See finding the right grip and barrel.
- Your board and your throw line. If either is wrong, every diagnosis above is unreliable.
Does heavier help on a treble?
No. A heavier dart is not more likely to find the treble twenty, and a lighter dart is not more likely to miss. Grouping comes from a repeatable throw. What weight affects is how easy that throw is for you to repeat — which is a real benefit, just not the one it is usually sold as.
The only reliable test is throwing them
Weight is the hardest thing to judge from a product page, and the easiest thing to judge with a dart in your hand. We are a specialist darts retailer and venue in Port Kennedy, Western Australia, with ten Target Omni-equipped lanes, and we ship Australia-wide.
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