Shot Devon Petersen Courage 25 gram Steel Tip Darts
I have two things to start with –
- I’m not a fan of coloured darts
- I’m not addicted to the hype that accompanies some new releases
That said these darts fall into category one, but in this case it’s not really all that bad. I was intrigued by these for a couple of reasons, mainly one of my friends went out and bought the 80% tungsten ‘Wisdom” version. After a few week they looked like they’d been played with for years, which is the criticism I have of coloured darts, but let’s not go there now.
The “Courage” like many of the darts designed by Shot are coloured, in this case Black with gold highlights.
The barrels are 52.0mm long, 3.4mm diameter at the point end and 6.0mm at the shaft end.
The dart has 3 clearly defined grip zones. The first 15mm is made up of mini grooves with the diameter increasing from 3.4mm to 6.5m over the 15mm. this is followed by a 4mm wide scallop that reduces the diameter in the middle to 5.8mm, the next 10mm has a central mini ring grip, again followed by another 4mm wide scallop this time reducing the diameter to only 6.3mm. the last grip zone is about 19mm long this time with a shark grip the last 1.5mm reduces to 6.35mm.
So what we have is a very busy grip profile, finally the barrel has axial grooves as well, 60 degrees apart aligned on the front and rear grip zones and offset on the centre grip zone. Seriously there is a crazy amount of detail in the barrel, does it serve a purpose? I really have no clue.
As I said the darts are predominantly Black and the axial grooves have a Gold PCT finish, the result, a really good looking set of darts.
The Darts are fitted with 28mm Shot Grip points and are fitted with Shot Koi Carbon Shafts, the package is completed with a set of themed ‘Courage” dart flights.
I think when all was said and done I was really looking forward to having a run with these.
When I saw them, I couldn’t take my eyes off them.
Straight out of the packet and on to the board they went really well from the first throw.
The multiple grip zones assist in finding the best place to hang on and the rear zone if you use it provides a perfect push point, keep in mind that the barrels are 52mm long so it may take a little time to adapt to this ultra-busy layout.
The grip contrary to its appearance only rates as 3.5 out of 5. I threw these for ages, and the only issues I encountered were I just couldn’t consistently find the sweet spot to grip from.
I found that I just had too many wild or misthrows because I couldn’t find the right grip point.
Drill after drill the same result, until I had to give up in frustration.
All things taken into consideration, I couldn’t see myself playing with them, the grip is over the top and the focus required in order to find the right place to hold them, there’s way too many things to distract you from your game.
They gave the impression that in the design stage it was a case of oh lets add this, or they should have that.
What started as a great idea just turned into a big, confused, jumbled design with no purpose?
Overall I’d rate them 3.25 out of 5.0 mainly because they look good.