Legend Pro Series V8 Tapered 25 gram Darts

Legend Darts have been releasing or re-releasing dart styles that were played with by Legends of our game.

Players like Eric Bristow – The Crafty Cockney (RIP), Wayne Mardle – Hawaii 501, Lisa Ashton - The Lancashire Rose and Kevin Painter – The Artist, all have darts in the Legend Darts range. Legend also have a range of Pro Series darts designated V1 through to V9. All the darts in the Pro Series range are similar to darts played with by past and present players. For example the V1 is similar to those used by Mensur Suljovic, the V2 similar to those used by Adrian Lewis, the V4 Similar to John Lowe style.

The V8 struck a chord with me, they reminded me so much of the Leighton Rees style barrel, a longer, heavier dart that has a distinct taper shape, but the design of the V8 has been altered and the ring pattern has been repositioned and extended. But as I said the designs are similar to the originals, not copies.

The darts themselves arrive in the generic Legend darts packaging white and Grey highlights. The inner tray is flock lined and black. The darts are presented in the tray in a point protector with medium length black nylon shafts and Grey and White Legend themed 100 micron flights.

The darts themselves being 25 gram are heavier than I would normally play with but, at the same time didn’t feel like 25 gram. A quick check on the scales confirmed that they were definitely 25 gram.

The barrels are a touch over 48mm long and 7.5mm at their widest point, which is about 7mm from the nose of the dart. From the widest point the barrel tapers away to the shaft end to approximately 5.7mm. So realistically the barrel reduces by 1.8mm over 41.3mm visually the taper appears more extreme, but appearances can be deceptive. There are 7 equally spaced rings at the front of the barrel and 5 smaller rings at the rear that allow a grip point at the rear of the barrels.

I can’t be 100% sure if it was the shape or just the memory of playing with similar shaped and weighted darts but I took to these like a duck to water, they were effortless to throw and the front weighted characteristic of the barrel removed any possible variation “in flight”.

I adjusted the set up a few times, I found that the Medium shafts made the darts ‘floaty’ and finally settled on a set of short nylon shafts, that produced the best results for my style of throw. After about 10 minutes of practice it all culminated in a 180 and several 140 throws. They clearly felt very comfortable and went wherever I threw them. I went through several practice drills without any major issues – 9 darts at 170 and around the clock on doubles. The results were consistent and they were just a dream to play with.

The grip is about 1.5-2.0 out of 5; it’s there but definitely not aggressive.

Overall, I’d rate them at 4 out of 5; they are a nostalgic but proven piece of kit that probably isn’t for everyone, but great value for money.