Red Dragon Delta 1 22 gram Darts

These are really like saying hello to an old friend. But let’s start from the beginning. 

These arrived in the standard white with red standard packaging.

The darts were fitted with long blue Nitrotech shafts and supplied with a set of standard blue Hardcore flights. Even though these are not actually player darts the styling really comes together well. Blue highlight on the barrel, blue shafts and blue flights, they look really good!

The barrels are a standard 50.8mm long and 6.5mm in diameter.

They have a rounded bull nose with two fine rings cut into it just before it reaches its maximum diameter. Before we go any further let’s call out the elephant in the room, the grip profile is very similar to the “Mamba Grip” on the Peter Wright Mamba Darts.

The nose length is about 4.5mm and leads into the first mamba style grip, the first section is about 17mm long. At the end of the first grip section there is roughly 10mm of parallel shaft, this section is lightly grooved in a “2 one 2” that balances what would be the stand out bare section. Although I said lightly, by that I mean the grooves aren’t all that deep but certainly deep enough to provide a positive point in what could have been a slip surface if that’s where the dart is held. The rear grip section is about 12mm long, immediately followed by another “plain” section about 7mm long with two shallow grooves at either end of the section.

The barrel itself is coloured, black at the front and blue at the rear, cleverly the dart barrel is half black and half blue, exactly half!

Both the front and rear sections have a shark grip profile that has been revers cut to take the point off the top of the profile. Through each section the shark grip has been axially slotted with six equally spaced grooves.

The result is a good-looking dart with an impressive and very positive grip that rates around 3 to 3.5 out of 5 that said, in my opinion it’s only positive not aggressive, although for those that grip tightly, you certainly know they are in your hand!

At the Oche, the first few throws certainly didn’t go to plan. I found them a bit floaty and temperamental (or was that me?). Eventually I bit the bullet and changed the shafts out for a set of Short Nitrotech shafts. The shorter shafts provided more stability and what appeared to be a more direct transit to the board. 

I won’t lie, these are substantially heavier than my playing set and it took me a little bit longer to get them to work for me.

Once at the board, slowly my throw became steadily more consistent and accurate. This is a dart for someone who wants that extra grip and the feel of a positive throwing force then these are the darts for you! 

Given the amount of detail involved producing the grip and styling the price point is actually pretty reasonable.

Overall, I’d rate these at 4 out of 5. If I was going to pick nits, they are fitted with the smoothest silver points I’ve ever encountered, and will need scuffing almost straight away.