.177 darts which ones are best ? (2024)

I haven't seen darts for airguns in years but I haven't been looking for them. Played with them when I was a kid.

Think they're all much of a muchness tbh. Take care in what you fire them into and they can be reused for a while, but there does tend to be some attrition.
I fired a few darts through my (smoothbore) junior, but it's still accurate enough with pellets to be fun so I tend to do that when I get it out.

Are they safe in a barrel? In an old fairground gun it wouldn't matter, they didn't want you to hit anything anyway , but a loose fitting steel dart point shooting down a steel barrel could cause damage to the rifling ??? You may not mind , I have no idea whatsize the darts would be and if barrel flight wobble could occur . I see 4.5mm from some of the links, don't thnk I'd want to use them in my barrels , but only a queory really as never used them before myself ???

Only thing I've ever shot darts through was the gat gun. Wouldn't put them anywhere near anything else.

Oh yes, they like to ricochet too!

I've fired darts from a pop out barreled air pistol & an Original mod1. That was ok, went pretty well over 5 or 6 yards, but with their relatively loose fit compared to a lead pellet I'd hesitate to shoot them out of anything with much power for concern about the piston "slamming" into the end of the cylinder. A bit like the concern over those felt cleaning oellets........just my take on it.

I've enjoyed many a session with darts through a Webley Junior or Millita, using a dartboard for a target. As has been said, I'm not sure there's much difference between them and you can re-use darts unless they land on top of each other if you score 180! Probably best to examine each one between shots to ensure there are no sharp edges that could damage the barrel.

Couple of things come to mind......
The compressed paper/ cardboard dartboards can do with a bit of support at the back or else they can start to bulge. Never fired a dart at a bristle dartboard so I'm not sure how they would respond. However I'd take the wire scoring rings off the boards, I don't like the idea of shooting at them ( I've seen regular hand thrown darts bounce back & the idea of one of those little ones doing the same at speed, well it isn't good). Burrs caused by dart on dart could be filed away if you think they might damage the barrel. Similarly blunted ones could be repointed. One thing to watch out for is damaging the dart when removing it from the target. Probably not much risk of damaging them pulling them out of a paper dartboard by fingers but if one got buried deep & pliers were used then it's a possibility. Same thing if you shoot darts into wood, they can be hard to remove. I think there were special tools to help do this instead of using pliers. A similar thing can be made using an old, relatively wide flat bladed screwdriver. Slit the blade to form a 'V' & bend the blade to put a curve at the tip. Then you can lever the dart out by pushing the 'V' under the shoulder of the dart & levering it out. Guess an upholsterer tack remover might work instead.
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All fairly simple stuff but thought I'd mention it..........

I think they should be used in shoot offs at FT comps, highest 3 dart score wins!!!

A few years ago I had some 177 darts that were different to the usual ones with the fluffy tails, they had a solid tail, I think they were called ballistic darts and they were faster and more accurate than the fluffy ones. Might be worth a look at