Thought I'd have a go at reviewing these, not sure if this site is after this sort of thing but might as well try. The darts in question are a 90% tungsten barrel, available in 21g and 23g in steel tip and 20g soft tip. They currently go for £59.90 from the RD site. So, let's have a look at what came in the mail...
Apologies if I waffle on a bit, I’m so passionate about these darts lol
Sliding open the blue Snakebite - Double World Champion packaging reveals some very attractive darts with some very smart-looking copper snake's head flights. The barrels come fitted with a gold coated 32mm point (26mm sticking out), with no.2 flights and short Nitro tech stems in the Snakebite black and gold design. I've not much experience with Nitro tech stems, and I'm more used to punched flights with a spring, but the setup seems to "work" exactly the same as my old setup (using short Harrows supergrip carbon stems) so if I do switch to Nitros it'll probably be just because they look nice.
My darts are the 21g version, coming in at about 51mm long and 6mm diameter (official numbers from the website are 6.2mm diameter and 50.8mm length).
On the scales I got 21.20, 21.22 and 21.24 grams, with the full supplied setup weighing 23.00g.
They are exactly the same as the RD Barrie Bates. Apart from the coating. But they are otherwise the same dart. And they are broadly similar dimensions to my Adrian Lewis gen 2s. They are a little bit longer, and therefore thinner, than my Rob Cross gen 1s.
With the supplied setup, the balance point is pretty much exactly where the grip changes. This is something to think about because the two grips are really different. The front "half" of the barrel has a very normal medium ring grip, which I really like. My favourite 22g barrels are Robbie Greens and they just have a ring grip like that all the way down the barrel. But when I say it's medium, it really is. Perhaps I'd go as high as 6 or 6.5 when they're new, because the copper coating feels more grippy than the gold coating on the Barrie Bates. But I honestly can't say what they would be like once they're worn in because I've not used a lot of coated darts in the past. The back "half" of the barrel has a much more "sticky" grip, with some wide rectangular cuts. The nearest thing in my collection are the Ross Smith barrels but I think the Red Dragon Javelins (or Winmau Furys) are what we're talking about here.
My opinions:
Throwing these was great. For lots of reasons -
1) They look really smart. The gold rings on the barrels are real gold plating, and they look stunning.
2) They have some grip all the way along the barrel. The coating has the same slightly "dry" feeling of black PVD and they are reassuring without being too sticky on the fingertips.
3) The balance is excellent, even though I found they felt quite thin in my fingers. I'll admit they were a bit "floppy" at first, but this soon stopped once I got used to them, and they were soon arcing gracefully through the air into the 1 and the 5 (lol). Comparing them to the Adrian Lewis gen 2s I think I was just gripping the new darts a bit further forward, so it really was a case of getting used to them.
4) If you are gripping in the middle like me, and need a bit of extra push, you can move back a fraction so you're on the aggressive grip without it feeling unnatural.
There are some things to bear in mind though, which might be a deal-breaker for some people. For me, the coating feels dry and I don't really like it as much as the warmer feeling of the gold on the Barrie Bates barrels. If they did a plain tungsten version I'd buy it without a second thought. Also, the coating is brown, and not everyone wants a brown dart. The gold rings almost make it look like a cigar. And then there's the price, which while it is not unusually high for a player dart with a posh coating and gold-plated accents, it's still considerable and not really what I'd call an "impulse" buy.
Summing up:
Nice design - I like the Barrie Bates barrels, so obviously I like these; natural to throw, not too long, nice and slim
Excellent quality, as we've come to expect from RD, and very distinctive looks with the unique coating
Only a medium grip on the front. The 23g version might be easier to grip being ever so slightly thicker, but I doubt there's much difference
The coating feels a bit dry like a black PVD sometimes can. Perfect if you like that sort of thing, but not really for me.
This took an age to write, so please appreciate me for it lol
