Dartboards for Practice, Home and Pub

It is safe to say that most of us could improve our game with a little more practice. If you are lucky enough to have the space at home to set up a dartboard, then it can be one of the best ways to improve your performance. But with dozens of available dartboards for home use, it can be a challenge to select the right board. This month we set out to find a few good options.

Many new players are introduced to the game through soft tip play. A trip to any of the local Tokyu Hands or other stores offering sporting goods will find dozens of soft tip and electronic boards available. With automated scoring, sound effects and wide range of other perks, these boards have become very popular. Despite their popularity, we decided to pass on dedicated soft tip boards for the following reasons.

1. Soft tip boards limit you to use of only soft tip darts. More on this later.
2. Both electronic and standard soft tip boards were much noisier when used in the home. The impact of the dart on the plastic could be heard much more clearly in the next room and limited our play to early hours.
3. Soft tip electronic boards are famous for segment failures and scoring errors over time. While no board lasts forever, electronic boards and their longevity seems tied directly to the price you are willing to play. But even the high end arcade machines from Medalist require maintenance. If you buy an electronic dartboard you are also buying into having to maintain it.

If you are a soft tips player then what other choices do you have. Fortunately there are a range of wonderful choices that will give you a great board for home use.

The boards we explored all belong to a class of dartboard known as “bristle boards.” Bristle boards are the standard used in BDO competitions and adapt well to both soft and steel tip darts. With a wide range of boards available they are also easy to find and competitively priced. We selected bristle boards for the following reasons.

1. Bristle boards work well with either soft or steel tip darts. This gives you a board that can grow with your participation in the sport. Many beginning players will experiment with or move to steel tip play during their lives, these boards allow equal play with either format.
2. Bristle boards, while not silent, are very quiet relative to their soft tip counterparts. We were able to play well into the night in our standard Tokyo apartment without disturbing anyone in the next room.
3. Many bristle boards conform to BDO standards and are the same size and configuration of boards used in professional competition. While some soft tip boards offer similar configurations, soft tip segments (even on top dart bar machines) are larger to accommodate soft tip play. In other words, those triples on the local soft tip machine are a little easier to hit that those on a standard steel tip or bristle board. Practicing on a bristle board will elevate your play at the electronic dart bar.
4. No parts to maintain. Bristle boards have one movable part, usually the wire number circle. This allows you to rotate the board to get more life out of it. If you shoot triple twenties a lot then you can rotate the board from time to time to equalize the use of the board surface. Likewise there are no segments to fail or misscore.
5. Bristle boards make players think. Using an electronic board makes scoring easy. While this is convenient it does not contribute to your ability to think through shots on your feel and at the toe line. Using traditional boards means keeping score and tracking your scores manually and mentally. Both are good practice for steel tip, league or competitive play. Note that there are a few great software solutions out there for scoring with a standard board. They are both convenient and helpful. But the low tech white board is equally workable and can be a cheap as 100yen from the local 100yen shop.

So now that you have decided to use a bristle board, which one do you buy? From all our research we found as many answers to that question as there were people asking the question. But several names rose to the top of the bunch to stand out as top models for use at home. Here are a few suggestions. All are regulation size, high quality bristle boards used in competitive play and meeting the standards of top organizations.

1. DMI/Puma Bandit Bristle Board: One of the most popular boards available. Razor thin wires to limit bounce outs, staple free bulls eye and a moveable number ring to extend the life of the board. Price JPY8,000 average price.

2. Winmau Blade II Bristle Board: The Winmau Blade II has been endorsed by the British Darts Organization. Uses angled wires to reduce bounce outs, staple free bulls eye and moveable number ring. Blade II: JPY10,000 average price.

3. GLD Shot King: GLD’s Shot King is a great board. We have one in the Dartbug.com office that is seeing a lot of use by our team. This board uses triangular wires to avoid bounce outs, staple free bulls eye and a moveable number ring. JPY8,000 average.

Each of these fine boards are great for home use. All use innovative technology to extend the life of the board and all feature standardized sizing and excellent quality. Each includes mounting hardware that can be easily set up or used along with a door mounting system.

Having a board at home is great. If you can find a little time for practice every day your game will certainly improve. Having a quality Bristle board will give you hours of fun and good practice. Speaking for our team, it has improved our game and given us a great way to unwind on busy days. If you have the space at home to set up a board, you won’t regret it. Just make sure to protect the wall around and behind the board and the floor if you are using steel tip darts.

For more about setting up your dartboard please see our article on board set up. Good luck and have fun!!!!!

Dartboards: Dartbug takes a look at bristle boards for practice and serious play.