Choosing Stems

[*Saber*]

Choosing Stems
The difference a stem makes..
At one end of the scale we have the super light nylon stems
and at the other end the super heavy 'heavy metal' stems from Harrows
There are a hell of a lot in between...
I would always recommend starting with nylon stems, there are many and most manufacturers make some, think 'supergrip', 'signature', 'gripper' etc...these vary in length so a medium is not always the same length from different manufacturers and the same goes for a short etc...but they are usually pretty cheap.
Now if you want something that will then change the angle of your dart, try alloy stems, these will usually flatten the flight of your dart a little, making it land more 'taylor like'
Then there are heavier alloy stems, like savage etc... that will make it land a little flatter and then the ultimate - heavy metal which should flatten your dart completely..I personally liked these but couldn't get used to the extra weight they added.
The key here is experiment....it is only a minor tweak to your set up but still a very important one, and the key is...once you find the correct set up...stick with it.

citation-Andy Cornwall

[Jimbo21]

I usually buy the same brand stems, that way I know I am getting the same length. If I do swap brands, I will take 1 of my stems with me to check the length of the 1 I am buying.

[Cat]

Still in the experimental stage, but find, as I fly several different sets of darts, that the darts kinda tell me what shafts they like, if that makes any sense. I tend to switch until I find the length/brand that works for that set. Consequently have a bowl of various shafts that I grab from when playing with a new set or fine tuning a set. What do you folks do?

[Lurker1]

Still in the experimental stage, but find, as I fly several different sets of darts, that the darts kinda tell me what shafts they like, if that makes any sense.  I tend to switch until I find the length/brand that works for that set. Consequently have a bowl of various shafts that I grab from when playing with a new set or fine tuning a set.  What do you folks do?

Pretty much the same.  I have one set of each several different lengths of stems and try each out to see what size works best then order a bunch of what work best.

[Serial 7hriller]

I jumped from short to medium a few months back and they made a huge difference to my consistency. However, I find that a 'medium' length differs between manufacturers as I used progrips and supergrips and I found the supergrips a little longer and also sound hollow, which irritates me to hell. But, the supergrips were just made to be used in hankey darts! I throw some of my best darts with that setup.

Ultimately, I found different stems work for different darts. I throw lewis darts way better with short nylon stems whereas my barneys go better with medium stems. Life's never simple!

[Fred-180]

I jumped from short to medium a few months back and they made a huge difference to my consistency. However, I find that a 'medium' length differs between manufacturers as I used progrips and supergrips and I found the supergrips a little longer and also sound hollow, which irritates me to hell. But, the supergrips were just made to be used in hankey darts! I throw some of my best darts with that setup.

Ultimately, I found different stems work for different darts. I throw lewis darts way better with short nylon stems whereas my barneys go better with medium stems. Life's never simple!

On mine the thread is a bit longer by the Harrows, but tha goes in the barrel Guests cannot see images in the messages. Please register at the forum by clicking here to see images.

[Banz]

The great thing about stems and flights is that it costs next to nothing to have one of each to test with. I went through it with flights (standard, pear, kite) but have settled on short stems. The next time I order something I might throw in a set of extra shorts .