PUMA BANDIT BOARD THAT IS SOFT!!!!

[DIRTY G]

As many members on here know I own and hate this board for the following reasons, the main reason is that they are WAAAAAY to hard, causing the boarder wires to bow once the sisal has had a few darts thrown in a particular segment (yes I constantly turn my board).
Darts dont penetrate them and if they do it can squeeze it out like a pimple at any given time.
The spider has a horrible join right along a boarder segment.
The bull ring has heat glue holding it in place and once you pound that big lump just under the surface it falls out.
The spider lifts out quickly, this I think again is attributed to it being packed so densely.
I do however like the way that the colour dose not dull.
Rant over.

A friend of mine told me he brought a Puma Bandit board, and after about 5 minutes of yelling at him about how much he should know better and that he is a tosser for doing so, and why didnt you get the B4, he told me that he had a $100 voucher for Rebble sports that he needed to get rid of, fair enough I said. lol
He is familiar with this boards characteristics and hates them as well, he told me that he opened it up to check if the bull ring was center and gave it a quick press with his thumb nail to see how hard it was and thought it seemed softer than the others he had tried.
Still skeptical I went around his house and watched in amazement at how he was burying his storm points PAST the finger grooves, and hearing a loud thud as the tips hit the timber of the backboard!!! (not the best thing for a dartboard).
I gave it a poke bye hand with my long pointed darts and to my amazement they were penetrating to the backboard with little effort at all,
I am assuming that this may be Puma's attempt to rectify an overly hard board as I hear they have had a lot of complaints as they are an Official sponsored board for D.O.S.H. (darts of the southern hemisphere). If this is the case then they have gone from one extreme to the other as I think this board is now TOO SOFT (poor Puma cant win with me lol).
Else this was just a factory fault and they were running low on sisal fiber or something.

Would love to hear from any other members who have recently purchased a Puma or Bulls board recently for any feedback on if they think they may have gotten one of these softer boards.

[Jimbo21]

I have an older bandit and have never had the problems you speak of DG. I must have a rare one. lol

[Getagrip]

sounds curious, hard to say as I have only ever had a Bulls advantage 2 and don't know if thats the same board or not, but it was like a rock.

[DIRTY G]

@ Jimbo
I have seen quite a few Bandits and they do seem to vary in different instances, Mine never had the trouble of the boarder wire bending so much as my mates did, but his was a lot harder and a more recent board than mine, year old or so.
Both boards do however have large places on them where the glue has faild and the sisal has lifted off the backboard and mainly around the double/non scoring area. Mine has a small spot (20cent piece size) where the sisal wanted to lift out like a cancerous growth. I trimmed it with nail clippers but it still kept growing until I took the long nose pliers to it and pulled a bunch of sisal fibers out the middle of it, this seemed to loosen it up in that spot and the growth has stopped, again this happened due to glue failure and tight packing of the fibers.
I know your board is probably two years older than mine putting the time fame of your board at the early stages of production and probably was checked for quality assurance constantly, I am assuming once they thought they had them in order they then outsourced production to other facilities, hence the variation in quality, but this is only an assumption.
I have no complaints in the longevity of the boards once a bit of tweaking is done though, as mine is about four years old!!


@Grip
I do believe that the Bulls Advantage II and the Puma Bandit is one in the same, and yes it is like a rock, as I said before I would be curious to see if any of the" latest" Bulls or Bandit boards are now being produces with a less dense attribute or if the board my mate has was just a factory fault.

[redhedkev]

Maybe Aussies just throw harder. Those Foster Lager cans are huge! Maybe you just need to ease up a bit.

[*Saber*]

Maybe Aussies just throw harder. Those Foster Lager cans are huge! Maybe you just need to ease up a bit.

Brilliant - problem solved.

[Jimbo21]

I dont think we have Fosters here any more. No one drank it so they shipped it over to the Poms. lol

[DIRTY G]

I dont think we have Fosters here any more. No one drank it so they shipped it over to the Poms. lol

so true its sad lol

I had to think for a bit "whats a fosters" hahaha

Ill take a can of Emu Export (aka wife beater) any day over a fosters.

[Milkysunshine]

No one drinks fosters here either. I think it was only popular during the 'crocodile dundee' era.

[Getagrip]

well judging by the ads we get over here thats all aussies drink!

[Gary60]

DG I have 2 Bandit Plus's and while they're not perfect I am not having any problems. I put the second board up about 3 months ago, just got back from 4 weeks in the Philippines where I played on a Unicorn Eclipse HD and can't believe the difference. I was getting so many bounce outs of the wires on the Unicorn haven't had one on the Bandit.

The unicorn has only seen about the same amount of use as the Bandit but looks 3 times the age. The bandit still looks brand new.

I also haven't scuffed my points for about 2 months and I'm not getting any fall outs, except for a cheap set of unicorns with their crappy points. I read on the Robson site that humiidity etc can play a part in how the sisal reacts. My board is outside in the carport where it is very humid, so maybe this is playing a part. Maybe the dry heat isn't good for the sisal and glue???Guests cannot see images in the messages. Please register at the forum by clicking here to see images.

One way you can make the board better is to get a texter and black out "Made In New Zealand" mine improved heaps after this! Guests cannot see images in the messages. Please register at the forum by clicking here to see images.

well judging by the ads we get over here thats all aussies drink!

I can tell you we don't drink it anymore, can't remember the last time I saw it in a bottle shop. In each state we had our own beers and Fosters was a Victorian beer. The Mexicans can keep it!

[Gary60]

I dont think we have Fosters here any more. No one drank it so they shipped it over to the Poms. lol

so true its sad lol

I had to think for a bit "whats a fosters" hahaha

Ill take a can of Emu Export (aka wife beater) any day over a fosters.

Emu Export=worst aussie beer. Drank plenty of it in Mt Newman. Jimbo's local brew Coopers one of the best.

[Smiling Assassin]

I have just got a new Puma Bandit board last week. It was stamped on the back 23rd Nov 2013.
Have to admit it is hard, and my dart points only go in about 10mm.
Have to sharpen dart points and rough up the end 15mm of points with emery tape.
Then they stick in the board tight (but still only 10mm in)

This board is harder than the Nodor Supamatch, Supamatch 2 and Winmau blade 4 which I have owned.
But I think it will out last the Nodor and Winmau dart boards easily.
Also the wire is thinner on the Bandit, so should have less bounce outs from hitting the wire.
Also the wire does give a bit, and is not rock solid like the blade 4 and supamatch 2.
As blade 4 and supermatch 2 board have thick wire running from the spider out.
May have more darts fall out on the Bandit, from getting deflected off other darts and not going in the board firmly.

I also have a DMI bandit pro trainer dart board, stamped 31st August 2012 and this is a lot softer than my standard Bandit board. Dart points go in about 17mm. I bought this a year ago as got sick of bounce outs on my Nodor champions choice board. All the bounce out were due to the round wire. I used to take the champions choice dart board down after only 10 minutes, as got frustrated with the bounce outs. Never had a bounce out on the Bandit pro trainer.

Emu export is way better than Emu bitter or Swan draught!

[Getagrip]

I prefer Guinness any way

[redhedkev]

I dont think we have Fosters here any more. No one drank it so they shipped it over to the Poms. lol

so true its sad lol

I had to think for a bit "whats a fosters" hahaha

Ill take a can of Emu Export (aka wife beater) any day over a fosters.

I've heard that Stella Artois is referred to as "Wife Beater" in England.

So, Fosters isn't "Australian for Beer" anymore... okay. We used to just refer to them as "Oil Cans".

Do they make Emu Export with real Emus?

Did I start all of this?