Winmau Steve Beaton Special Edition Darts Review
DETAILS:
BRAND: Winmau
WEBSITE: https://winmau.com/
MODEL: Steve Beaton Special Edition
WEIGHT REVIEWED: 22g
TUNGSTEN CONTENT: 90%
AVAILABLE WEIGHTS:
STEEL: 22g – 24g
SOFT TIP: 18g – 20g
PRICE: £50.95
Review Date: 22nd March 2021
Another player Special Edition from the Winmau 2021 launch, this is the Steve Beaton version. As with all the Winmau range though the price of these have increased since they were launched by £3.
Once again though the box they come in is not specific to the darts being a special edition as its using the box for the gold and blue nitride version which it even describes as such on the rear of the box. So not really sure why they could not have made specific boxes for them, after all its meant to be a “SPECIAL EDITION” ?
The darts are still a very nice looking dart though. Its a short torpedo style, so a front weighted dart, with a nice contrasting gold and black onyx coating. The front has a ring style grip with angled grooves which kind of looks a little like a shark grip when you first look at it but not as grippy as that. The rear is made of a ring grip with lateral notches cut through so just a touch more grippy that the front.
I am fond of gold coatings on darts, to me there is a slight warmth kind of feel which I think adds a touch to the overall feel but I know others say they cant feel any difference, either way it still looks good but will obviously wear in time.
As its a short barrel I guess it wont be suited to many, I have often heard a lot say how they dislike short darts but its a style I think works well for many front grippers like me. Which is all the surprising when you see the way Beaton grips, he seems to have his thumb right at the end of the barrel and a lot on the base of the stem, but rests his two middle fingers along the barrel from what I can tell. So as with most darts its about what suits the individual and if you like to grip that way you should be fine with these also.
Of course the front is more chunky than the rear which I prefer mostly and I felt comfortable with my front grip and the darts were nicely balanced. I was surprised how well they threw from the middle for me though, but its less grippy there due to the smooth natural tungsten silvery band. They were not so great for me from the rear though lol!
It was nice to see these darts closer in weight matching compared to the other sets of Winmau darts I have reviewed recently, these were almost perfect and overall the machining and coating was spot on although its not an overly complicated design.
Shame the price has increased since launch but its still just about ok considering but would have been better had it had specific packaging.
Overall then if you like a short front weighted dart its a great looking one that should work well 🙂
RATINGS OUT OF 10:
LOOKS: 9
GRIP: 6
WEIGHT MATCH: 9.5
QUALITY: 9
VALUE: 6.5