You’ve basically got it, Ev. The target was a plastic hoop about two feet across, the lawn darts were about 18 inches long overall, mostly plastic fins but tipped with a heavy metal point about three inches long. The whole thing weighed maybe a pound … The game was played like horseshoes, lobbing the dart underhand toward the target from about thirty feet. The weight of the point made it always land point-first, and it would stick a fair way into all but the rockiest ground. And, evidently, all but the hardest skull.
Band name alert
Great moments of jarts in literature:
I remember reading a novel, forget the author’s name but I believe he was billed as “Carl Hiassen on speed.” Outrageous S.Fla crime, drugs, sex, and violence stuff. One part had some criminal activity occurring near an old folks’ apartment complex, and this cranky old guy nailed a fleeing bad guy in the neck with a jart.
Well, OK, I’d think you have a much higher number of kids riding bikes than playing lawn darts. So statistically, I’d say you’re much more likely to be injured playing with a lawn dart than a bike.
From what I remember, you CAN sell them on eBay, but only as collectibles, which means you can’t sell the metal tips. If you want the whole package, head on over to Yahoo Auctions, where you can sell them.
Please take a gander at the thread I linked earlier. Lawn Dart injuries were three times more common than lightning strikes and about 700 times less common than bicycle injuries. (Ten times less common than tricycle injuries.)
There have been two known fatalities due to lawn darts EVER! It is not uncommon for there to be 1000 bicycle deaths in a year. It is also not uncommon for tricycle related deaths in one year to be greater than or equal to the number of lawn dart deaths in all recorded history.
I would like to explore the possibility that the banning of lawn darts might have been an overreaction by someone or a group of someones.
Dinsdale said:
Tim Dorsey, Hammerhead Ranch Motel. Great book. I love that guy. If you haven’t read it, pick up his first book, Florida Roadkill.
There are two main reasons.
Useing the bike in it’s intended fashion is relativily safe and I’ll bet a fair number of those bike accidents are kids being hit with CARS while on their bikes. Who’s fault? Ask your stats. Plus a bikes saftey can be increased with equipment like lights, reflectors, and helmuts. The darts are dangerous to begin with. Giving kids javelins is not a good idea.
The other reason is that bikes have been around for a long time and are really a part of our culture. Those Lawn Darts were sold for what? Six Months? (I really don’t know.) But however long they were sold they weren’t around as long as bikes.
Plus people are babies now. Heck one child death with a product gets the entire line recalled now.
Colt did make an AR-15 at that time. Now the same rifles are sold without flash suppressors, bayonet lugs, or collapsable stocks and they’re now called “Match Target” rifles. The AR-15 is still produced today but they can only be sold to government or military. The older preban AR-15s can still be sold or owned by anyone.
What do you mean Colt didn’t make an AR-15??
Of the deaths of people on bicycles, how many were killed by a defect in the bicycle or in an accident that involved a bicycle and no one else. I imagine that nearly all of the deaths involving bicycles involved the cyclist getting hit by an automobile (the same with a tricycle).
Lawn darts were intrisically unsafe. You didn’t need any intervention from an outside agency. You could throw one in the air (their sole function) and it could land in someone’s head.
A bicyclist getting hit by a car running a red light is a much different matter.
Jarts, of course, are dangerous if you’re not careful. The solution: be careful (duh!). We played with them when we were younger, and our parents supervised (until we were old enough to play unsupervised).
I have two sets of Jarts now: one was from a former colleague’s shed (he didn’t want them). Unfortunately, the years of heat caused them to crack quite a bit. They are now basically one huge mass of duct tape, which incidentally makes them fly quite a bit farther because of the extra weight. Since we don’t care too much about this already-damaged set of Jarts, we bring them to family picnics and such. The other set was purchased on eBay a couple of years ago (apparently before someone decided you couldn’t do that anymore). These are in mint condition and even have extra flights if the current ones do crack. These are our “home” set.
As far as the original question, we play with ours all the time and no police have come and taken us away yet. 
It’s a toy, for crying out loud. If darts can be played in a bar by adults, Jarts can be played outdoors by reasonable people.
In fact I have a Colt AR-15. It says “AR-15” on the left side. I think the full name was “AR-15 Sporter”. While AR-15s can be sold and owned by anyone, “anyone” who wants to buy or transfer one must live outside of California as California prohibits ownership by anyone other than owners who registered their AR-15s prior to (date of banning in CA) and prohibits all transfers except to firearms dealers who cannot re-sell them in California.
I can’t even get a Walther PPK in this frelling state!
Just another example of the nanny state eroding our freedom to take risks. Besides, we never had any injuries, how dangerous could they have been compared to BB guns and bicycles?
Jarts were a way to prove your manliness in the field of backyard games since parents had outlawed all contests that involved pointing a projectile weapon at someone.
In our version of the game, we would line up the target circles at opposite ends of the yard, about 75’ apart and toss the darts at the targets. The team at the far end had to stand in place next to the target while the darts came in. Making the guys near the target flinch or run won you double points if the dart still landed in the target.
Hmmm…Maybe this is not so good an example as to how safe these things were for young teens.
Well, I was injured doing several things growing up, but lawn darts were never involved. From the record we find:
[ul]
[li]BB gun injuries – numerous welts[/li][li]Bicycle injuries – one trip for x-rays, various minor injuries from less spectacular wipe-outs[/li][li]Backyard Football – Minor injuries, including knee.[/li][li]Softball (as an adult) – 40 stitches[/li][li]Jarts – No injuries.[/li][/ul]
And I wasn’t even the daredevil of the bunch!
Are we turning into a nation of overprotected cry-babies?
Is it time for a discussion of the relative merits between jarts with sliding vs fixed flights? (Of course we all know the anwer!)
If you don’t have jarts, your kids can always have fun with regular darts. Ah, the halcyon hours we used to spend running around the ping pong table throwing darts at each other and catching them on ping pong paddles. Or deciding who had to toss their dart into the surface of the table, and then retrieve it while everyone else threw their darts at their hand. Good clean fun!
Y’know, cavewoman was once hit in the head with a lawn dart. She was 7 at the time, and strayed onto the target while her parents and some friends were playing…she wasn’t hurt too bad, though, and does not seem to have suffered any lasting damage…
When I was younger a couple friends and I came up with a great game with an old set of yard darts. We ground the tips to a point on a bench grinder and flung them at the side of my friend’s barn like it was the biggest dartboard you ever saw. The only problem was retrieving the darts when you stuck one in the wall 15" up.
Doughboy just how short are you? I can reach stuff 15 inches off the ground.
“Lawn Darts” are quite legal; just ask the USN. They’re still operating F/A-18’s!
(With minimal apologies to any TACAIR drivers I offended.)
Orions RULE!!!
One of my favorite “dumb things my elders did” stories from my family is the time my two uncles were kids and played the game of standing on opposite sides of the house, throwing a real dart (the kind you throw at a dartboard in a bar) back and forth, letting it stick in the grass, then throwing it back. The game ended when it hit one of them right in the top of the head and he had to go to the hospital. I suppose he’s lucky to be alive. Eeeech. Makes me shudder to think of it.
I like Jarts, though. They’re cool. My favorite thing was to go to a big field in a park and just throw them really far.
galt: That happened to a friend of mine. His brother threw a regular dart. The dart stuck in his forehead. His mom, a nurse, pulled it out and put a Band-Aid® on it.