L-Style Shell Lock Flight Punch

Researching the L-Style shell locks I saw good amount of fans and a lot of what seemed like reflexive dismissal. With shell locks you’re not (necessarily) having to replace/upgrade everything, but shaft compatibility is an issue. Most shafts will “fit” but often the shell lock isn’t actually contacting the shaft or doing much of anything. As far as complaints about flight compatibility, if someone’s sitting on a punch that can accurately adjust to all the different flight dimensions then have at it. What worked for me is removing the bottom cover (that catches the little punched-out bits) so you can see the flight through the punch hole. This allows you to line up the center crease with the center of the punch hole, when punching non-standard flights. Ideally it would be nice to have a slider on both sides that controls the depth you can push the flight into the punch. In the absence of any DIY engineering epiphanies —so far anyway—I’ve settled you for using a piece of tape wrapped around. Anyway, the more I think about it this could be even better but overall I’m satisfied with this punch. My marks wore off but figure I’ll etch center marks at the top edge of the frame and bottom edge of the “bell” cutout then easily center any flight. I found even with standard flights you need to measure/check how deep the flight goes in the shaft your using, as some punched too low. Just need to figure out depth stop. Buuuuuttt… all that to make these shell locks easier. The shell locks that are cool but hardly necessary… mm, seems like L-Style’s job.

Do I rate the whole L-Style shell locks concept equally well? Eh, sorta. As much as I enjoy fiddling and customizing and other secondary shenanigans you really can’t go wrong with basic flights and shafts. Most of these upgrades and preventatives aren’t going to make real a difference unless you’re someone routinely parking darts in the same spot. But hey, it’s something else to spend money on and some people like flair. It’s worked for me so far though. They probably help mitigate robin hoods to some extent. Hard to say for sure. I certainly haven’t had a point catch on a shell lock so far. Do they keep flights more aligned/at right angles? Yeah, I’d say so as long as you put the flight on properly. With a flight saver doohickey on the other end they definitely put. All of the dart products that aren’t actual darts llikely have very little bearing on the actual throws/score. So as long as you have reasonable/low expectations then sure, Shell Lock it up or whichever other system. Personally I think the biggest thing for avoiding robin hoods is the shape of your darts nose. If you’re throwing a big round bomber then the shell locks and trident cones and quadruple-directional spinners just ain’t gonna do so much.

This was like putting a cold air intake in your car or something. Can I truly feel that 3-9hp difference? It looks cool though.

P.S. from the minimal info out there it seems these punches were initially sold for much higher and had a commensurate reaction. So factor the date in maybe.

As I almost exclusively used Lstyle shafts and flights, this punch and the shell lock rings have opened many new flights options. I previously only used Lstyle flights to save my expensive Lstyle shafts from being damaged. Now I can use any papers flights with the same protection from Robin Hooding. The rings do hold paper flights at more of a 90 degree angle too. I'm now shooting more accurately with my fav' barrels and Harrows Retina Velos flights that I shell locked.

This works well for the most part to get a good set of practice flights and not keep the high payment and destruction of molded flights. However if you look carefully there is a lot of wiggle room which tends to lead to Robbin hoods of the caps that go into the flight and on the shaft. It defeats the purpose that the caps do a great job of with molded flights. Overall I will still buy molded flights, but this will be a good money saver during practice sessions.

This new shell lock puncher is way better than the old design... I've always like the shell lock than any rings or even champagne lock as I love using old school flights with a bit of protection... Now, everyone is in to flight shaft incorporated thing...

It's small compared to models I've seen in on-line videos, but does the job. Haven't punched a lot flights yet, so it remains to be seen how durable it is.