Beating-in, base plastic, and putters and tacos

[Rastnav]

When a I started playing regularly about 2ish years ago, I mostly stayed away from base plastics. I had a few starter packs, but I never really much liked those discs anyway. As I bought discs, I mostly bought them in various premium plastics. My thought process might have been as simple as "premium must be better", but it at least was rationalized as "I don't want discs changing on me, it's hard enough to throw correctly without adapting to rapidly changing flight characteristics."

The only real exception to this was some baseline putters, mostly as putting putters.

Recently my throwing putters have been been changing in my bag as I haven't been quite satisfied with them as my form has improved. I've been going through discs that I've accumulated and just trying them out, which are often baseline, and I've really been liking throwing base plastic putters. I was kinda looking forward to getting something beat in to really flippy.

Just today I've now lost my 3rd baseline putter, with the rim of just part of the disc being noticeably bent down, right after a really nice solid tree hit. I guess that's not a full on taco, but I'm thinking that my results are going to be inconsistent if the disc is bent into a noticeably asymmetric shape.

Is this just par for the course with baseline plastic? Maybe it's more a tendency with putters in general, as their rims aren't wide, and thus not as stiff? I would think this would be an issue even with mids, as their rims aren't that different from putters.

I've never encountered this kind of thing with other plastics. Am I just getting unlucky?

What am I missing here?

 

[Monocacy]

Just today I've now lost my 3rd baseline putter, with the rim of just part of the disc being noticeably bent down, right after a really nice solid tree hit . . .

Generally you can just bend it back into shape and it should be fine. Like anything else, bending a disc back into more-or-less symmetric shape takes a little practice.

Did you try throwing your bent disc? If so, how did it fly?

. . . . I'm thinking that my results are going to be inconsistent if the disc is bent into a noticeably asymmetric shape.

This is all part of getting a putter "beat to flippy", along with dings and scrapes. Embrace the imperfections.

Is this just par for the course with baseline plastic? . . .

Sure, baseline plastic will get dinged up, bent, etc. But I've had some really ugly-looking discs that flew beautifully. Give yours a try and see what you think!

 

[Horsman]

Thats completely normal with baseline discs. You hit a tree really hard and it will deform. You then have to tune the disc back to normal if that is something that bothers you. After every tree hit that I have with one of my DX Rocs I will look over the disc and see if there are any deformities and if there are then I will bend them back into shape.

 

[aphilso1]

I throw baseline putters. They get pretty ugly and deformed but still fly great. I don't typically tune them back.

 

[Dr. Bogey]

Along the lines of what others have said, don't assume that a deformed disc is automatically trash. One of my sweetest-flying discs is an ancient, thrashed, comically asymmetrical Discraft XClone.

 

[ray1970]

The two best discs in my bag are both pretty beat up and warped. One of them is so out of shape that I have nicknamed it Taco. They are two of my go-to discs and I have been there with them since they were shiny and new and we have enjoyed our journey together.

 

[gogo]

My favorite approach disc is an r-pro dart that has a warped "bubble" on one side of the top and a dip on the other from being left in the truck of my car during 100deg days. It also has a bent down portion on the nose from tree hits. Best straight flying disc I've thrown.

I started throwing a rubber blend buzzz recently that has hit a few trees during rounds and now it has a"dipped" edge. I'm beginning to like it also.

After a disc has been misshaped the flight isn't going to change much after that.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Back in the previous century before we had premium plastic, we're talking pre-1998 here, it was common for your Disc to fly differently by the end of the round if you played a course full of trees. Usually it meant you'd need to release it with a little more hyzer because it would flip up easier than before you nailed a tree with it.

I still like to have a couple of DX Sidewinders in various stages of wear for trick turnover shots.

Nothing wrong with base plastic for some aspects of our game, and you're absolutely right about putters. I find I like regular "prime" Deputies for shot-shaping in the woods and straddle putts where I can't get my body into the putt as much as a standard putting style. They're nearly half the price of a Fierce but do the same thing, and I'll use a Prime Deputy for more than a whole year and it'll do its job fine. My putting putter is an XT Aviar. Love the grip combined with the resilient plastic at the same time. My main one is 3 years old and still nailing putts for me left and right despite its worn look. I've got a stack of 10 more I use just for practice.

 

[jupiterboy]

I think when you get a deep cut in the rim of any disc it then becomes unreliable because it flexes differently on release depending on where the cut is in relation to your grip.

With my touch putters I don't use them for longer approaches so they don't take that sort of abuse.