How long should a disc last? I find they don't perform as well as the plastic hardens with age.

How long should a disc last? I find they don't perform as well as the plastic hardens with age.

[Coolhand]

what kind of plastic do you buy?

[Mike]

I know people that use 10 year old discs. Discs are more affected from being stored in hot conditions, direct sunlight, moist areas things like that make them brittle and hard. Don't store you plastic in the back of your car if you live in a hot sunny climate, or in a damp basement. A disc that is stored correctly and treated reasonably well, will probably last longer than you will care to throw it. Softer plastics like DX, Pro, D, will get shot after a few good tree or rock hits, not hard or brittle but the flight will be compromised. Both major companies Innova, Discraft offer plastics that are high durability premium blends such as, Elite Z and Champion which are the highest, then ESP and Star and it goes down the ladder from there. Generally any disc with a lot of use will become less stable in it's flight characteristics, but not brittle or hardened.

[Nascar Mike]

I have had discs in my bags for many years. As a matter of fact, I just lost one yesterday deeeep in the water. Anyway, the only thing that really changes is the flight characteristics. That is probably from hitting trees or other park equipment. I have never known a disc to go bad because of age. Unless you have a 20 year old DX plastic stingray or something.

[Russell Gore]

I have an Elite X Soft Challenger from 2001 that I just got an Ace with about a month ago! It is without a doubt the ugliest disc I have ever seen but it is my "Go to" disc. It even laid in the bottom of a pond for over a year and made it's way back to me. The top of the disc is sunken in, it has thumb prints all over it, the sides are beat to death, but it still flies like a "Champ". I use this disc for every second shot under 300 ft., and even throw it for a tee shot on any hole around 250ft, as long as the wind is above 20 mph. You can't buy plastic like this in any store. It takes lots of love to get one to where mine is! If I'm not mistaken Mark Ellis' putters are the ones he started with God only knows how long ago. They have got to be 15 years old or more!
As Mike stated it's all about where you store your discs. Mine go in my room every time I threw using them. Don't leave then outside anywhere. Not in a car, or on your back porch, or in your garage, or in the snow and ice. A buddy of mine left his in the snow one time and broke almost every disc he had in just a few weeks.

[JeremyRogers]

I think that some plastic gets better as it ages , tho it may not always be good for the durability, I love the feel you get from a disc you may find half way submerged in the dirt in the hot sand or in the muddy lake here in FL you see weathered plastic of all sorts and some of them feel like butter , so nice, and not replicable, but like I said the down fall to these kinds of discs is durability, they may change drastically from just one hit, or it may just add to the charagcter , I ve got a few relic's in my bag, some not even that necesarilly that old of a disc, but for how long it was in these extreme elements around here, they have made dramatic changes, to answer your question , a disc should last....I say theres no telling..

[jesse p. mccain]

i like my disc when they are brand new but i also get the best flight out of the older beat in ones all my disc are at least three months old and more beat in ones are my best.you should use them when the are new like my star destroyer and as the get old the go from hyzer to best distance mine is almost there!

[Pure Disc Golf dot Com]

Personally, the majority of my bag is all CE plastic. It's true, you can't duplicate perfection. I have found that these discs give me far more control in the woods up here in Oregon. I do appreciate all the new plastic I get from Innova for touring throughout the years. I throw these discs a lot when I'm around water or other obstacles. That way if I throw a disc in the water I'm not a sniffling mess.

I have this one Flat Top Valkyrie I've been using for towering roller shots. I've found the line to throw it up to 50 feet over a stand of trees and still roll 400ft +. No other disc that Innova molds will do achieve this shot. I have tried it with almost everything; Roadrunners, Sidewinders, Leopards, Teebirds, Monarchs, Grooves, New Valkyries etc. All these pale in comparison to the Pure-ness of the old CE. Nothing can take the ground impact produced by high RPM rollers better than old CE. The CE Leopards of old are by far the most controllable disc ever made. YES, even more than the First Run CE Teebird TL. The TL offers a bit too much speed for some of these shots. No doubt they are probably the truest stand up Hyzer to Anhyzer drivers ever made.. However, CE Leopards offer their pilots rare slow speed Pimpness.

There is no doubt that the new technology goes way farther than the old CE though. I find though that I lose my control as I said before. I would sometimes rather have it be 450-500ft (CE Eagle, Teebird, Leopards) in the center than 500-600ft ( ECO Excaliber, Champion Boss) off the fairway.

Hit me up if you would like a break down of all the plastics available. Peace

[The FORCE]

You must be using DX plastic from innova or maybe d-plastic from discraft. i know a lot of the discs made from those plastics tend to break in the cold and over a short period of time. ive never personally broken a champion or elite-z disc. i find that these discs grow on me as i throw them more and the quality of the plastic really comes out as it endures all those trees. so really discs last as long as you dont lose them or burn them or freeze them. you are right to say that some dont perform with age, try some higher quality plastic and the age will only make them your favorite discs.

[Brandon Swanson]

Pure Disc Golf dot Com said:

YES, even more than the First Run CE Teebird TL. The TL offers a bit too much speed for some of these shots. No doubt they are probably the truest stand up Hyzer to Anhyzer drivers ever made.. However, CE Leopards offer their pilots rare slow speed Pimpness

I think my plain old star TL offers me plenty of "pimpness" no matter the speed, thank you very much. :-) I just wanted to use your word pimpness in a sentence. :-P

[Donny Olow]

Depends on how you beat them up and how often they are used !!!!

[Will Stafford]

Kc plastic Lasts FOREVER along with star and champion but mostly KC is the most durable i have found

[Donny Olow]

Don't leave on your roof , back window of your car , dog dish , bird feeder , etc ......