I found a sliver of what looked like black rubber in my dart

[steppenwolf]

I pushed the pin through the black rubber stopper. It was Norma deca. The

only thing I can figure is the pin cut a sliver of rubber off and it went into the

dart. Has anyone else ever had this? I used a Whatman filter. It must have

soaked up .8 ML.

Thanks.

[Froggy]

Yes it will happen. A sharper needle & smaller needle will lower the chances. Also, older or "more brittle" septas will do that more. Try to just pick it out with another needle or something, you lost to much gear with the filter.

[steppenwolf]

Yes it will happen. A sharper needle & smaller needle will lower the chances. Also, older or "more brittle" septas will do that more. Try to just pick it out with another needle or something, you lost to much gear with the filter.

It was a 22 gauge pin. 1.5" long. It was a new pin. If I use a thinner pin, I can not get the gear through it. Thank you for replying.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, that happens pretty often with me. I've found that if you stick a pin in through a hole from a previous injection, the rubber is more likely to break off. Try to pick a new spot in the rubber every time.

[smalldogbigdogbrain]

change darts everytime, draw it up with one and inject with another. It makes injecting a snap, U dont feel a thing with a sharp needle.

[BASK8KACE]

change darts everytime, draw it up with one and inject with another. It makes injecting a snap, U dont feel a thing with a sharp needle.

I too use one needle to draw and a different one to inject.

I use Norma deca, and I have noticed that the rubber stopper on the Norma Deca constantly breaks off after a needle pierces it once or twice. Especially when using larger needles (larger than or equal to 23 guage). When I find a rubber piece in my vial, I suck it out with a new needle. If it's in my syringe, I do the following:

1. Turn the syringe straight up (the punger on the bottom and the needle pointing up)
2. Hold the syringe like this until the rubber piece falls to the bottom.
3. Keep the syringe in this position, insert the needle into the deca vial, and slowly push the deca from the syringe back into the vial while making sure that the rubber does not re-enter the vial. If the rubber goes back into the vial, draw it back into the syringe. Once you have done this then complete step 4 (below).
4. Get a clean needle and syringe and draw the amount of deca from the vial that you need for your injection.