I thought since I’ve had this optic for some time and have it mounted to two hellcats I would give you all my impressions. On my primary EDC I have over a thousand rounds on this optic and on my duplicate hellcat I have 200 rounds Plus.
There are two versions of the sentinel both of which are available in green or red dot at the same price point of about $250. I’ve seen them on sale for as little as $239. The two versions are manual brightness setting, and automatic brightness. The manual brightness setting is shake to wake technology. The auto brightness is on all the time but if placed in a drawer or safe and left idle will sleep to conserve battery life. The auto brightness model has a sensor on the side below the logo which I wish it did not have the logo I mean. It uses ambient light to self adjust brightness. I think both versions have their downside. The manual adjustment is a guess as to what lighting conditions you’re facing and the auto brightness setting can be off if you were shooting from very dark into very light or very light into very dark conditions.
Both versions are in a aluminum housing and the lens is coated glass. They advertise a battery life of two years under normal conditions, and their warranty it’s 50,000 rounds but that’s on the honor system so basically it sounds like a lifetime warranty to me. The dot size is 3 moa and is crisp and clean. I will say the lens size on these optics compared to others the same class seems large which I like. I looked at both the Romeo and vortex sites.
My first experience with the sentinel was not stellar. The first one I received the DOT would not adjust. The company stood up and replaced it free of charge and shipping. So I decided to give them an honest chance and I’m glad I did. I really like this little optic optimized for micro compacts. A slight ding is that the adjustments for elevation of windage are not tactile and there is no clicks. They claim that the necessary internals are problematic in a sight that small. Co witness on one of my hellcats is just barely there and on my newer hellcat it is great. I can’t explain that other than the slide cut from Springfield maybe slightly different on both pistols or they have slightly modified the optic design between my first and second purchase.
Overall I like this little site and have the Green Dot auto brightness on both of my EDC hellcats. They seem to be durable and once I got past the first unit being defective they have functioned flawlessly. They fit the hellcat perfectly.
