Okay, so after my bewilderment at the powerhouse that is the Boss, someone on Reddit recommended I pick up an Ultra Tek Sentinel and since it was on clearance for $9 bucks, I did. The last lever action blaster Buzz Bee made was the Rapid Fire Rifle with it's cool shell ejection feature that jammed every two seconds and it's total sub-par ranges, it was by all means a piece of crap but the Sentinel seems to be a return to the Rapid Fire Rifle's core design and once again Buzz Bee didn't cease to amaze me for the second time.
Size compared to a Slingfire.
The Sentinel was probably made as a response to the Slingfire which in my earlier post I said was fun, but impractical and inconsistent. Buzz Bee being the budget brand it is has still opted for as little color variation as possible and the Sentinel looks pretty flat for the most part. It packs a bit more forward grip space than the Slingfire which is good but it totally makes this pointless with the fact that the stock is literally half the length of the Slingfire's. It has the same type of magazine eject as the Boss and other newer Buzz Bee clip systems but it feels fine since it's not a mega clip system. The lever, while it may be metal and much sturdier than the Slingfire's bendy plastic lever, is the exact same as the RFR and has so little surface area around your hand that it digs into your hand whenever you prime or even just hold the blaster. The prime is also a bit stiff but there is reason to this, but you also can't do the cool tricks you could with the Slingfire with the Sentinel. Overall the Slingfire is much nicer feeling but is it better in other aspects?
Again, how the hell did they get away with this.
Now the Boss did take Nerf mega magazines without issues and it baffled me how it was even possible but I assumed Hasbro didn't really give a shit anymore since the Centurion basically tarnished that whole idea for them. But you look at the Sentinel and you try putting a 25 round drum in, it fits. A Buzz Bee blaster that can take standard Nerf mags without issues and fire from them just fine and vice versa. Hell, even these new suction darts are remarkably similar to Nerf's Elite Suction Darts. Again, I have no idea how this was even made possible without any legal troubles from Hasbro but why do we care? I like the idea of being universal, it makes things a bit less complicated.
Internals are relatively simple and super effective.
That's where we get to performance, it's pretty insane. With it's stock darts the Sentinel is hitting roughly around the 60 to 70 foot mark with remarkable long range accuracy, something the Slingfire was just incapable of. Once you crack it open, you find a plunger tube that's notably bigger than the Slingfire's; a little bit longer and almost the diameter of a Longshot plunger tube. Also it has a beefy spring and a gear-less priming system which is the reason why it requires more force to prime this blaster. Some modders have been able to push this thing to well over 100 FPS and that's crazy. It's not much different from a regular direct plunger clip system so if you're familiar with those, modding it shouldn't be an issue. I haven't had any jamming problems so far, and like the Boss it has no jam door but it hopefully won't be an issue in the long run. I will note that the screw strip out pretty easily but maybe its just because I was using too much force or the wrong screwdriver like an idiot. Who knows, but I know I won't be getting mine open again any time soon.
The Sentinel is an excellent blaster by all means and once again it surprised me that Buzz Bee is actually capable of making something this good after the decade of garbage they pumped out. It hits very hard, it's fairly practical resulting from that said performance, and it's got more mod potential than the Slingfire, not to mention it's relatively cheap. It does have a few quirks in the area of comfort but anybody with modding know how should be able to work something out that suits them; for the most part it feels alright. For those reasons the Sentinel is worth of 9 out of 10, another gland slam from a company that hasn't had very many before. It's definitely worth checking out without a doubt.
The Verdict
Class- Lever Action Repeater
Range- Excellent, around 60-70 feet with great accuracy.
Size- Roughly the same size as the Slingfire or Sledgefire.
Reliability- May jam but this has not been an issue.
Ammo- 8 Ultra Tek Darts(Elite Darts)
Modding- Great potential, a basic spring swap and AR removal can work wonders for this blaster.
Value- At $15, it's an absolute steal for the performance you get out of this thing.
Is It Better Than?
Slingfire- Depends, the Sentinel is vastly better in terms of performance over the Slingfire but the latter is smoother operating, more comfortable, and a bit better looking too. The Sentinel also has more mod potential since the Slingfire uses gears to smooth it's operation.
Rapid Fire Rifle- Yes, well obviously. The RFR was a jamming mess and it got pretty mediocre ranges as well. Granted it was pretty cool being the first lever action on the market at the time but that's really it. The Sentinel is a million times better.
Rapid Fire Rifle- Yes, well obviously. The RFR was a jamming mess and it got pretty mediocre ranges as well. Granted it was pretty cool being the first lever action on the market at the time but that's really it. The Sentinel is a million times better.
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