Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-27306930-20191211061226/@comment-27306930-20191213074155

So I'm not exactly clear on the advantages of being able to lock back and release the follower. Sure, when you're loading it you won't have the resistance of the follower spring. Which is negligible. You still need to overcome the tension of the magazine lips, which means you still have to force the rounds into the mag. It's not like you can just pour them in when the follower is fully retracted. So I don't get it.

After spending a few minutes with my Sentry X2 tonight, I totally understand what Rskm meant by "The mag spring only pushes balls FORWARD.  They won't actually fall into the chamber once they get to the front of the mag unless gravity is helping them."

The weak follower spring can only push the rounds to the end of the magazine. The spring doesn't have the power to actually force the rounds through the 90° turn at the end of the mag and into the chamber. And unfortunately gravity is barely providing enough force to overcome the lateral spring tension holding the rounds in the mag AND the friction between the rubbery RIVAL round and the wall of the magazine.

Knowing all this, I've come up with a priming sequence that pretty much eliminates the problem. I pull back on the priming handle, smack the blaster against the palm of my hand to force the next round into the chamber, then whack the priming handle forward. It's ugly, it involves extra steps, and it's slightly slower, but it works every time. Hmmm, kinda reminds me of the  😉

Conclusion: I really like the styling, the color scheme, size, and ergonomics of the Senty X2. As well as the price ! Holding six rounds is a big plus. Being able to load two rounds at a time is awesome. But consistently chambering rounds is a challenge. And that's huge.

My other pet peeve is the safety. It looks and acts like a Rev Trigger. You need to pull it first before the firing trigger is active. It's counterintuitive for a springer pistol. I had a hard time with it. I found myself hesitating after pulling the trigger, only to realize I needed to pull the safety trigger first, then refire. In a Nerf war that momentary hesitation is what sends you back to the respawn point. Shamefully, with your hands up 😕  I internally disabled the locks in mine.

Performance wise, it's right on target with other RIVAL blasters. FPS is variable between 90 and 95 FPS, but well within normal RIVAL ranges.

Bottom Line: The chambering issues with this blaster need to be fixed before Nerfers should buy this one. And the Safety should be an external switch, not another trigger. That was dumb.

Technically it's not too late for Adventure Force to fix the Sentry. But its reputation is soiled. Maybe there's a "Centry Force X3" in the future that fixes all these problems  🤞