I attended a recent gun show with the objective of purchasing a light weight, reasonably accurate 22 LR revolver -a woods-tramping "kit gun" kind of thing. I was hoping that one of the vendors would have a Charter Arms Pathfinder, as that handgun seemed to be one that would fit the bill as far as having the features and quality I was looking for at a price I was prepared to pay. Other options included a top-break H&R "Sportsman" which is something that I had a pretty strong desire to own when I was a kid. I had thought about the Taurus M-94, too. I was also open to something in single-action, like a Single-Six or Bearcat. There was always the Heritage Rough Rider, sold for cheap at Academy Sports and Outdoors, just in case I didn't find anything at the show and determined that I couldn't wait.
One of the vendors had a High Standard Sentinel. I had heard of this revolver but this was the first one that I have ever seen or handled in person. I was immediately struck by "oh so right" feel of the grip. The revolver was also suprisingly light in weight for its size. It was, however, very nicely balanced in the hand. It appeared to be reasonably well made, too, and was in like new condition. Cylinder indexing seemed okay. The revolver seemed to lock up nice and tight. No end shake to speak of. The cylinder itself showed no visible sign of wear from bolt drag. The chambers and bore were immaculately clean and the face of the cylinder appeared to be the same in color as the rest of the part. All in all, it appeared to have not seen much use.
I had no idea if the asking price of $225.00 was fair or not. I didn't really know anything about these revolvers and didn't have them on my shopping list because I had never seen one in the flesh, though I knew of their existance. I hemmed and hawed around, looking at other choices, but coming back the Sentinel Deluxe. The seller said he would entertain offers and was willing to deal. Eventually the price came down to the point where I couldn't resist, and the little featherweight wheelgun became mine.
My example sports a nicely finsihed blued steel barrel that is pinned to what appears to be a die cast aluminum alloy frame. The frame is anodized in satin black and is of one piece construction. The trigger guard and grip frame are one seperate piece that is "bottom loaded" into the main frame. There are no visible screws holding the thing together, except for the screws that secure the sculpted and checkered walnut grip pannels to the grip frame / trigger guard assembly. There is also no thumb latch to release the swing-out cylinder for loading and unloading. Releasing the cylinder is accomplished by pulling forward on the ejector rod. Depressing this rod ejects the contents of all nine cylinders in standard double action revolver fashion. The cylinder itself is blued steel, fluted, and counter-bored at the rear. The hammer is highly polished in the white on its sides with the spur being nicely contoured and serrated for slip-free purchase. The hammer nose, spur, and back face of the hammer are blued. The trigger is nicely contoured and serrated with grooves for slip-free use.
It all adds up to a very ergonomic wheelgun. It was the ergonomics that really sold me on the thing.
Ah.... But would it be a shooter?
I couldn't wait to find out, so it was off to the range........
I had a limited selection of .22 LR on hand during my initial firing, which consisted of 100 Winchester Wildcats, 50 Remington Thunderbolts, 500 Winchester X-Perts, and about half a box of Eley 10 X.
The sights on this revolver are a nothin' special blued blade front, with a square notched rear made of alloy that is drift adjutable for windage only. Initial firing showed that the sights were correctly regulated for POI to match POA at 20 yards.
As I mentioned, this revolver is surprisingly light in weight, which makes precise shooting a bit of a challange. This is compensated for by some degree by the nicely balanced feel the thing has in the hands. Shooting off the rest, groups ranged from 2.75 to 1.25 at 25 yards. Not surprisingly, the T-Bolts turned out the worst groups. The Eley 10 X fodder shot very well. I was content to accept 2" nine shot groups, and didn't really expect to see the kind of performance the revolver turned with the 10-X rounds.
The double action pull was reasonably smooth, yet one can "stage" the pull if one wants to. I was taught not to do that during my tenure in law enforcement, so I don't normally shoot that way double-action. The double action pull was insanely heavy, however. It is so heavy, in fact, that it exceeds the measureable range of my pull weight scale. The single action pull wasn't in the tuned Smith and Wesson league. It feels more like the pull on an old Security Six, with a hint of overtravel after the break, which takes 3.3 pounds of pressure.
As one might imagine, there were no FTF's and function-wise, the revolver was flawless.
This is not somehting that will compete with a K-22 or Ruger autoloading .22LR pistol in a match. But it is accurate enough to be entertaining at the range and is a fun little plinker. I managed to kill a couple of squirrels with it, thumping the little buggers on the noggin with one shot each, at distances out to 20 yards. I have about 750 rounds through it now, and accuracy seems to have slightly improved during this time.
All in all, I am happy with this little revolver and think that it will serve its intended role well. I'd like to have a dedicated range handgun, but shooting this Sentinel Deluxe over the past few days has me thinking about a revolver for filling that role. I bring an old laundry soap bucket with me and dump my empties directly into it. Unlike an autoloader, which ejects empties all over creation, cleaning up after one's self after shooting the wheelgun is a fast process.
JP
