Best Red Dot for Hellcat – Review and Buying Guide 2024

The Springfield Hellcat has quickly become one of the most popular new pistols in Springfield’s line, and with good reason. It’s a rock-solid gun with an impressive capacity, consistent reliability, and a lot of room for modding and upgrading, including a slide that comes pre-cut for a red dot.

Also Read: How To Use A Red Dot Scope

Best Value Red Dots for Hellcat

These four best red dot sights are mid-range in price and provide a good amount of features for your money.

Springfield HEX Wasp

It’s shouldn’t be a surprise that the manufacturer of the Hellcat itself also nailed a red dot designed specifically to go with the Hellcat: the HEX Wasp.

This sight has a 3.5 MOA reticle, which is a nice, balanced size. It’s an “always-on” reticle with automatic brightness adjustment. Like the Swampfox Sentinel, the battery should last up to about two years. 

The HEX Wasp’s low profile means that this sight is also super easy to co-witness with the Hellcat’s factory sights, a major benefit of selecting a red dot that was made specifically for the Hellcat. 

Another big advantage of this sight is the precise windage and elevation adjustment. While most other sights adjust at 1 MOA intervals (and some at even larger ones), the HEX Wasp has a fine 0.5 MOA adjustment for both windage and elevation.

The Springfield HEX Wasp is nice and rugged with a 6061-T6 aluminum chassis and a black anodized finish. It’s also waterproof up to a meter.

One final but not as impactful advantage of the Springfield HEX Wasp is that because it was designed for the Hellcat, the aesthetics of the HEX Wasp closely match the Hellcat’s. That makes this sight blend nicely with the pistol for a really sleek, natural look. 

Swampfox Sentinel

Our next red dot recommendation for the Hellcat is the Swampfox Sentinel.

This little optic has a 3 MOA reticle, which is a nice, balanced size for both sight acquisition speed and accuracy. It has an RMSc footprint, so it can be mounted directly to your Hellcat. 

It comes in two versions. One automatically sets the brightness of the reticle based on the ambient light conditions, while the other allows you to manually choose your brightness setting yourself. 

There are advantages and disadvantages to each setup. It’s nice to not have to worry about making brightness adjustments on the fly, but it’s also nice to have that extra bit of control of your reticle’s brightness. Neither version is bad, though, so it just depends on what you prefer. 

Each version is also available with either a red or green dot. Again, there are advantages to both, so it just depends on your preferences.

The Sentinel has a roughly  2-year battery life, so you don’t have to worry about replacing the CR 2032 battery very often.

This sight isn’t as durable as some more high-end options, but it’s not exactly delicate either. It has a 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum chassis and anti-fog, hydrophobic, and anti-scratch coatings on the lens. It’s waterproof up to a meter.

Plus, Swampfox also makes a stainless steel shield, the Ironsides Shield, to provide additional protection for the optic. The shields for the automatic and manual brightness versions of the Sentinel differ, though, so if you opt to get an Ironsides Shield, make sure you choose the one that corresponds with your version of the Sentinel. 

Holosun HS507K-X2

Holosun is known for balancing affordability and quality, and the 507K-X2 is no exception. 

One major advantage of this red dot is the Multiple Reticle System. You can choose from among a 2 MOA dot, a 32 MOA circle, and Holosun’s Circle Dot Reticle (which combines the dot and circle into one reticle), all in one sight.

 It has manually adjustable brightness with 12 settings, including two-night vision settings. 

Another cool feature is the side battery try, which allows you to swap out batteries without removing the dot from your Hellcat. You shouldn’t need to fuss with it too much anyway, though, since this red dot provides more than 50,000 hours of battery life on setting six. 

One disadvantage of the Holosun HS507K-X2 is that it can’t be mounted directly to the Hellcat’s factory slide. That means you’ll need to either adapt the slide or use an adapter plate. Fortunately, adding a plate is easy and there are very slim adapter plates so you don’t have to add a ton of bulk to get this sight to work with your Hellcat. 

Weighing an ounce, this is on the heavier end relative to other red dots at this price point, but it’s so small of a difference, you’re unlikely to even notice.

Shield Sights SMSc

Our last value red dot recommendation is the Shield Sights SMSc. This red dot sight is based on the RMSc, which we will talk about in a moment. 

It has a polymer body to keep the sight nice and light without much sacrifice on durability. There are four versions of this sight, two with polymer lenses with a quartz coating and two with glass lenses. In each of those categories, you can get a sight with either a 4 MOA dot or an 8 MOA dot, so this is a great choice for those looking for larger dots. 

Regardless of which version you go with, the sight uses a LED to project the reticle. Since this sight doesn’t use a laser, there’s no risk of eye damage with the SMSc. 

The dot is always on and features automatic brightness adjustment. Low brightness settings are night-vision compatible. 

A single CR2032 battery can power the light for at least two to three years but may last longer. 

There’s no manual brightness adjustment, which I would have liked to see. It’s not the end of the world, but if you really want the option to manually control the brightness setting, you might want to skip this red dot. 

The SMSc has a 4 MOA dot, which is a bit larger than I’d typically prefer but does help with fast sight acquisition. This is another matter of personal preference, so I wouldn’t really call this a disadvantage. 

Best High-End Red Dots for Hellcat

These last two red dots are high-end options. They cost more, but the higher quality makes them worth the extra money if you can afford it. 

Shield Sights RMSc

Our first high-end recommendation is another red dot from Shield Sights, this time the RMSc. The Shield Sights RMSc is a slimmed-down version of the flagship RMS from Shield Sights. This red dot commands a premium price for premium features but is more than worth it.

The entire housing body is machined from a single piece of aerospace-grade aluminum and weighs in at just over half an ounce, which is perfect for a compact gun like the Hellcat. You also have multiple lens and reticle options, and you can go with glass or polycarbonate, as well as 4 MOA or my favorite, the 8 MOA dot.

Shooting with the 8 MOA dot feels very fast and intuitive, but it isn’t so big that you can’t hope to hit anything at longer ranges. I find that at 50 yards, this red dot is still more than sufficient for anything I could ever need it to do.

Lastly, it has an incredibly fast automatic brightness adjustment which means you’ll always have the most efficient brightness setting for any situation if you choose to leave the dot on auto mode.

I love battery-saving features like this and find them to be a great way to keep from having to change that finicky little watch battery too often. With RMSc, you should have plenty of warning before the battery goes, so you’ll always have it when you need it.

Trijicon RMRcc

Lastly, we have one of my favorite dots, the Trijicon RMRcc. This is a beast of light that, while heavier than some other options on this list, is probably the most durable offering here. This is a great option for a self-defense gun, especially a go-anywhere gun like the Hellcat.

It comes in two different reticle configurations, a 3.25 MOA for more precision work, and a 6.5 MOA for faster target acquisition and follow-up shots. As always, which one you go with comes down to personal preference and shooting style, but I personally like the 6.5 for a carry gun.

The lenses on this are crystal clear and are made of very hard tempered glass with scratch and glare-resistant coatings on both sides to keep your view clean and clear in all environments. 

The whole optic is also waterproof to 20 meters, and I would say that if you’re down deeper than that, you’re either a Navy SEAL, or you have bigger problems. Battery life is also absolutely great at around 4 years of continuous use off of a single CR2032 watch battery.

All in all, this is a great dot if you don’t mind trading a little extra weight for increased durability. If you’re worried about your red dot getting beaten up and failing in the field, this is the one to get. If something happens that would kill this sight, your iron sights would have been dead long before.

Also Read: Best Sights For Glock 22

Springfield Hellcat Red Dot Buying Guide

Mounting & Compatibility

First and foremost, you have to make sure that the red dot that you’re looking for will fit the mounting area on your Hellcat, or be okay with having to use an adapter plate. Either way, micro red dots are the name of the game here. 

If you aren’t sure, make sure you get something that’s narrower in width than the slide and you’ll be alright.

As far as mounting directly, the Hellcat uses the Shield SMSc-style mount, so if your dot is compatible with that, you’ll be ready to go right out of the box.

Durability

The next consideration is durability. It’s all well and good if you can get a red dot on your pistol, but who cares if it doesn’t work or hold zero, right?

So look for something from a reputable brand, with a good water-proof rating, that’s been tested for recoil resistance. There’s a surprising amount of force applied to a slide-mounted red dot due to the reciprocation of the slide itself, so durability is key to holding zero.

We also recommend looking for something with a scratch-resistant lens coating and a durable body finish to protect the housing from scratches and corrosion.

Reticle

When it comes to pistol-sized red dots, you generally have two choices for dot sizes, 3-MOA and 6-MOA. For our purposes, the 3-MOA dot will cover about a 3-inch circle at 100 yards, and the 6-MOA dot will cover a 6-inch circle. 

This means that a larger dot is slightly less precise, but a smaller dot is harder to find and keep track of during recoil. For a defensive pistol, I always recommend a 6-MOA dot, which will cover just 1.5 inches at 25 yards, which is the range inside which most defensive shootings happen.

Having that larger dot makes it easier to get shots on target quickly, which is often much more important than pinpoint accuracy.

Battery & Battery Life

Finally, let’s talk battery life.

All red dots use some kind of battery, typically a watch-style battery like a CR2032 or CR1632. These batteries are small, light, and can run micro red dots like the ones on this list for thousands of hours, if not tens of thousands.

It’s also nice to have features like automatic shutoff, motion sensor activation, and other battery-saving measures as a standard to help your battery last even longer, especially if you forget to turn it off.

Also Read: 8 Best Pistol Red Dot Sights

Frequently Asked Questions

Also Read: Best Red Dot Sights & Reflex Sights

Final Thoughts

There are many great red dot sight out there that will work well with the Springfield Hellcat, but our number one recommendation is going to be that you either go with the OSP version that includes the HEX Wasp or buy one yourself and add it on. 

This red dot is well made and was designed specifically to work well with the Hellcat, by the people who built it. It will last for years on a single watch-style battery, and the overall look matches the pistol very well (almost like it was made for it).

Of course, all of these red dots are excellent, so stick to the principles in the buying guide and we promise you won’t go far wrong.