This week, we got our hands on a member of the SIG miniature red dot family, the Romeo 1 Pro. Designed to slide mount on pistols, with the option available for Picatinny mounting to rifles, this little guy is a great addition to the lineup. Most of you are probably asking what is the difference between the Romeo 1 and the Romeo 1 Pro, and that is a valid question. The answer requires a little bit of storytime though.
Mini or Micro red dots have gone through a long bit of who is on top. Starting way back in the day when the only option was C-more, to a very long period where the Trijicon RMR was by far the most popular. This mattered to some degree because all of the major players had their own mounting system, what we commonly call a footprint. What this meant for most gun manufacturers, when it came to red dot-ready pistols, was Rube Goldberg style mounting plates. A single slide cut for optics might come with 4 or 5 little plates in it, to accommodate the various Vortex Venom, J point, Dr Sight, etc sights. Or if you had one cut by a custom shop, odds were good RMR was the only option.
When Sig introduced the P320 RX series pistols, they opted to go a different route. Because they were also stepping into the optics game at the same time. Therefore, early generation P320 pistols were cut exclusively for the Sig Romeo 1, which shares a footprint with nothing. Which is a thing you can do, if you have a loyal enough following. Or, say, you just won an incredibly large DOD contract, and can kind of force the market to follow your lead.
Which was all well and good, except one minor detail. While Sig did win the military pistol contract, they did not win the military pistol optic contract. Leupold did. With their Leupold Delta Point Pro, which has its own unique footprint. Therefore, all M17 and M18 pistols were going to be cut for that specific optic anyway.
Sig, in a bold move, opted to switch the optic cut on all their new RX and RX capable guns. It saves on shenanigans and tooling, as well as it created a bit of space. The Leupold Delta Point was larger than the original Romeo 1, which also creates more interior space for electronics. Sig took this opportunity to update the Romeo series optics to a DPP footprint, as well as do some other upgrades.
The new Romeo 1 Pro is slightly longer than the original, which means it will not fit older Romeo 1 cut slides. A simple solution if you prefer this style of optic? All the new Sig Pro P320 slides are cut for the Romeo 1 Pro. What else is new?
First of all, the Romeo 1 Pro viewing window is absolutely huge. And I count that as a plus on a slide-mounted optic. To me, this makes it easier to orient your eye and draw it to the dot. Kind of the idea behind having that little guy in there for aiming. The new optic is aluminum housed with a steel sleeve that goes around it for durability.
Available with either a 3 MOA or a 6 MOA dot, we opted for the 6 MOA for our tester. I tend to prefer a larger dot on pistols, as I don’t plan on needing to shoot it all that far. The larger dot is faster for me to pick up, though it may have been unnecessary with this optic. The top end of the 10 brightness settings (plus 2-night vision ones) is incredibly bright, more than necessary even for full daylight shooting.
The Romeo 1 Pro features not only a 20,000-hour battery life but a motion-activated power-saving mode. This “shake awake” idea is becoming more common on red dots, and a feature I really like. The unit runs on a single 1632 battery, which mounts from the top. This is a vast improvement over older sights that required the removal of the optic to change batteries. Kudos also to the engineer that designed the battery tool. A simple, flat screwdriver attached to a small spare battery holder is a great example of attention to detail. Very happy with the well-thought-out device.
The Romeo 1 Pro requires a small screwdriver to zero, and you won’t find positive clicks like on a rifle red dot. Instead, there are tick marks around the outside of the adjustment screws, representing 1 MOA movements. I found zeroing fast and easy, and the Romeo 1 stayed zeroed.
This is a great addition to the line-up, and capable of competing with any red dot on the market. If you have been waiting to try out an optic on a pistol, this is a golden opportunity.
MSRP $473
Click HERE to visit SIG and learn more.
Just mounted a Romeo2 on a Sig Pro Cut Slide 3.9. Oddly the neat multi bit screw driver provided by Sig with the optic did NOT match up with screw heads on the slide. The optic has 2 red dots and I guess I have to correct this problem. Since I am NOT experiences with red dots I have to proceed slowly.
Hey Sig, maybe you should zero all your pricey red dots before you pack em up, aye?
I would like to buy a gun Sig S. next month but I don’t want tjhe fanfare so can a simple brochure to my privately Email on how & where I can by the gun. AND if this can be done I will most likely keep buying guns for several months and years afterwards. Because I’m very interested in learning how to build guns, all guns because I plan on moving to Alaska Reason Why I ask this way is because I never seem to have time to read the long amount of data. I’m always on the go and don’t want to take the time until I’m force by the issues of the product to become educated with the devise.
Hmmmm, this is a review of the product……..? Typically, a reviewer is not going to provide you a brochure, especially when any brochure concerning item is easily found by an internet search. In addition, where and how to buy a firearm is relative to too many geographical differences to answer that in a general sense. please use the spellchecker feature of your device/browser……..your response will be more easily read and deciphered.
Don’t worry about reading even little amounts of data with Sig products.
Why do you feel the need to be spoon fed information? If it’s not worth your time to research it what makes you think the author feels it’s worth his time to hold your hand. Also having lived in Alaska for a good number of years I suggest you reconsider your move.