The firearms industry as of late continues to shift and morph in unique directions. We want smaller carry guns that carry more rounds and are as accurate as our full-size pistols. This postured idea might seem improbable, but not impossible. That burning question gave birth to the SIG Sauer P365, and most recently the upgraded and enlarged P365XL. A similar desire shooters have wanted is a micro red dot for conceal carry pistols that retains all the goodness of a normal size red dot. Que the folks at SIG Sauer confidently exclaiming hold my beer! SIG Sauer has once again accomplished the improbable, and now proven not impossible task, of a micro red dot that is less than 1″ wide with the ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot stepping out from the shadows!

SIG Sauer was gracious enough to lend TFB one of their very first ROMEOZero Micro Red Dots to bring out to the range and see what we thought of it. While some companies are venturing in the opposite direction and are making handgun red dots bigger in their footprint, SIG Sauer has taken the path less traveled and concealed carry advocates can rejoice. Let’s take a look at the SIG Sauer ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot!

specifications: SIG Sauer ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot

At the time of this writing, SIG Sauer has not formally made a specification listing of the complete ins-and-outs for this product yet. It is truly that new to the market. They did; however, share some broad information about the ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot that would be helpful and informative for all of us:

• Weapons Grade Ultralite Polymer Housing
• SpectraCoat HD Polymer Lens
• 8 User-Selectable Brightness Settings
• Less than 1” in Width to fit Slim Slide Profiles
• 20,000 Hours of Battery Life

This Micro Red Dot is assembled in the USA and has a tentative MSRP of $199.99 making it very competitive with other popular red dots on the market currently. These will likely be shipping sometime mid-summer; potentially end of July or August.

installation: SIG Sauer ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot

When it comes to installing the ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot it is very simple. For adapting it to a pistol like the P365XL (which was also generously borrowed to TFB for testing), you simply begin by removing your rear sight and optic plate in the slide. This can be done by field stripping the slide from the frame, and removing 2 Allen screws holding down the exterior optic plate and rear sight. Then, you place on the Micro Red Dot, screw in 2 Allen screws provided with the Micro Red Dot, and you are done! Very straight forward process; no magic tricks required.

The only tools required are one Allen wrench to mount the optic to the slide, and an additional Allen wrench for windage and elevation adjustments (if necessary). You also get your 2 Allen screws (previously mentioned) to mount the ROMEOZero to the slide and a CR1632 battery. This Micro Red Dot is equally lean on the amount of tools it requires which is a plus. Less is more.

The texturing of the Micro Red Dot matches that of a P365, P365XL, P320 series, and a lot of other SIG Sauer pistols. So from a purely aesthetic standpoint, the ROMEOZero looks great on SIG pistols, and even if you do not own a SIG, it is still a classy enough pattern that it would look well on most any pistol.

Finally, to foreshadow some of our range time we will discuss shortly, I was supremely impressed with the lock-up of the red dot to the slide because no adjustments were needed whatsoever. I was hitting the bullseye immediately. In fact, I was so surprised and impressed that I had a friend try and shoot it (to see if I had beginner’s luck), and that person was lacing the bullseye as well. So SIG does provide you with an Allen wrench for windage and elevation adjustment, but I honestly did not need it.

range time: SIG Sauer ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot

While shooting the P365XL with the ROMEOZero mounted on it at the range, I had a couple observations. For one, as narrow as the slide is on the P365XL there was no overhang at all with the Micro Red Dot. There is nothing about it that would inhibit your selection of a holster or have a tendency to snag.

There is also a rear sight dovetail built into the ROMEOZero’s ultralite polymer housing. So if you truly encounter a SHTF moment, you still have iron sights through the glass of your red dot to ensure you can keep sending lead down range for defensive or recreational purposes; whatever the need may be.

The battery being stored underneath the optic is a slight bummer, but the red dot is very easy to take on and off. Also, it has an absurd battery life of 20,000 hours which is over 2 years constant run-time for those keeping score at home. So while it would have been nice to see top-side battery storage maybe that is something we will see with a future iteration of the ROMEOZero or a different product entirely.

A final observation was that even on a day with intermittent clouds conversely paired with blinding sunlight the ROMEOZero’s dot remained very crisp and spherical as one would only hope. It did not “bleed” or look fuzzy even in bright sunlight. I appreciated this a lot because I have played with a lot of red dots that obviously work well in low light and become next to useless in bright light situations.

final thoughts: SIG Sauer ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot

For the entirety of my time using the ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot, it rode the slide of a P365XL for 500 rounds sent down range from various manufacturers including full-metal-jacket (FMJ) and hollow-points (HP). SIG Sauer contributed 2 boxes of FMJ and 1 box of their HP so we especially want to thank them for that.

Throughout all of that ammo that the Micro Red Dot had to chug through it maintained its zero, the dot remained crisp, and it was as bright as the first moment I turned it on. It has a clean appearance that would look good on any pistol it calls home, and the installation was as simple as you could possibly hope. Also, this is the first optic of any kind that I have encountered that was right-on-the-money and did not require any sighting in at all. My only gripe is that it has bottom-side battery storage, but considering it can run for 20,000 hours that is a pretty petty frustration.

All in all, I was very impressed with the ROMEOZero Micro Red Dot as an optic for not only something smaller like a SIG Sauer P365XL, but I also would have no reservations putting it on a full-size pistol as well. It seems well suited for either application with less of a footprint and still giving the shooter what they want and need. In closing, a tremendous thank you to SIG Sauer for allowing TFB to get an intimate look at the ROMEOZero before its unveiling… for allowing us to use one of their P365XL pistols (watch for that TFB Review in the near future)… and for giving us some of their ammunition to test everything out!

What do you, all of our beloved readers, think of this new Micro Red Dot? Is this something you would be willing to put on one of your SIG Sauer pistols? One of your everyday carry pistols? Let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.