I’ve been waiting all winter and spring for either the Romeo Zero or the Holosun 407/507K series to become available. I told myself that I would get whichever one became available first for my Sig 365XL, and in the last week or so the Romeo Zeros have finally hit the shelves.
Mounting the R0 on my XL was fairly straight forward. The 365XL’s optic plate and rear sight are held on by two screws from the underside of the slide. It was hard to determine if the screw heads were SAE or metric allen or torx, but after trying an assortment of bits I found a T18 torx head to be the best fit (the bleep things are pretty small and hard to see). Other people have reported that it took a 5/64” and others said they used a 2mm allen key, making me wonder if Sig uses all of the above depending on who assembled the gun. I did hit the screws with some heat with the tip of a soldering iron before attempting to remove the screws, and they came out no problem.
The Romeo Zero comes with a plastic liner and two sets of screws, a M3 and M4. The instructions did not say anything about the plastic liner, but based on the cut outs for the mounting screws it was pretty intuitive to apply it to the slide’s cut out. The instructions did say to use the M3 for the 365XL, and the M4 was if you put it on another gun such as the Springfield Hellcat, using 9 inch/lbs of torque. Two allen keys are included with the package, a 2mm for the mounting screws and a .050” for the windage/elevation adjustments. The battery compartment is underneath the sight, requiring the sight to be removed for replacement, just like the RMR sights.
Turning on the dot is through the small button right behind the screen. The same button also adjusts the intensity. It’s similar to the Leupold DPP, where the button increases or decreases the LED intensity, depending on which direction you’re going in. Once you get to one extreme (high or low) it flashes, then starts going the other way. There’s no auto-brightness, it’s all manual adjustment. The emitter will auto shut off after a certain amount of time, but has shake-awake whenever you move it after being off.
I put a couple hundred rounds through mine to check zero -which required only a slight adjustment for windage. Elevation was spot on at 7, 10, 15 yds holding the upper A-zone on a USPSA target, and was minute of plate rack out to 22 yds. I was going to shoot an IDPA match yesterday but got rained out.
Pros: I like how the Romeo Zero complements the compact nature of the 365XL, and obviously the sight was built to go on the 365XL. I also like how small the bezel is, so despite the small window size the thickness of the window surround is pretty minimal and does not detract from shooting with both eyes open. The window is clear (so far no scratches), and did not detract from shooting. The dot is bright, clear, and no halo-ing for my eyes. Extremely light weight.
Cons: My main beef with the Romeo Zero is the intensity button. Not only is it hard to manipulate with average adult size digit, the way you adjust intensity is going to be its weak link for EDC when people go indoors and out, changing light condition, etc. I realize there’s limitations to auto-brightness technology, but unlike my RMR where I can reach thru my shirt and hit the -ve button once or twice when I go indoors, and the +ve button when I go outside... with the Romeo Zero you have to remember which way you were going (up or down) to make incremental changes. Right now I have the dot set on the 3rd or 4th setting, which is pretty bright indoors, and kind of dim outdoors, but may be the work-around until I figure out a better way. At the range, its not a big deal to take the time to dial it in for the lighting condition.
In summary, I’m fairly satisfied with the dot, barring my one gripe about adjusting intensity. Needing to remove the sight to replace the battery is not a big deal to me, provided the battery lasts at least a year (which it is supposed to and more). I change my batteries on my RMR equipped gun once a year, and will do the same with my Romeo Zero.
What I like about it is the availability of a compact size red dot designed for compact guns, or those with narrow slides such as 1911’s, CZ-75’s etc, without needing an adapter plate.
That said, when the Holsun 407/507K series become available I’ll probably get one of those to evaluate to see if it is a better option for a sub-compact gun.
