Review: SIG Romeo3 Max

Reflex sights continue to be hot items in action shooting competition, and when SIG introduced its Romeo1 I thought it was one of the most user-friendly optics available. SIG’s new Romeo3 Max, designed with input from SIG Team Captain Max Michel, doesn’t change that. It just makes it bigger, and with more options.

The Sight

The Romeo3 Max ($719.99) is available with either a 3 or 6 MOA dot. It features 1x magnification, with an overall length of 2.1 inches, a width of 1.3 inches, a height of 1.4 inches and weighs 1.5 ounces. The sight window is a full 30 mm, and includes a nice molded-rubber lens cover that slips on and off easily.

This reflex sight sports a massive round lens with a special high-transmittance red notch reflector for incredible brightness, light transmittance and zero distortion.

A readily-available CR2032 battery powers the sight. The battery compartment is located on the right side. Two small screws provide access via a supplied 1.5 mm hex wrench. Remove the screws, slide the battery tray out, insert the battery, slide the tray back in and re-install the screws. It’s a sturdy system that does not require the sight be removed from the mount. It also prevents “battery/contact” bounce that can occur with a loosely-fitting battery compartment lid.

The Romeo3 Max battery slides in from the right side and provides a very positive contact that will prevent contact/bounce.

Operating controls are the same as the Romeo1—up and down buttons on the left side. To turn the sight on press either button for 2 seconds. To turn it off do the same. When turned on it will be at the previous brightness level set. To adjust brightness levels, press the up or down button. When the maximum brightness is reached the dot will blink five times to let you know.

The sight features MOTAC (SIG’s Motion Activated Illumination System). When the sight is turned on and detects no movement for two-minutes it goes to sleep, and the dot turns off. The first movement wakes it up, and the dot comes back on at the previously set brightness level. I ran four tests with a stop watch and it worked every time.

The Romeo3 Max (left) provides a noticeably-larger sight window than the Romeo1, but offers the same ease of operation.

The sight ships with a Picatinny rail mount, CR2032 battery, 1.5 mm hex wrench, a 2.5 mm hex wrench for the Picatinny mount, mounting screws and lens cover.

On the Range

Using the included Picatinny rail mount I installed the Romeo3 Max on my Ruger Take Down Lite. The instruction manual notes that there are 12 brightness setting—10 for ambient light and two for NV.

Under normal daylight conditions on my range only the top six settings were visible. Checking inside in a darkened room, the seventh position down became visible. I assume the rest would work with NV gear, but lacking that I could not check.

This reflex sight comes with a very well-designed slip-on cover that will keep the lenses clean.

However, the six visible outdoor settings were more than enough to get the dot I wanted. There was a noticeable bloom on the two highest powers, but the bloom vanished when I pointed the sight directly towards a cloud covering the sun. That’s not much different than facing a low early morning sun behind the targets. There was plenty of power to burn through that, and enough brightness adjustments to achieve a perfect dot for other lighting conditions—including indoor ranges.

The Romeo3 Max uses the same 1.5 mm Allen wrench that opens the battery compartment to adjust windage and elevation. Given that I have a well-documented history of losing small hex wrenches, I stopped by my local Ace Hardware store and picked up a couple of spares. They’re small and easy to lose. But they worked quite well, and the sight in from a 25-yard bench took just six rounds. Each click moves the sight 1 MOA. Cranking the brightness down to the fourth position from maximum provided a perfect dot under a noon sun. The first three-round group was 5 inches low and 3 inches right. Factoring in the stated adjustment increments, and translating MOA into 25-yard settings, I made a guess and cranked them in. The second three-round group was dead center. The adjustments are pretty precise.

The included Picatinny rail mount allows for multiple mounting options.

Multiple target transition drills were next. The window on the Romeo3 Max is noticeably larger than the Romeo1 I previously had on the Ruger. It did speed target transitions and provided an excellent sight picture. The adjustments allowed me to dial in the perfect dot size for any outdoor range light conditions.

Direct handgun slide mounting options are limited at the moment to the SIG P320 X-Five with a Springer Precision Romeo3 adapter plate. Other adapter plates will be on the way. However, the Picatinny mount allows it to be easily attached to any rail, which makes it a good choice for rimfire pistols and rifles, PCC or Open Class pistols.

Learn more at SIGSauer.com.

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