The optic just arrived. It took a short time to get it installed – there are ‘tips’ videos that go beyond the manual – and, without slaving the dot to the front sight, I gathered up ammunition and set forth to the range.

The ammunition I used with the SIG was Fiocchi 40 grain round nose, Winchester SuperX 40 grain “SuperSpeed RN,” the “milk carton- “packed CCI Blazer 38 grain round nose and CCI CLEAN-22.

The new red dot bears some examination.

The ROMEOZero Elite has a ‘carbon-infused’ polymer body, an aspheric glass lens, touch-activated programming and a motion sensor to activate the optic when it senses motion.

The reticle was set to the ‘circle-dot’ format when the glass arrived. I’m a fan of the larger (32 MOA) circle surrounding the aiming dot (in this case, a 2 MOA dot). People might consider the tiny dot to be too slow, while being precise. That’s a fair take. The large circle provides speed up close – and at distance, on a generous target. I left it as is – instead of going dot-only or circle only – not due to some complication in programming, but because both reticles together give me the best of both worlds. When I sought to zero the sight, I ignored the circle and put the dot where I wanted it on the target. When I went to shoot the rimfire dueling tree, I used the circle on the center of the plate to pick up the pace.

Both worked just fine.

The sight fits the SIG P322 (obviously) and the P365. It’s compatible with the Shield RMS/RMSc format, fitting the Springfield Hellcat OSP and GLOCK single stacks G43X and G48 MOS.

It’s clear that a shooter was involved in the development of the little optic. The rear-facing surfaces of the sight housing are grooved – to minimize any tendency to glare. A vertical line colored in “Grade A Swiss SuperLuminova pigment.” Expose it to light and the line glows in the dark, potentially helping you find the gun in adverse light conditions.

I added the supplied steel shroud onto the optic housing to protect it from inadvertent bumps. The sight is assembled in the SIG Electro-Optics facility in Oregon.

When I arrived at the first bay in our local range, the movable table was set at about 20 yards from the target line. I left it alone, considering it close enough for zeroing a rimfire pistol. Using a seated position and a range bag as a rest, I shot the gun with the Fiocchi and Winchester SuperX for zero. I found that the Winchester tended to shoot into two inches as did the Fiocchi. The gun was shooting high. After an adjustment I shot a 1 ½” group with the Winchester and a 2 ¾” group with the Blazer – with the best three of those crowding into 1 1/8”.

That’s good for bulk-packed 22 plinking ammo.

I stopped to make a fine adjustment – it’s not the sight, this happens every time I zero any optic on any firearm – and I continued. Using the target that was forwarded to me from SIG in a promotional package, I sought to do some accuracy testing. The next Winchester group was spoiled with a shooter-induced flier, making it 2 ¼”. The CCI CLEAN-22 was, thus far, the gun’s favorite load. It posted five shot groups of 1 ½” and less. The best effort was a one-inch group with three rounds into 3/8”.

The gun with optic was clearly shooting above its weight class.

Did I shoot better with the MRDS than with the fiber optic sights? Yes, markedly so. I also noted a nasty tendency to shift the muzzle left during ignition – something easily seen when looking at a target through an optic and not easily noticed when shooting irons. This caused me to work more on my grip until that irritating pre-ignition push was precluded.

I’m not much for optics on pistols, really, I’m not. But as a tool to educate new shooters and a training tool to iron out personal shooting challenges, I’m very glad to have the new pistol optics on the scene.

So far, the ROMEOZero-Elite gets high marks from me.

-- Rich Grassi