I bought a Romeo 5, immersed it in water, tested the dot against snow, played with the MOTAC (shake-awake) feature, and checked the low-light settings.
Overall, I’d say the Romeo 5 is worth the money.
There were a couple things I wasn’t able to do, however: I don’t own an infrared night vision device, so I was not able to test the night vision brightness settings.
Also, I was not able to check to make sure the dot held zero against heavy recoil. In this article, we’ll look at the Sig Romeo 5 in more detail
Is the Sig Romeo 5 Worth It? (Quick Answer)
In my opinion, yes, the Romeo 5 is worth it, as long as red dots in general are a good solution to your problem. The dot is crisp enough, the price is low enough, none of the claims about the product are false, and overall you have a solid, weatherproof, reliable red dot that will always do what you want it to do.
If you are looking for a red dot that you can really push to its range limits, then the Romeo 5 may not be the best one to use.
The dot is fairly crisp, but it’s not going to get you out to 200 yards without obscuring more of your target than you probably want.
Red dots aren’t intended for going out that far anyway, but if you’re looking for one that can, the Romeo 5 probably isn’t it.
Sig Romeo 5 Features
1. 2 MOA Dot
The dot on the Romeo 5 is 2 MOA, which means that it will cover a 2-inch place on your target when shooting at 200 yards.
The dot isn’t sharp enough for this to be quite true, however. From my observations, the cloudiness of the dot makes it more like a 3 or 4 MOA dot in practice.
Granted, I’m comparing the Romeo 5 to red dots that are significantly more expensive, so maybe it’s not fair, but it’s an important point to bring up for buyers who are expecting a nice perfect circle out of their red dot.
For the most part, the blurriness of the dot shouldn’t matter.
Red dots are for CQB (close-combat quarters) situations and designed for fast target acquisition when all you need to do is hit center mass, and the Romeo 5’s dot is perfect for that.
The parallax is reasonable, but I could not find documentation on what distance the parallax is set to.
In a fast-paced situation where your cheek weld might not be perfectly consistent, the dot may not reflect the exact point of impact, but it shouldn’t be off by more than a few inches.
2. MOTAC
The MOTAC is highly sensitive, so if you’re wanting to put the Romeo 5 on a truck gun or something that will be being transported frequently, I wouldn’t recommend using it at all, because it will kick on as you drive or walk while carrying it.
If you’re planning on putting it on a home defense weapon that will be just sitting in a gun safe for 99% of its life, using MOTAC is probably fine, just make sure to take the weapon out to test it periodically to ensure the MOTAC is still functioning properly.
My main criticism of the Romeo 5 is that the MOTAC seems to have a short lifespan when you start manually turning the sight on or off.
You can turn off the dot and disable the MOTAC by just holding down either the minus or plus buttons on top, but there are countless reports of the MOTAC ceasing to function as intended after only a month or so.
Most of the reports are from people who turned the dot on and off manually, so there seems to be a trend there. I didn’t personally experience that issue, however.
3. Integrated Picatinny
The Romeo 5 comes with 2 mounts, both designed for Picatinny rails.
One is a low mount that drops the optic so that it’s almost snug against the rifle. The other is a riser mount that lines the optic up for absolute co-witness with mil-spec AR irons.
The mount isn’t quick detach, but it’s still simple and fast to get mounted and stays reasonably tight.
I wasn’t able to test how well the Romeo 5 holds zero when put up against heavy recoil, but I don’t think that’s a big issue here.
Nothing an AR-15 comes chambered in is really going to put the Romeo 5 to the test.
For the most part it doesn’t make a lot of sense to put a red dot on a .308 or larger. That said, if you’re looking for that info, other reviews have found that the Romeo 5 holds zero well in those situations.
4. 10 Illumination Settings
Technically, you have 8 standard illumination settings and 2 night vision settings. The 8 standard ones are well-spaced out and cover a wide range of situations.
I tested the brightest setting against white snow in the middle of the day (which is one of the brightest situations you’ll ever find yourself in) and it was still clearly visible.
I was both surprised and impressed.
In darkness, the low settings are fantastic and well-adapted for the purpose.
That’s not really an issue for most red dots, but the Romeo 5 does well at this.
5. Night Vision Compatibility
The two night vision settings were the only other thing I wasn’t really able to test, because I don’t own any infrared night vision devices.
That said, the Romeo 5 does have 2 different night vision compatibility settings, and other reviews I’ve been able to find show it working great.
I wouldn’t expect you to have any issues using the Romeo 5 with a night vision device.
6. Waterproof
I can attest that the Romeo 5 is indeed waterproof. I submerged it in a bowl of water for 10 minutes, took it out, and turned it right back on and it worked fine.
The internals of the optic are both waterproof and dustproof, so if you plan on taking the Romeo 5 when hunting or camping, it should be just fine.
Pros and Cons of the Sig 5
Pros:
- 2 MOA dot
- MOTAC feature is nice when it works
- Durable and difficult to damage
- Brightest setting is bright enough for snow in daylight
Cons:
- MOTAC feature seems to have a high rate of failure
- Field of view isn’t as wide as other designs
Sig Romeo 5
The price of Sig Romeo 5 varies, so check the latest price at
FAQs
In my personal opinion, if you’re using a red dot on a shotgun you’re doing it wrong. That said, depending on what you’re shooting, a Romeo 5 would theoretically allow you to do so quickly and accurately.
It should handle the recoil just fine, and if you use the low mount so the dot is only a bit elevated, you shouldn’t run into too much of a height-over-bore issue with your zero.
No, the Sig Sauer Romeo 5 is made by Sig Sauer. Romeo 5 is the model name & number, while Sig Sauer is the brand.
Holosun makes red dots that compete with the Romeo 5, but not the Romeo 5 itself. Holosun red dots don’t have as much universal praise as Sig optics, but they are generally well-made and can be more affordable than other options.
This depends on how precise and accurate your hits need to be. For instance, if you need to hit within a 4-inch circle, 100 yards is probably the maximum range the limitations of the Romeo 5 will allow you to do so.
The dot itself will occlude enough of your target area to make shooting any tighter than that virtually impossible.
Conclusion
The Sig Sauer Romeo 5 is a solid choice for a red dot that I have no issue recommending for folks who want to outfit a home defense weapon, truck gun, or a hunting or camping rifle.
Red dots are fairly easy to use, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to spend time practicing with it and adjusting it to be what you need it to be.
Simple things like testing out the low and high mounts and getting used to the parallax will make all the difference when you need to use your rifle for whatever your intended purpose is.
The Romeo 5 is a good tool that you can use to great effectiveness if you put in the time and effort to do so.
