A Dot and a Miss: Sig P365XL and Romeo 0 Review Podcast 321

The Sig P365XL with a Romeo 0 Review… a hit or a miss?

Last week I shot competition with a Sig P365XL and Romeo 0 Dot. I shoot this competition about every other week right now and love it.

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Normally I shoot my carry gun or my PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine). But last week I borrowed my friend’s Sig P365XL with a Romeo 0 dot on it. It is his EDC (EveryDay Carry) gun. So he knows it works and the dot works.

I flipped ammo and bought an extra magazine (as he only had two on him at the time) so I could shoot the comp.

We shot AASA (American Action Shooting Association) in San Antonio Texas. The competitions AASA puts on are always great fun and challenging. Best of all, there are always great people there shooting.

Normally I break this comp into different ways of shooting the stages. There are always five, but the way they are set because of range limitations, there is always a challenging stage, a weird/different gun handling something stage, a technical stage, and two burn-it-down stages.

My squad started on the first burn-it-down stage. Normally this stage is just an all-out run and gun that you push as fast as you can go. It’s about timing moving from position to position and just pulling the trigger as fast as you can. Targets are big and close so you can really go fast, and all movement is forward.

I put the Sig in an IWB (Inside the Waist Band) holster I borrowed with one borrowed horizontal mag holder, and the third mag went into my pocket. Not the rig to win the comp with, but I was there to test myself and the gun.

On the beep my draw went smooth and fast… then everything fell apart. I burned every round I had and barely made it under the max time. I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn running the dot. Luckily, the Sig co-witnesses the front sight and a notch in the optic as a rear sight so I shot it with those. They are really small because they sit so low in the optic, but they are usable.

After that, I went over to the safe table and started dry practicing for 10 minutes to figure out the dot. I talked to my friend about his dot being off, but he said no, he had just shot it in a class and it worked great. So I worked on myself.

The next stage was another burner stage and I shot way better! Not the best, but actually keeping up with the group. At that stage, the targets were so close that you can point shoot it and I found myself doing that when I couldn’t see the dot on a yellow steel target. Talking to other guys that run dots, this is a hard stage. You shoot from undercover in a deep shadow and shoot into the bright sun from behind hitting off the steel targets. It makes it hard to see the dot.

The third stage was the challenging stage. It wasn’t really challenging this time, but mulitple sized targets at different distance with multiple movements, in multiple directions, with multiple reloads. Makes it intersting.

By this stage I thought I had it… and as soon as that gun came out of the holster it fell apart again. About halfway through the stage, I figured out I was shooting a reflection of the dot, and not the actual dot in the sight. Because of where the sun was in the sky (about 1 o’clock ), I was seeing that reflection. It made me shoot everything low left. And, of course, I thought that was just me anticipating the shot. I gave that up quickly and went to shooting the iron sights again. As soon as I did that, the real dot magically appeared and I figured out what my problem was.

The rest of the day went way better and I had fun. Most importantly I learned a lot!

My scores… horrible! I was third from last. I’m normally in the upper half or better.

What I’ve learned about the Sig P365 serious of guns:

The Good:

• They are a great sized gun
• Love the family of sizes
• 12 rounds in the XL makes a full grip even for my giant hands
• Reloads go easy with the correct flare on the bottom the pistol
• 15 round mags that work with both grip sizes
• Accuracy is amazing for such a little gun
• Reliability on a clean gun has been 100% out of all the ones that have been through classes and the ones I’ve shot
• The trigger is good
• Aftermarket support is everywhere

The Cons:

• When training with them they get really hot, right where you put your thumbs on a thumbs forward grip
• The trigger is a long way from the frame and the shot breaks a long way from the frame (something it took my realizing before I could shoot the pistol well)
• I would have liked a little longer barrel in the XL, 3.9-4″ I think is the best there is, the Sig XL has a 3.7″ which is just a hair short on the sight radius
• It recoils up a little more than I would like it to. But that is mostly because of it’s small size and weight

The Sig Romeo 0 Dot

The Good:

• It sits as a dot sight should. Far enough down where they put a notch in the back that replaces the rear sight and you can still use the front sight. It puts the gun on the same plain when you draw it and helps with the learning curve and switching guns.
• They seem to be holding up with everything I’ve seen. I haven’t seen a broken one yet on the range or in a class

The Bad:

• Seeing a reflection of the dot where it isn’t sucks! I don’t know if every dot does this, but I don’t like it at all
• The auto-brightness setting can screw you when shooting from a dark place to a bright place. A manual up/down would be great. I’d rather have a huge starburst from being too bright in low light than not being able to see it at all in the bright light.
• It looks like it will break. I haven’t seen one break yet, but it looks weak.

If you want one of these set ups, you should get one. It’s a great gun and Dot. I’m always looking for perfect and still haven’t found it. But I think this set up will be my next carry gun. Or I’m also looking at a Sig M17 with a Romeo 1 Pro on it. Hopefully I can shoot one of those too.

Stay Safe,

Ben

Thanks for Listening, don’t forget to check out Shooter’s Club and Lucky Gunner for ammo.

Stay Safe,

Ben

The post A Dot and a Miss: Sig P365XL and Romeo 0 Review Podcast 321 appeared first on Modern Self Protection.