Looking for a good reliable reflex red dot that won’t break the bank. Found some on amazon but the reviews are mixed. I’m a new pistol owner so still not sure what to look for! Any help would be awesome. Thank you.

Welcome. I'll help a little and then maybe not so much. The M18 has a deltapro footprint so the native ones that just mount up are the DPP and the Romeo1Pro. Anything else that matches that footprint also works but I don't follow that market very much so I can't advise on if there are actually any others. But there is a robust aftermarket for the P320 that allows other more useful options where people like springer precision and CHPW and others make adapter plates to go from the DPP to RMR for example. Then you can run things that have a RMR foot print like RMR's, SRO's and Holosun (though nobody should by a chinese optic anymore) which is much more common.
But give up on the idea of a cheap optic. You are just wasting money. Save up for and get a decent one. YMMV and FWIW>

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
But give up on the idea of a cheap optic. You are just wasting money. Save up for and get a decent one. YMMV and FWIW>

I agree with the entire post, but this most of all. A cheap optic turns a gun into a toy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got some toys with cheap optics on them, but I bought them to be toys.

I’ve got a RMR on my M17 with a springer plate.

I have a DPP on my M17 Bravo with Dawson Precision's new front/rear sight set. The rear fits the recess on the back of the DPP, and the front is a .400 green fiber optic. There is also a black front sight option.

As an alternative, Bobro has an RMR plate with a built in rear sight, and Apex sells an Aimpoint ACRO plate with rear sight in front of the optic.

Personally, I will only consider DPP, RMR, and ACRO. And no, I will not use a Sig Romeo 1 Pro as they are no less expensive but inferior to the "Big 3".

This comes up about every week anymore.

The slide is cut for the Deltapoint Pro and Romeo 1 Pro. The Deltapoint Pro is a decent optic hindered by a terrible interface. I have one on an APX and the quality is there but the single button adjustment is a bridge too far for me. The Romeo 1 Pro might be a good optic and it might be junk. Nobody I trust in optic reviews has weighed in either way. The original Romeo 1 was a toy (but I know there are those who liked theirs fine).

There are a number of options in aftermarket plate to adapt other optics. hrcjon and I go around and around on this about Holosun in each of these threads, so I'll say this: the only reason not to buy them is their nation of origin. They are extremely reliable, durable optics with features that are not found in higher end products.

The RMR remains the gold standard. The ACRO is a great optic hindered by mediocre battery life.

I go back and forth.

If the ACRO had more battery life it might take the lead. The form factor, dovetail interface, easy battery replacement, and greater immunity to dust/dirt make it ideal for the military. I just expected it would have the battery life of a Micro and was surprised to hear about the short battery life before I bought one. The ACRO on the Apex mount with backup sights seemed ideal.

The RMR is bullet proof but I don't like the idea of losing zero every time you change the battery. The smaller blue-ish window is not ideal but acceptable if it helps the battery life. I thought I would try one with the Bobro mount plate, but I wasn't thrilled that the mount attaches to the slide with the little screws that hold the sight plate on. It also has a hole for the larger single rear sight screw on the military issue M17/M18 that goes into the body of the rear sight and covers that covers the big hole, so anyone with a commemorative or "surplus" M17 may want to try it.

Walther is coming out with a new RMR plate for the Q5 that has a built in rear iron and matching front so I may try on my Q5 M1.

The DPP brightness adjustment does suck, but the battery can be replaced easily. And it direct mounts to the M17 without an adapter plate. I got one from a friend for $250 that was LNIB so I figured that was a good enough reason to try it. The auto off feature after no movement is nice for battery life. A selectable auto brightness adjust setting might help with the brightness adjustment issue.

I am fairly certain the Sig Romeo 1 and 1 Pro are made in China by Holosun. If anyone has definitive proof of country of origin I would like to see it. Sig's list price of $500 is just too high compared to the others if it is made in a low cost country.

Regardless of which one you use, backup iron sights are a must have. Open red dots are hard for me to find the dot, so aligning irons and having the dot right there is best for me. I think Sig should use the RXP slide with rear sight dovetail on all X-series slides to make this easier. I would also prefer that they offer suppressor height sights in the pro cut slides so you don't have to replace the standard height ones.

Here's what I know personally. I have dozens of RMR's. I have abused them over tens of thousands of rounds in competition and carrying. That abuse includes slamming them into the ground, landing on them while in a holster, having them recoil into a barricade, carrying them for years, etc. etc. In the totality of that I have had one early type 1 have a flickering issue. Trijicon fixed it. But I no longer trust the type 1 on a pistol and now all of my pistol ones are type 2. I have not had a type 2 issue. The batteries last for years so the idea to check zero after changing it is a minor one. In addition as I have posted if you are moderately repeatable about the mounting method for emergency use its not a real problem. I don't have a zillion rounds on the M18 but the springer plate seems solid. But in any case because its the issued gun I have run a DPP on an M17 and its really fine on the reliability side. Everything else sucks about it though.
I am trying to love the acro but as is said above the battery situation really, really sucks. But so far the ACRO itself seems pretty tough.