NRA Production Divison in BE in 22 class

3. Production Division - A Production Firearm is a semi-automatic handgun or revolver which is or has been a catalog item readily available to the general public equipped with factory notch & post sights. All standard safety features of firearms must operate properly. The firearm shall have no visible internal of external modifications except as follows:


Rule 3a states: Grips may be replaced or modified to fit the competiitors hand or to faciliate loading. Checkering, stippling, grip tape and grip sleeves are permitted.


b) Barrel length may not exceed 5.35 inches for semi-automatic pistols and may not exceed 6 inches for revolvers.



Yet prohibited items:



e) Thumb rest grips or magazine extensions.



g) Single Action Semi-Auto Pistols are prohibited



Why Call it "production division" when a whole class of pistols like brownings that are production original are considered prohibited.



I thought the idea was to get more people shooting and entering more matches and generation match fees.



This is a head scratcher to me.

Yes. there has been much discussion that the production class rules aren't very practical.

The iron sight class is much more permissive.

Old scruffy gentleman with a lingering aroma of Hoppes No. 9 and bourbon and well worn 1911 on his hip drags a creaky and mangled soapbox to the busy street corner, steps onto the soapbox and commences with:

Please read my other posts on this in the other threads. Production division is not for "production" firearms.  It is a definition of a "division" or "class" of competition designed to allow firearms that would otherwise not be competitive with the 1911 type to have a separate class to compete.   

The definition was designed for NRA Action Pistol (formerly Bianchi Cup) competition and if single action semi-autos were allowed they would essentially have dominated the class and the shooters the rule change were trying to cater to (read as intended to get more participation - doesn't that sound familiar) would have still been out of luck. 

Since the general security, police and others have moved away from the single action platform, the "production division" rules were structured to allow most of the DA, DA/SA, Striker fired guns with proper barrel lengths and not custom shop stuff, and disallow SA semi autos.  

The rule also generated several "max rule" production guns as the competition Sig and the 5.25 Springfield XDm.  Again, so much for not having to get a "more" competitive gun for the class. 

Unfortunately, since most general use .22 firearms are single action semi-autos, this also precludes the Rugers, Model 41's, Buckmarks, etc. If you want to shoot them in a class, see the CMP Distinguished .22 program.  

So once again, trying get more participation through creating more classes for people to "win" in has its own unintended consequences and the more rules you have the more people will work to go to the limit of the rule (rather than training to the limit of their ability).  And the rule makers tend to forget that participation is proportional to the number of matches available to the public, not the number of classes within a match.

Scruffy old gentleman steps down from the creaky soapbox and walks quietly down the street shaking his head sadly........