Describe your gun and get its USPSA division placement, plus a legal / not legal verdict for all nine divisions where every failure cites the exact rule in the USPSA Competition Rules, March 2026 edition.
Factory flush and 140mm-pattern basepads fit the 141.25mm gauge; 170mm big sticks fit the 171.25mm gauge.
Capacity caps apply to rounds loaded, not what the magazine holds.
Production and Carry Optics cap at 59oz; Single Stack at 45oz.
8.938 x 6 x 1.625 in with the empty mag inserted. Nearly every factory pistol fits.
Proxy for the USPSA Approved Production Handgun List; Production and Carry Optics require it.
This is a Carry Optics gun.
Slide-mounted dot on a production-style gun, 141.25mm mags, minor scoring.
Also legal in Limited Optics, Open.
Verdicts cite the USPSA Competition Rules, March 2026 edition (Appendix D). The Range Master makes the final call at a match.
Legal upgrades for Carry Optics
Five modifications decide almost every placement: the optic and where it mounts, a compensator or ported barrel, an external magwell, a thumb rest, and magazine length. A slide-mounted dot is required in Carry Optics and Limited Optics and banned in Limited, Production, Single Stack, and Revolver. A comp or ported barrel sends any handgun to Open. A magwell or thumb rest is the dividing line between Carry Optics and Limited Optics. Magazines run against physical gauges: 141.25mm in the Carry Optics and Limited families, 171.25mm in Open.
Power factor is the other half of match legality. Carry Optics, Limited Optics, Production, and PCC score minor only with a 125 floor; Limited, Single Stack, Revolver, and Open score major at 165. Run your load through the power factor calculator to confirm the ammo side. If you are still picking the gun, start with the best competition pistol rankings by division or the Carry Optics pistol guide. Choosing a dot for a Carry Optics build? The pistol red dot fit checker maps optics to your slide cut, and the USPSA red dot guide ranks the match-proven options. You can also spec the whole pistol in the handgun builder.
A Glock 34 MOS with a slide-mounted red dot is a Carry Optics gun. It is striker-fired and on the approved list, the optic sits on the slide as Appendix D7 Item 13 requires, factory and 140mm-pattern magazines fit the 141.25mm gauge, and it is far under the 59 ounce cap. Carry Optics scores minor only. Add an external magwell and the same pistol becomes a Limited Optics gun, because D7 Item 22.3 prohibits external magwells in Carry Optics.
A stock iron-sight Glock 17 is a Production gun loaded to 15 rounds per magazine (Appendix D4 Item 9). It is also legal in Limited and, downloaded to 10 rounds, Limited-10. Mount a slide red dot and it moves to Carry Optics, where there is no capacity cap and you can load all 17.
No. Carry Optics Special Condition 1 allows only Double Action, DA/SA, and striker-fired handguns, and 1911/2011-pattern guns are single action. A dot-equipped 2011 like a Staccato P with an optic is a Limited Optics gun, with irons it is a Limited gun, and a metal-frame single-stack 1911 with irons is a Single Stack gun.
No. Appendix D7 Item 22.3 prohibits OFM and aftermarket external magwells in Carry Optics, and D4 Item 22.4 does the same in Production. Internal magwell dimensions may be increased in both. External magwells are legal in Limited, Limited-10, Limited Optics, Single Stack, and Open, which is why a magwell-equipped dot gun homes in Limited Optics.
141.25mm (5.561 in) in Carry Optics, Limited, Limited-10, and Limited Optics, with a 171.25mm (6.742 in) allowance for single-stack guns in the Limited divisions. Open allows 171.25mm big sticks outright. Appendix E1 makes the EGW mag gauge the primary measuring device, and a magazine must clear both the gauge and the length limit. Curved, collapsible, or extendable magazines are not allowed.
Production allows 15 rounds loaded per magazine after the start signal, Limited-10 allows 10, and Single Stack allows 8 at major power factor or 10 at minor. Revolver caps rounds fired before a reload at 6 for major and 8 for minor. Open, Limited, Carry Optics, Limited Optics, and PCC have no capacity limit; magazine length is the constraint there.
For a handgun, yes. Compensators and barrel ports are prohibited in Limited, Limited-10, Production, Single Stack, Revolver, Carry Optics, and Limited Optics (Item 15 and Item 16 of each division's appendix), which leaves Open as the only handgun division that takes a comped or ported gun. PCC is the exception: compensators and muzzle brakes are unrestricted on carbines (Appendix D8 Item 9).
Division by division. Thumb rests are legal in Open, Limited, Limited-10, and Limited Optics, whose appendices contain no prohibition. They are prohibited in Production (Appendix D4 Item 22.2), Carry Optics (D7 Item 21.4), and Single Stack (D5 Item 22, which bans external recoil-control features by name).
No. Appendix D8 Item 6 requires a stock attached and the gun capable of being fired from the shoulder, and it states that the Sig brace and any variant of it is not allowed. Short-barreled rifles are permitted in PCC as long as you comply with federal and state law.
Production allows 59 ounces with the empty magazine inserted (Appendix D4 Item 18), Carry Optics allows 59 ounces measured with the optic and empty magazine (D7 Item 18), and Single Stack allows 45 ounces with the empty magazine (D5 Item 18). Open, Limited, Limited-10, Limited Optics, and Revolver have no weight limit.
Yes. Production guns must be on the USPSA Approved Production Handgun List (Appendix D4 Item 19), which requires an NROI declaration that at least 500 units were manufactured and available to the public. Carry Optics uses the same list or a manufacturer's declaration under D7 Special Condition 3. Limited, Limited Optics, and Open have no approved-list requirement.