Ben Berry's most recent podcast notes that there are potential Production rule changes in January, and he has some thoughts about what should happen. To summarize what he said:
He makes the observation that there should be divisions for three levels of firearm modification:
Low-to-no modification - Production's original intent - nearly-stock guns shooting factory or factory-equivalent ammo.
Medium modification - Limited - Most things allowed except optics and compensators.
Very modified - Open - Almost no equipment rules, where custom reloaded ammo is almost required.
But with rule changes over the years, Production is almost Limited Minor, and CO is almost Limited Minor Optics. They're not stock gun divisions anymore, and there really isn't any place for the shooter who doesn't want to modify their gun. When you take those three levels of modification and subdivide them into optics & non-optics, you get five divisions: Low-modification irons & optics, medium modification irons & optics, and high modification optics. There's not really an interest in a high-modification irons division.
His proposals:
1. CO becomes Limited Optics (medium-modification optics). Single action, magwells, etc are allowed as in Limited now.
2. Production returns to its roots (low-modification irons).
a. Instead of getting into minutiae about internal parts modifications / substitution, first have a trigger pull weight test like IPSC where there's a 5lb pull on the first DA shot & and no limit for subsequent SA shots, or 3lb pull for striker-fired. Second, allow a small (~2 oz) weight differential from whatever is the out-of-the-box weight for that gun model. If someone can make a change but still stay within the firearm weight limit and the trigger pull requirements, then the change probably isn't a big deal.
b. Go back to requiring 2000 guns to be manufactured to get on the Production gun list, and get more accurate weights for guns from manufacturers. (He says that the current Production gun list is inaccurate.)
c. Change to a 15-round capacity. The 10-round limit is due to the expired AWB and doesn't make sense anymore. If stage planning with <=10-round magazines is interesting, there's still Single Stack. Rule 3.3.1 covers states with mag cap limits.
3. Create a new Production Optics (low-modification optics) division: literally just Production with an optic and a slightly-increased weight differential to allow for the weight of the optic.
4. Current Limited and Open don't change, except possibly a name change from Limited to Limited Irons.
Overall, I think these proposals are a good idea, but a few comments:
First, L10 is literally the most pointless division now that rule 3.3.1 exists. Get rid of it.
Second, when talking about Limited Optics he didn't really expand on the idea, specifically how major & minor scoring would work. I think the best solution would be to make Limited Optics minor-only, and have Limited Irons allow both major & minor. Otherwise Limited Optics will be like Limited is now where minor is allowed but not really a serious option (2022 Limited Nationals results notwithstanding) and major is the only serious choice. This means that every current CO gun (almost certainly shooting 9mm minor) wouldn't be instantly at a disadvantage against someone putting an optic on their current .40 S&W Limited gun.