The firearms industry is constantly innovating, coming out with new and improved versions of existing firearms, or building new ones from the ground up. One recent trend has been to add compensators, regardless of size, i.e., single port, to carry guns and the like. Adding a compensator to the end of the slide has been done as well–not attached to the barrel, per se, but still diverting gases to reduce recoil. That’s what a compensator does, and what it has done since their inception on competition guns back in the 1990’s. That and the introduction of optical sights, i.e, red dots, spurred USPSA to create new divisions, namely Open and Limited, to differentiate firearm types and even the playing field.
Since then there has only been one other USPSA division that allowed compensators and that was the short-lived “Modified” division, designed to restrict the size of the handgun but allow a compensator and red dot. It didn’t survive in the competition world for very long due to the vagaries of building a gun like that and then enduring the often brutal muzzle blast created by the compensator and or popple holes in the barrel. At present, only USPSA’s Open division allows compensators on handguns.
Last year a new definition of compensator was added to the USPSA competition rule set, and seemed to cover every variable that we knew about. However, due to some recent shenanigans, and an apparent lack of common sense, a new definition of compensator was just introduced via NROI Ruling. Here’s what the ruling says:
Appendix A3, Glossary: “Any device which is part of, or mounted to, a firearm in any way that diverts gases for purposes including, but not limited to, countering muzzle rise. This includes barrel porting, muzzle brakes, suppressors, and slide porting that acts as a compensator. This does not include the gas operating system on AR-style rifles, handguns, or other firearms that utilize internally redirected gases in their operating system.”
So, frame mounted gizmos that fit in front of the barrel, actually described as a “compensator” but allowed by some due to the original wording of the definition, are now prohibited as of September 7, 2026. Anything else that diverts gases in any way is a compensator and is not allowed in any handgun division except Open. Even though some people who should know better mistakenly (knowingly?) allowed the use of such machinings without moving the competitor to Open, the definition is clear.
Bottom line, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Let’s stop the tomfoolery with word games and ways to try to get around the rules and apply some common sense. We should all know better.