We just completed the 2026 Factory Gun Nationals and there was chatter on social media about the lack of Open Division and the 12 competitors who went subminor power factor. Let’s look at the rules and discuss what happened.
If you look at the results on the PractiScore website, yes 12 competitors are marked as subminor and have no scores. If you look at the match results in the PractiScore Competitor app, you will see that 2 competitors actually had their ammo measure subminor power factor and the other 10 competitors failed the equipment check. But why are those 10 competitors marked subminor?
That is because of rule 6.2.5.1: However, if a competitor fails to satisfy the equipment or other requirements of a declared handgun Division during a course of fire, the competitor will be placed in Open Division, if available, otherwise the competitor will shoot the match for no score. If a competitor fails to satisfy the equipment or other requirements for PCC or Open Division during the course of fire, he will shoot for no score. Violations of rule 5.2.5 are not cause for movement to Open Division and 5.2.5.2 applies.
The first sentence of 6.2.5.1 is what we need to focus on. It says a violation of division equipment (e.g. mag that is too long, gun that doesn’t fit in the USPSA box, illegal parts on a Carry Optics or Production pistol) will result in a move to Open Division if it’s available. The Factory Gun match did not have Open as an available division which means per the rules, the competitors shoot for no score. And the way we do that in PractiScore is to change them to subminor. And no, matches do not have to recognize all divisions either (see 6.2.1).
Yes, in the past we have added Open division in the Factory Gun match as a place for folks to be bumped into, but this year we chose not to do that. And what we did is allowed by the rules.