FFP Mil/Mil is a must. I highly recommend 1) 0.2mil wind marks & 2) Christmas tree reticle. 34mm tube which will come with ~30mil of internal, which lets you get to the ~1400yrds maximum range I’ve ever seen in a match (especially with a 20moa rail or rings).
For around $1000, I’m not certain there is a better optic available than the Bushnell Elite Tactical scopes, the DMR II, DMR II Pro, and XRS II. Behind the Bushnells, I would place the Vortex Viper G2, and a long ways behind that, the Burris XTR II’s. The XTR III’s are better than the II’s, and maybe on par to slightly better than the Viper’s, but I don’t believe they caught up to the Bushnell’s, so for even money, I’d still go Bushnell.
Production class optics limit is now $2500, not $2000, based on MSRP found on the manufacturers website.
But here’s the deal with Production class from where I sit - production class is a train wreck, and we all fully expect it to change again before you’d have a rifle built and start competing according to the rules for this season... The rifles are custom - the guy who won production at the match I shot this wknd had a GAP rifle which cost $2500 and includes a Manners stock, Defiance action, and Bartlein barrel. Also, there really aren’t many production shooters out there - some pros who use it to ensure they qualify for the Finale, some newbies who could only afford a “conventional” production rifle, and not much else. There were only 6 Production shooters at the 2 day match I shot this weekend - they placed 35th - a pro classified and pro/sponsored shooter, 46th - semi-pro classified shooter, so top 45% of PRS shooters, and pro/sponsored shooter, 64th - wife of the 35th place shooter, who is also a pro/sponsored shooter (BTW, these 3 shooting GAP rifles for GAP), 72, 77, and 78th... do you really want to have to mail your rifle back to the OEM and have barrels installed every year? At the mercy of their schedule/availability to return your rifle? Just not worth it, in my book. You’re still walking the prize tables based on your score against the Open class field, so unless you’re planning to beat out these pro shooters using GAP or MPA custom “production rifles” to make one of the few Top Production spots at the Finale, just to make the Finale, there’s really no advantage to shooting Production class. And either next year the production class price will likely go up again, or the whole class will get revised, since it’s largely irrelevant. I could shoot my Seekins rifle as production class, and I don’t, simply because I don’t wanna be on the hook for sending it back to Seekins to rebarreled, for no change to my competition season or results...