UAE Caracal pistols

[Guest CaracalUSA]

The most important aspect to this pistol is the low bore axis!!! It greatly reduces recoil!!! Here it is compared to the XD/HS.

Here is the passive firing pin block lever. It reduces the trigger pull by being activated during normal forward movement of the trigger bar and not having to push up on a piston.

Here is the slide compared to an HS2000/XD. It is a bit wider.

Here are the standard rear sights. Yes the rear sight is made into the striker block. We are trying to get this changed to a standard dovetail. We will have straight 8 style Trijicon sights available soon. You can also see the striker in the cocked position.

Here is the Quick Sight on my compact. It is extremely quick to shoot. I've always been taught longer sight radius is more accurate but this thing acquires the sights EXTREMELY fast?

[Murgatroy]

Any word on a range day, or some way someone could get there hands on one to check them out?

I am digging the futuristic (well modern now) style of it, and the whole newness thing is making me eager to see one.

[Guest CaracalUSA]

We are working on it. It's gonna take us a couple weeks to get our insurance cert. Dang under writers! Then we will proceed from there.

[50 cal]

I got to handle two of these a few weeks ago at TGI. They are really nice pistols. The grip frame is about as perfect as you can get on a handgun.

Don't need another handgun but will definately add this one to the stable.

[Guest 70below]

Wow........they look great, I can't wait to get a hold of one myself and would love to run one. I really appreciate the pics and other info Troy. Definitely keep us posted on getting the insurance squared away, it really looks like a pistol that could sell me on feel alone. As a Glock Armorer too, I appreciate the look at the inner workings.

[Guest Edmond]

some eye candy

[Guest Edmond]

I had a lot of fun defeating the rate of digital cameras shooting in burst between 3.7 and 5.2 pictures per second while staying in the A zone of an IPSC target @12 meters.

You never forget some things once you learned them.

I did have some serious reliabilty problems with a F and a C, Failure to feed, Failure to fire, erratic ejection and slide stop was locking before magazines were empty. 18 incidents with the 155 first rounds using NATO ammo, FN mfg then I switched to Sellier & Bellot, CBC (MagTech) and MFS commercial ammo and I had less problem.

I identified the causes, I will take 3 more F pistols to the range tomorrow, I have a competition during the weekend. I'll take the risk using one of them for Vitesse Militaire event ( Service pistol CISM Rapid Fire )

I'll make a more complete report later.

[Guest Edmond]

Tomorrow's batch for the day at the range.

[Guest Edmond]

I finely tuned the extractor by ramping the lower inside face in order for the case head to slide smoothly in place and I modified the angle of the ejector face (I wish I had more material to start with), the modified pistol now runs like a swiss clock.

[TN-popo]

(1) it is shaped to be comfortable and ergonomic

(2) it's completley ambidextrous

(3) it's thinner

(4) it has less parts

(5) it's made better on more modern equipment

(6) it successfully complied with the NATO D14 standard, the German Federal Police Standard and the German Federal Armed Forces Technical Purchasing requirements. (These tests are the most stringent test protocols ever devised for a service firearm)

(7) it has a lower bore axis

(8) it's not owned by everyone and their brother...

IMO, point 5 is subjective (first part) and point 8 is not a benefit.

the UAE have lots of money for r&d and lots of experience about what a combat handgun needs to be.

They have zero experience in building combat handguns. They do have Wilhelm Bubits.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but why in the hell would they make the rear sight part of the back plate? It's goofy, without any benefit that I can see, and may hinder 3rd party sight manufacturers from jumping on board.

IMO, for this pistol to succeed against it's current competition, they are going to have to lower their pricepoint, big.

Think HS2000 before Springfield got involved.

Also, I read about heating issues during extended shooting. Has anyone noticed this?

Edited November 12, 2010 by TN-popo

[Guest CK1]

Have to say that my interest has waned quite a bit on these from what info I've seen/read bared out on the limited amount of reviews out there.

For me, besides any of the other things I could mention, one of the only and simultaneously biggest issues was the placement of the slide-release lever, seems that for whatever reason Mr. Bubits and co. made it even larger (and in-turn intrusive and problematic) on the Caracal's, so it's a non-starter for me, I don't like pistols with things that get in the way of a proper grip-technique, I simply don't buy into having to change good technique to conform to particular weapon if one has a choice.

[TN-popo]

I don't like pistols with things that get in the way of a proper grip-technique, I simply don't buy into having to change good technique to conform to particular weapon if one has a choice.

Agreed. That's one reason why the XD is a no-go for me.

[ghawk249]

I have shot these pistols at a local range in Sevierville and IMHO they are a pistol worth looking at.

[TN-popo]

I'm not saying the Caracal is necessarily a bad gun, but I don't see the lure of a pistol that is unproven, comes from an unknown company, has goofy sights, zero 3rd party support, and costs the same as other pistols that don't have any of these issues.

IMO, a company has to overcome these things by going low on their price until the pistol catches on; ie, HS2000.

If the UAE company doesn't do this, this pistol will fail.

[DaveTN]

IMO, a company has to overcome these things by going low on their price until the pistol catches on; ie, HS2000.

If the UAE company doesn't do this, this pistol will fail.

I don’t think getting Springfield Armory to become your U.S. importer, changing the name, and adding $200 to the price will work for them.

[TN-popo]

I don’t think getting Springfield Armory to become your U.S. importer, changing the name, and adding $200 to the price will work for them.

I do think that you completely missed my point...

[grumpy.old.1]

Ive shot both the standard and the compact. While I dont like the looks of them they shot well and didnt experience any malfunctions. A guy in Oak Ridge has had a couple of demos and let us put some rounds down range. Accurate and easy to shot.

[Guest DaG]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but these are damn good pistols. I just won a full size at the CaraCal USA Smoky Mtn Cahmpionship @ ORSA. I saw several of the guns get run to the point of being so damn hot you couldn't touch it and then get thrown into a cooler of ice water. 10 mins later they were pulled from the cooler, loaded and shot several more times by several shooters with no change in POI. Damn good gun if you ask me. Sure it has a few ergonomic flaws but doesn't every gun out there? For all you nay sayers, I just saw over 20K rds put thru 10 guns in less than 9 hrs and not one malfunction due to gun design. The damn things run!

DaG

[Bradski]

does it come with an extra mag and a keffiyeh

[Guest DaG]

does it come with an extra mag and a keffiyeh

Actually 3 mags. The keffiyeh is an option.

[Guest tlawson1911]

A Caracal match was put on today at O.R.S.A. in Oak ridge Tn. the importer supplied the Caracals and the ammo.So get ready for plenty of posts about them.The design owes a lot to the Glock due to the fact that Caracal hired an ex Glock engineer and a Steyr engineer to design the thing.I have put about 200rds through one and personally dont care for it.But to each his own.Im not sure of where they retail at but look for them very soon.I think they gave away about 15 or 20 of them today,so they are out there.All in all a very well built pistol but I agree with Daniel up there.The Arabs get enough of our money.If polymer safe action is your thing at least give the Austrians your $ over the United Arab Emirates.And lets not forget the rear sights and how they are attached and how expensive aftermarkets will be when they are finally produced.And I found the trigger was just bad.But as I said still a very well built pistol and there are a bunch of them floating around east Tennessee as of today.

[DaveTN]

I saw several of the guns get run to the point of being so damn hot you couldn't touch it and then get thrown into a cooler of ice water. 10 mins later they were pulled from the cooler, loaded and shot several more times by several shooters with no change in POI.

Let me make sure I understand what you put these guns through. You ran them until they were so hot you couldn’t touch them. Then you threw them in a tub of ice water for 10 minutes. Then you got them out and they fired to the same POI?

That would defy physics.

For all you nay sayers, I just saw over 20K rds put thru 10 guns in less than 9 hrs and not one malfunction due to gun design.

So none of the guns had a single failure? Not one FTF or jam?

That’s 2K through each gun or about 222 rounds an hour. Not really anything to brag about is it?

How about accuracy? What did the groups look like at 25 yards or beyond?

I’m glad you got a free gun.

[NextExit]

It looks like a nice gun but is way to much $$$. I can get a Glock for less. But if I see one at a gun show for $200, I would buy it.

[TGO David]

The Arabs get enough of our money.If polymer safe action is your thing at least give the Austrians your $ over the United Arab Emirates.

It's pretty obvious to me that the UAE started producing these not to gain export sales to the USA and other consumer markets, but so that they wouldn't have to keep sending their money to the USA and other producer markets. There's nothing wrong with that, particularly, but it'd be nice if the US Government started exhibiting some of that same territorial preference when it decided to buy weapons.

[DaveTN]

It's pretty obvious to me that the UAE started producing these not to gain export sales to the USA and other consumer markets, but so that they wouldn't have to keep sending their money to the USA and other producer markets. There's nothing wrong with that, particularly, but it'd be nice if the US Government started exhibiting some of that same territorial preference when it decided to buy weapons.

This.

It’s called protectionism and it’s not a bad word. We can also practice it ourselves. We protect our families; I believe we have the same duty to protect our economy. Regardless of what the government does.