My friend Chris Rhines from The Way of the Multigun was at the NRA Range Wednesday night with his new Caracal F pistols. You can read his impressions on his blog. Chris graciously offered me a chance to put a few rounds through the gun.
Trigger: phenomenal… at least, if you like a rolling break. It probably won’t be well received by the “glass rod break” crowd but in terms of putting bullets where you want them it was awesome. The reset didn’t stand out to me as particularly short but with nothing other than my SACS/Warren 1911 for comparison it was hard to judge.
Sights: abominable… at least, if you like using your sights for aiming. To make matters worse, the Caracal’s design incorporates the rear sight into the rear slide plate meaning there is no easy way to change (or shift) the rear sight. Chris has access to a machine shop and is going to modify his himself but for most folks the sights will be a major hindrance.
Ergos: The grip is a little on the slippery side, but then I’m used to my VCD Grips at this point which are pistol equivalent of superglue. The grip design and angle allow for a ridiculously high grip on the gun (though personally I think that’s an overblown feature that matters less than most people want to believe). The mag catch is small. The slide release lever (which is not ambidextrous) is very small and sharp.
It will be interesting to see where the Caracal goes in the market. A new unfamiliar company producing guns in the Middle East is about as likely to capture the American market as a guy named Hussein running for Presi-… hey wait a minute…
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Are you sure it’s made in Middle East? Because at the IWA 2012 Caracal represntatives said that the production was moved to Germany…
Or did I misunderstand something?
Audrius — If that’s the case, it’s news to me. But I haven’t been following it closely so you could certainly be correct.
Audrius – There’s some conflicting information floating around out there. According to the Caracal USA website, the Caracal is still being produced in the UAE, but they have production facilities in Germany as well.
Todd – Thanks for the link, and the ammo. I’ll be doing some more testing over the weekend, assuming that my shoulder holds up.
“A new unfamiliar company producing guns in the Middle East is about as likely to capture the American market as a guy named Hussein running for Presi-… hey wait a minute…”
HA! That’s funny, right there.