[AK47]

Hi!

Find below specifications of my latest inventory:

Caracal-C-Q.S.

Technical description:

Slide Length:167 mm

Barrel Length:93 mm

Height: 122 mm

Width : 28 mm

Weight: 700 g

Caliber: 9x19

Magazine Capacity: 15/15/13/13

Grip Frame: Synthetic

Trigger System: Short Double Action

Trigger Weight: (Constant) ~2.2 kg

Trigger Travel (Constant) ~8 mm

Internal Safety: 3

(Trigger, Drop and Firing Pin)

Manual Safety: 1?

Cocking Indicator: 1

Magazine Catch: Ambidextrous

Going for a relatively new and untested handgun, the Caracal which had been long awaited here in Pakistan since past 1 year, may have been a risky affair in the eyes of some, yet having checked it's reviews at length from some of the forums, especially this esteemed one and with the kind suggestions by Syntax 360 bro specifically, I knew, this particular handgun would be the perfect vacuum-filler to my modest collection, where a compact polymer handgun of reliable class had been missing since long.

I was totally geared up for a Steyr M9A1, so kind of a way, the landing of the Caracal handgun over here was found by me as a very timely reach and a viable choice/option at reduced cost with a greater value-for-money ratio than other guns of similar platform in Pakistan, especially when bearing in mind, that it's technical features have been sought further improved than the Steyr handgun's, by the same designer, and the price offered is considerably lower than that of Steyr's over here in our part of the world.

I must say, Sir Wilhelm Bubit really achieved quite a few things in designing his new brainchild as if compared to the Steyr.

Basically it's a Glock/Steyr/XDM/S/W M&P platform handgun, means Safe Action DAO, no manual safety, light weight polymer duty handgun and with ambidextrous mag release button.

It has passed stringing Nato tests and we also have a local 1100 rounds torture test conducted recently, with quite some abusive treatment meted out to the larger F model, yet the handgun passing all tests with flying colors and with nil issues at all.

Below some eye-candy, before I return with my initial impressions, shooting performance review, conclusions:

The Box:

The Contents:

The Beauty:

The Frame:

The Slide/Q.S Fibre Optics Front Sight:

I am pretty much sure that the handgun looks different to you in terms of finishing appearance than one usually finds in out-of-the-box pictures, but there's no secret, nor any photographic effect added to above pics, a simple spray of Brunox brings out the shine and depth in color, and it stays. One of my reservations was exactly the plasox finishing vs tennifer, yet some interaction with some of the esteemed and prominent members here, again Syntax 360 bro, I was convinced on it's durability. The plasox looks really cool and slick, after a simple beautification session with the Brunox wonder. The handguns in the boxes usually pose a bit "dry" appearance - as in the 1.st 2 pics above - probably because they have been unattended since long in the shops.

Simply love it! More in next post.


Regards.

 

[AK47]

And some more gun porn:


Caracal-C Split view:

Sights:

The Barrel:

Magazines:

 

[AK47]

And some more:


The Slide:

The Grip:

Internals:

Impressions/range review following, stay tuned.

Regards.

 

[Canik]

Ak47 bro

This is an excellent gun.
Do u remember me. ??

 

[AK47]

Ak47 bro

This is an excellent gun.
Do u remember me. ??

Hi! Sure I do! Glad to know you're around here as well, my pleasure to see you on a forum that's gonna enlighten you a bit more on the Caracal, lolz!

Nice to meet you bro,

Take care.


Regards.

 

[Canik]

Hi! Sure I do! Glad to know you're around here as well, my pleasure to see you on a forum that's gonna enlighten you a bit more on the Caracal, lolz!

Nice to meet you bro,

Take care.


Regards.

Thanks....

 

[AK47]

And onto the range first, let's shoot the heck outta this thing. A private land shooting venture, went like this:

Range Report:

It was indeed a" Happy Caracal Year" when I had the pleasure to shoot out this handgun a couple of days back and it was a joy to operate & befriend with closer intimacy, though I do regret that my ammo stock at hands was low and predominantly of Nato +p rated rounds, which I did not deem fit to use in a new handgun.

Armscor Fmj's 50 rounds combined with some 25 Prvi Partizan and Chinese Fmj's contributed to the 75 shots butter smooth, flawless shooting experience, with absolutely nil issues of any sort.

Let me just quickly state, I'm not an experienced shooter and may have below 500 rounds under my modest belt, as far as target shooting is concerned. You may therefore kindly judge the performance with this in mind, that it was in the hands of a relatively "novice", and certainly I found the gun to be much better than myself!


The hardware:

The Target set-up: (10 mtrs, constant)

Maiden Magazine "insertion pleasure":

Sighting in:

Maiden 10 shots:

For a "novice', I was satisfied to see it all on black.


I went on to a double stringed semi-rapid SD drill on my torso boards, 1.st 5 shots aimed for the center torso, latter 5 to the head ( and there was a "flier", lolz):

It seems I'm better at instinctive rapids than slow deliberates, probably because it happens so fast, that there's no room for mistakes, breathing techniques, etc lolz!

This is where I found the QS fibre optics pretty helpful, no doubts.

I wanted to clear the questions/doubts about the trigger pre/post travel and reset timings, so I decided to give the best demonstration of this with the quickest firing string that I possibly could squeeze out from the Caracal C, since only this could really put the gun's trigger "reset" to a tough test and confirm if any flaws here.

I was pleased to find that there's NO such issue at all with the Caracal C.

You can ascertain yourselves of this notion avove, by checking out my video clip below. I threw in and rapid shot a full mag of 15 rounds and believe I could only beat this rate of fire with a full auto item, probably. The duration of the drill - if counted from start to end of the actual shoot - was hardly an affair of short 5 seconds, 4.5 seconds to be more accurate, and that's pretty fast for 15 shots. The duration of the sequence can be counted.

No doubts, this may prove to be one of the best "double-tappers", if not to say "tripple-tappers" around, of the DAO Safe Action handguns available. It really handles the rapid mode impressively and the trigger is one pleasure to squeeze and break, check it out and do especially check out for the MUZZLE FLIP, if any significant one!

Vid in next post, stay tuned, friends.


Regards.

 

[AK47]

[video=youtube;M4zw53KjIAQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4zw53KjIAQ&context=C3c7c040ADOEgsToPDskJONKCwND2vfsceNB7SI5kg[/video]
Sadly, my friend making the video cut it short as soon as I had finished the rapid string, not even giving me a chance to complete my remarks. I wanted him to turn the camera towards the target, but he had already cut the clip.

Before shooting this rapid string, I had commented to him:

"Look, I'm not gonna get more than the 1.st shot onto the board with this rate of fire, but keep recording all the shots, my purpose is to show it's trigger performance, not the accuracy".

I am therefore not "ashamed" at all to present how the target looked like, finding that I still got 8 shots onto the board, even one to the head, you could measure it half glass full or empty, whichever, lolz!:

I must praise the QS feature here again, I feel, it really helped in keeping the gun pointing rightly with such a fast string of 15 shots.

I cannot speak of the F model, since I haven't had the opportunity to use it, but as far as the C model is concerned, I really did not have to worry about the trigger getting all the way back or not, with it's approximately 4lbs trigger pull, it was just kind of fast squeezing of a single action handgun. I believe the vid should prove this assertion of mine, you simply cannot think about the trigger's revert to normal stage with this rate of fire.

Overall, let me sum the shooting experience up, the Caracal C is no doubts one pleasure to operate and with the lowest recoil factor to it that I personally ever have felt from a 9mm para.

I have never really been a good judge on the recoil factor and always thought it to be a natural " behavior of guns ", probably because I have rarely felt a great difference with this respect from one 9mm handgun to another, when comparing two of same category handguns, be it full sized or compacts. The Carcal C really stood out with this respect due to it's "soft" recoil, almost air-soft.

I have used a Glock and find that the grip of the Caracal is by far more user friendly than Glock's "brickish", aggressively contoured type of grip, especially for the small to mid sized hands, and the Caracal's comfortable grip adds to the overall shooting pleasure and control.

Let me know if I missed out anything, I will be back with the next stage, on my impressions, conclusions, soon.

Btw, the vid links of the torture tests of 1100 rds over here of the Caracal F model, conducted by the site owner of Pakguns.com, Mr. Abbas, are pasted below, it's probably the 1.st real, extensive torture test of the Caracal handgun, 1100 rounds almost non-stop, over-driven by a SUV couple of times, thrown onto concrete in chambered mode, dipped in water, etc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hKl38HBkYgI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=28XiHfUEyeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRliSM94hE&feature=player_embedded


Hope you enjoyed.


Regards.

 

[Canik]

Good job.
Caracal is a new born baby but it borns in very upgraded enviroment.
I think caracal wins the market.

 

[ddleatherworks]

Great review, the Caracal is an awesome pistol. I have a couple of the F's and C's all with the quicksight and carry one of the C's about every day, the quicksight is by far the fastest sight set up I've ever used.

 

[ETH77]

Excellent range report! Love the gun p0rn! Well photographed.

 

[Okie67]

Very nice review and range report! The Caracal is one fine handgun...

 

[Syntax360]

Outstanding range report!! :salute: Great photography and write-up - very impressive. I'm glad you like the pistol - they really do feel more refined and robust than anything else I've had the pleasure of shooting/owning.

Have you had a chance to clean it yet, or are you going to leave it dirty for awhile and continue to shoot it?

 

[AK47]

Outstanding range report!! :salute: Great photography and write-up - very impressive. I'm glad you like the pistol - they really do feel more refined and robust than anything else I've had the pleasure of shooting/owning.

Have you had a chance to clean it yet, or are you going to leave it dirty for awhile and continue to shoot it?

First of all: :salute: Thanks to the mentor here.

Now, thanks a lot for the kind remarks bro, appreciated to have your encouragement and will add up the review later, but as far as your last notion/question is concerned, trust me, I just can't help laughing, that over here, we darn heck clean the handguns after even just 10 shots, lolzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Let me tell you, considering the prices that we pay for our guns over here, i.e, $3500 for the "heavenly" Glock and $1100 for this Caracal model, you'd understand perhaps, they're more of "jewellery boxes" to us, to be cleaned, dusted every now and then, even "polished" with some fine auto wax, and holstered in very soft baby plush, hahahahahaha!

I cleaned it after these 75 shots and there was literally nothing to clean, to my surprise the Armscor ammo wasn't any filthy at all, as I had expected it to be.

Very easy field-strip, no doubts, else than those 2 wings to be pulled down a bit, are somewhat rigid in the beginning, I feel.


Regards.

 

[Il Cattivo]

Great review! I'm tempted to try a front sight like yours on my QS C, but I think the problem for me is that I really want to find a way to lower the top of the striker plate. I never feel quite certain that I'm seeing the sights properly.

 

[AK47]

Great review! I'm tempted to try a front sight like yours on my QS C, but I think the problem for me is that I really want to find a way to lower the top of the striker plate. I never feel quite certain that I'm seeing the sights properly.

Thanks. What do you have on yours? No fibre optics? Well, with the fibre optics, rest assured you'll be pointing rightly. It's basically a whole new way of sighting in with, I mean the Q.S set up, one gotta get used to it, I myself found it a bit strange and may require a couple of sessions to getting used to, but it's my genuine impression that for traditional SD use and within traditional SD firing range, i.e 7-10 yards, it's kind of point shooting, humbly!

Beyond this, I can understand that one would wish to adjust the sighting angle a bit and may feel the requirement as yours of lowering the top of the striker plate, yet probably you'll have to tune yourself into this system, rather than the gun tuning in to you!

Basically, I'd say, the C- Q.S is purely a defender. Not a range shooter.


Regards.

 

[coolbox]

@AK47 bro
Very well reviewed. Congratulations for being amongst the first owners of this weapon in Pakistan, if not actually the first. As discussed, arranging some funds now!

 

[Syntax360]

AK47, if you do ever get a fullsize, I think you should get it with the more traditional sight setup - just so you can compare. Besides, the larger gun would be more suitable for target shooting, anyway.

 

[AK47]

AK47, if you do ever get a fullsize, I think you should get it with the more traditional sight setup - just so you can compare. Besides, the larger gun would be more suitable for target shooting, anyway.

Thanks Syntax 360 bro, that's exactly on my mind, I mean traditional sights. Till then, whenever convenient, I'd request from your good self, to do a rapid shot full mag out of yours, preferably with a vid, as fast as you can squeeze, so my question on it's trigger reset to some extent gets cleared.

If you check the 1100 rds torture test review links I posted, of the F model, the shooter's finger kind of returns all the way back to the trigger guard, before he squeezes out the next. That's why I rapid shot those 15 as fast as I could, since any flaws here may have stopped the string for a while. Luckily, the C kept on - and wanted more. I trust yours would want more too, I hope.

But just a request, don't bother if time not found early enough.



Regards.

 

[AK47]

@AK47 bro
Very well reviewed. Congratulations for being amongst the first owners of this weapon in Pakistan, if not actually the first. As discussed, arranging some funds now!

Thanks Coolbox bro. You at least will be spared quite some stings, so do go for it, as and when convenient, looking forward.


Regards.