Caracal Arms Displays Innovations at 2012 SHOT Show

By Jae Gillentine

Caracal SC Pistol
Caracal SC Pistol

Las Vegas, NV –-(Ammoland.com)- If you were at SHOT Show 2012, you probably stopped by the Caracal booth.

You know the one, tall signs everywhere with beautiful girls dressed in Caracal attire showing off a stage full of the Caracal pistols. By far, one of the best-looking booths at SHOT Show.

We were fortunate enough to meet the team at Caracal on Media Day at the Range where we shot several rounds downrange with all the Caracal pistols. It was a blast! We really liked the gun and all three of us left wanting one.

Highlights
The Caracal has a fully ambidextrous polymer frame that features an ergonomically designed grip with a rounded butt and a 111° grip angle. The lower forward edge of the frame has a Picatinny rail for mounting a light, laser, or other accessories. The Caracal’s low slide profile design utilizes the low bore axis principle also used in Glock and Steyr M pistols, making it more comfortable to shoot by reducing muzzle rise and allowing faster sight recovery.

The slide guide rails are a bit longer to promote stability by reducing torsion and flexing of the frame when firing. Also, with the guide rails having been designed as part of the frame’s sub-assembly which contains all of the pistol’s internals, it’s a simple gun that can be easily and quickly disassembled.

Caracal pistols have a fully supported chamber and fixed iron sights featuring straight-eight pattern contrast enhancements. The front element can be adjusted for windage and the nonadjustable rear sight element is an integral part of the firing pin unit, which can only be modified by replacing the entire firing pin unit.

The Caracal pistol features a triple safety system that secures the weapon against accidental discharge. This system is comprised of three independent safety mechanisms: an external integrated trigger safety with two automatic internal safeties, a firing pin safety, and a drop safety.

The pistol also has a loaded chamber indicator at the rear of the chamber allowing the user to see from the top side of the slide if a cartridge is present in the chamber.

Like the color on the grips? Grip inserts are available in several distinctive colors (black, gray, green, blue, and orange) and could be used for identification purposes or just for fun. However, the grip size can’t be adjusted with these grip inserts.

During manufacturing, the Caracal’s metal parts receive a proprietary “Plasox” plasma-based nitriding with an enclosed postoxidizin surface treatment which produces an oxidized protective coating resistant to aggressive environmental conditions.

The Caracal has 28 interchangeable parts. A take-down lever allows the gun to be easily disassembled for maintenance without using any tools.

Like most fine firearms purchases, when you get your new Caracal pistol it comes supplied with two box magazines and a user manual packed in a plastic carry case.

Accessories
Caracal offers a few factory accessories including a rigid shoulder stock, a tactical front grip that can be fitted to the optical mounting bracket on the lower forward edge of the frame, a key-locking system to provide additional gun security when the pistol is not in use, a fiberglass front-sight insert, “gutter pattern” quick sights, self-luminous tritium powered low light sights, magazine loader and an optical sight mount bracket.

Variants
The pistol is available in 3 variants of which the Caracal F is the basic full-size variant.

The Caracal C is simply a more compact (reduced length and height) variant of the Caracal F.

The Caracal SC model has a reduced length, height, and width and is technically somewhat different compared to the other Caracal pistols. Caracal touts the SC model as ideal for government professionals who must conceal a handgun for job-related situations, or even as a secondary backup handgun.

Another really cool detail of the SC is that it can also use the larger capacity magazines of the C and F models, delivering up to 18 rounds of 9 mm ammunition from one magazine. The Caracal SC is expected to become available to commercial users by fall 2012.


About Caracal

The Caracal pistol is a series of semi-automatic pistols manufactured by Caracal International L.L.C., a subsidiary of Tawazun Holding from the United Arab Emirates. The Caracal series are the first pistols produced and manufactured in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2007, Tawazun Holding L.L.C. – the wholly owned subsidiary of the United Arab Emirates Offset Program Bureau (OPB), acquired the assets of Caracal International.

Since 2011, Caracal pistols began manufacturing in Germany by Caracal GmbH operating from Suhl in Thuringia. Caracal GmbH is a subsidiary of the German hunting rifle and shotgun manufacturer, Merkel GmbH which was acquired by Caracal International L.L.C. in 2007.

Visit Caracal online at www.caracal.ae.

Caracal

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