CARACAL F 9mm Pistol – Range Day 1-1000 Rounds

I ran the first 1000 rounds through the Caracal F 9mm pistol today.  The good news is that it ran all 1000 rounds without a single issue.  Using Aguila 124gr FMJ, I was concentrating on running the gun, and how it extracted and ejected.  Extraction was perfect and there were only a few erratic ejections.  Most of those landed either on the top of my head or in the hood of my sweatshirt.  Thankfully this was in less than 2% of the rounds fired.  I did note that the ejection pattern settled down and became consistent between 3 and 5 o’clock somewhere between 200-300 rounds.

I heard stories from a few people that these guns will fire if dropped.  Not wanting to let that one go, I had to try.  I started by cocking the gun and beating the ever-loving stuff out of it using a 3# rubber mallet.  It did not fire.  I then tried dropping it several different ways and nothing there either.  Finally, I beat the gun against a wooden barricade on both sides and the rear of the slide.  Nothing.  I’m satisfied that the gun will not release the striker if dropped.

I had several of the other instructors and Pro Shop staff help with the round count and comments ranged from, “the trigger is really light and will take some getting used to,” (it measures a consistent 5.8-6.1#s on my pull gage) to, “this thing is really nice to shoot.”  I would say that the trigger is smooth rather than light and yes, it does take some getting used to if what you normally shoot is a DA/SA gun.  The Caracal F is really nice to shoot.  I have to attribute most of this to the way it is built.  The bore is so low in the receiver that about 1/3 of the barrel is below the top edge of the dust cover.  Caracal claims It is a full 4mm lower than a Glock.  (I’ll do some comparison pictures in another post.)  Regardless of what causes it, the gun is very easy to shoot with very little actual push and an extremely fast recovery for follow up shots.

The texture of the grip is very good and borders on being almost too aggressive.  I put on a pair of gloves for the last 500 rounds and found it made holding the gun much easier.  I suspect that some will consider the texture of this gun to be too rough.  Personally, I like it.  Although, I did find the original Glock RTF texture to be just about right so take what I say with a grain of salt.  The overall shape of the grip makes it much easier to hold onto.  It seems to be more oval than square.  Several of the shooters, myself included did find the back-strap ridge to be a bit too harsh.  The reset is about the same length as my G17, and only slightly more pronounced.  What separates this gun from the others is the smoothness of the trigger cycle.  It really makes it easy to get a fast sight picture without moving the muzzle during the trigger cycle.

I tried the factory set up of the sights for the first few rounds, but had to black out the rear sight after a couple of magazines.  It was neither fast, nor easy to get a good sight picture.  Once blacked out, the rear sight did its job.  It sat there very nicely and gave me a place to look through for the front sight.  What bothers me the most about the rear sight is that it is integral to the pistol.  Much along the lines of the Sig Sauer P250, this type of design makes adjusting or changing out the rear sight all but impossible.  The front sight is dovetailed in and can be easily adjusted if necessary.  As you’ll see in the pictures, there is no need to do anything with the sights on this sample.

Accuracy was more than acceptable with this gun using the 124gr FMJ ammunition.  I was able to consistently print very tight groups using two-hand, strong-hand and non-dominant hand techniques.  Several of the instructors were able to shoot one-hole groups at 3 yards. And I managed to shoot sub 6” groups at 25 yards using a slow fire two-hand technique.  Overall, it is more accurate than many of the shooters that will pick one up.  It certainly is combat or self defense accurate.

5 and 15 yard rapid fire failure drills yielded these results. The Caracal F worked pretty well out of a Mitch Rosen X-Press holster for a Sig P226. Blade tech makes a plastic version that actually fits the Caracal.

25 yard slow fire (18 rounds in under 20 seconds) gave some pretty good results. I’ll take these sized groups all day in a fighting gun. I’m sure they could be tightened up a bit if we took the gun to the bench, but what fun is there in that?

I’ll be shooting it again soon using a broad range of self defense ammunition ranging from +P 124 gr Speer GDHP to Corbon 115 gr DPX and +P+ 127 gr Winchester hollow point ammunition.  I’m pretty sure there will even be some 147 Speer GDHP in there for you heavy bullet guys.  I’ll also be shooting the entire day with some type of a light on it to see if that makes a difference.  More to follow.  Stay Safe & Keep Training!