The Caracal came with two, 18 round metal tube magazines. The follower and base pad are plastic and seem reasonably durable. The spring is a nesting style with the final three coils reduced to nest inside the lower coils while under compression. What’s different from most other magazines is the lack of an internal base plate. The absence of this part means that the spring rests directly against the plastic base pad and that the final coil of the spring locks the base pad into place. It was easily disassembled using a thin blade of a flat tip screwdriver tip. I’m not sure if it really matters if there is a metal base plate inside the mag or not. We will see as things progress.
The mag bodies are smooth and well finished with no sharp or jagged edges to hang up on things. The ambi mag catch holds the mag in via a centered notch on the mag body.
The metal feed lips are strong while still permitting easy loading. I was able to free hand load all 18 rounds with little difficulty. Using the Mag-Loader just sped things up. I did not notice any bulging of the mag body when loaded.
The plastic magazine base pad is well made and fits snugly against the metal mag body. That silver part just above the number is the mag spring which locks into the base pad without benefit of an internal base plate.
The engineers at Caracal did a great job making sure we could get those stuck mags out. The slight bevel on the bottom of the pistol frame provides enough surface to get a good purchase on the mag with bare hands. We’ll have to see how it works with gloves on.
Definitely time to go shoot this thing. Stay Safe & Keep Training!