It is Finally Here! The Caracal CAR816 A2

Based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Caracal International has been manufacturing high quality firearms since 2004. The most notable of these is the Model F, a 9mm striker-fired pistol that features a low-bore, reduced-mass slide and an 18 round magazine, which debuted in 2006.

Other than in Israel, there are no firearms manufacturers in the Middle East. The region lacks vast amounts of skilled labor and industrial capacity found in other parts of the world. And unlike the US firearms market, there are no small machine shops specializing in chrome plating, anodizing, heat treating, barrel production, or the manufacturing of small parts and assemblies. To meet these manufacturing challenges, Caracal International constructed a complex where all these manufacturing processes could be facilitated. The facility in Abu Dhabi truly is a 100% state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and home to Caracal’s hammer forging machine, anodizing, CNC operation, and molding machines. The facility is staffed by a world-class research and development team that hosts engineers and manufacturing experts from around the world, including the US, UK, Germany, Australia and India to name a few.

Caracal Anodizing

Caracal Quality Control

Among the products manufactured at the Caracal facility: pistols, submachineguns, carbines, precision sniper rifles, and tactical battle rifles. In this article, we’ll be concentrating specifically on the story of Caracal’s battle rifle.

To accomplish this mission of manufacturing one of the world’s best battle rifles, Caracal required the talent of top engineers who would not only be able to design firearms, but also provide input and oversight to the construction of Caracal’s manufacturing facility. Among the first to be recruited was a German firearms designer and former employee of Heckler & Koch, who was largely responsible for the design and manufacturing of the HK416. This individual was later employed by Sig Sauer in the United States where he teamed up with another brilliant firearms engineer, Chris Sirois.

Sig Sauer wanted a better rifle than the HK416, which had its share of challenges including weight, a high cyclic rate and proprietary components. The engineers answered all of these challenges with the design of the SIG 516, which offered an improved gas system that would reduced stoppages. The design and manufacturing of the SIG 716, MPX and MCX soon followed. Both men eventually went to work for Caracal International, where they were asked to make yet an even better battle rifle. This would become known as the CAR816.

In Abu Dhabi, Caracal was tasked with producing military grade firearms for the region and for Caracal’s international customers. Chris Sirois worked in an operations management capacity to oversee the UAE design engineers, who created the CAR816 which redefined performance, particularly in the regions harsh desert environments.

The CAR816 rife, is manufactured in the UAE where it is free from the United States’ International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). At a components level, the CAR816 rifle remained compatible with the M4, utilizing the same fire control parts, charging handle, bolt and complete lower receiver, firing pin and cam pin. The UAE versions of the CAR816 also featured a cold hammer forged barrel. This was not carried over to the US manufactured version which I will address later in this article. The fit and finish of these rifles is excellent. Metal components are QPQ coated and 7075 T6 forged receivers are hard coat anodized as per military specifications.

An extractor guard is located in the barrel extension. This is a large metal post that sits over the extractor, fully supporting the bolt when the bolt is in the locked position. In the event of failure, the extractor guard would keep the breach fully closed and supported ensuring all force goes forward, not back down.

The CAR816 also utilizes a Caracal designed free-floating handguard with quad MIL-STD-1913 rails. The rifle is complimented with multiple gas port settings to support normal, suppressed firing and adverse conditions. Being able to adjust to adverse conditions give the system a gas boost of about 10%. The barrel is equipped with a standard A2 style compensator. The buffer is also very unique, which is part of the recoil management improvements over the Sig Sauer 516 rifle. Instead of using traditional steel and tungsten weights, they went with a metal powder. The specific make-up of the materials, including the mass, metallurgy, grain size, and volume create a different action when compared to standard “slug” type weights. This is extremely noticeable in felt recoil to the user, adverse conditions and reliability in very high-volume firing.

Reliability Testing

Now where the metal really meets the meat, and theory aside, how does it work in the real world? While at Caracal, they were kind enough to do a reliability test for me. Just outside the range doors is the largest pile of nasty and irritable Middle Eastern sand. Of course, the sand was well over 100°F. The Caracal engineer loaded the rifle and buried it in the sand, first, with the ejection port cover closed. He then pulled the rifle from the sand, gave it a quick shake and fired 10 rounds on semi and 20 rounds on auto. The rifle cycled perfectly as expected.

But this was only the first test. Then the engineer took the rifle into the lab where he had a 55-gallon drum filled with water. He proceeded to wash all the sand out of the rifle, then dried it off using compressed air. Without lubricating the rifle, he went outside again. With the ejection port cover open, he laid down in the sand and executed a very violent low crawl, swishing and burying the rifle in the sand. He got up from the ground, knocked the rifle on his side a couple times, and went back to the range to fire another magazine. Again, the engineer fired 10 on semi and 20 on full-auto without a hitch. Myself and one of my colleagues continued to fire the rifle putting 6 more magazines through this hot, dirty rifle without any malfunction.

This type of testing could have stopped almost any other rifle. I witnessed each step from beginning to end. The rate of fire was around 850 to 900 rounds per minute. The ammunition used was also manufactured in the only ammunition manufacturing facility in the Middle East besides Isreal. I had the opportunity to visit that operation as well. They also had visitors from the US Lake City Army Ammunition Plant visiting. They also appeared to be very impressed with the set up.

Available in the USA!

Caracal definitely has something special to offer in the US commercial market, not just with their Enhanced F pistol, but rifles as well. Like any foreign country, the ATF has restrictions on what parts can and can’t be imported into the US, making importation of complete rifles almost impossible. Understanding these challenges and opportunities, Caracal USA moved Chris Sirois. The objective was to produce a new version of the CAR816 that would be 100% made in the US.

Hamad Salem Al Ameri, CEO at Caracal International, is not your typical CEO, not even by a long shot. He is a highly decorated UAE Special Forces operator who was commissioned at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. This combat veteran knows the value of an excellent combat rifle and gave his engineers the freedom to do it correctly.

At 2017 SHOT Show, Hamad signed an agreement with US-based Wilcox Industries, to partner with Caracal USA under the leadership of General Manager, Jeffrey Spalding and Operations Manager, Chris Sirois.

Since I first saw the CAR816 rifles in UAE, I’ve been obsessed with acquiring one to evaluate and shoot. I called Chris Sirois numerous times to see where they were at with US production. In December of 2017, the stars aligned, but I would have to wait until after 2018 SHOT Show to get the rifle. The received the CAR816 A2 in mid-February for testing and evaluation.

The CAR816 A2 US Made

Upon first inspection of the CAR816 A2 rifle, it was just as I remembered with only a couple of changes. The first was that it was semi-automatic only, which is to be expected for the US market. Second, was the barrel which was not hammer forged but button cut steel and QPQ treated instead. I called Chris and asked him about the change. He stated that “In testing there was no advantage seen for a hammer forged barrel. The accuracy was no better and the life was the same. QPQ performs better than standard chrome/manganese phosphate when it comes to poor maintenance and corrosive conditions.” I went on to ask some difficult questions regarding barrel life. Chris informed me that the barrel life expectancy was between 12-15,000 rounds depending on maintenance and firing schedule. When asked what they traditionally see in accuracy with good match ammo, he stated .75 to 1 MOA and I was able to verify that using Black Hills Ammunition 77gr OTM (MK262 Mod1). I have to say I have little experience with QPQ barrels, so this was very educational. Chris could have easily gone hammer forged on these rifles as it is available in several places in the US. However, his testing results fit within many other manufacturers who use QPQ treated barrels.

The next major difference I saw was in the handguard. The rifles I saw in UAE had free floating MIL-STD-1913 rails, but the US made A2 rifles featuring a new M-Lok rail. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. However, my view is much different than most of America and SOCOM on the issue. I asked Chris about his reasoning in going with M-Lok and he said “recent tests, along with my past testing, show that Keymod has its problems. Most of the professional market is turning to M-Lok, so we are just going with what we think the mainstream will be and to give our customers what they will hopefully want and what is better”.

These were the only differences between the UAE and the US manufactured rifles. The CAR816 A2 rifle package ships with a cleaning kit, 30-round Lancer smoke translucent magazine, flip-up front and rear backup sights and a 2-point sling. Running down the CAR816 A2 specifications we have a 7.4 lb rifle with an overall length of 36.3”  when the stock is extended, 33” when the stock is closed. The rifle fires from a closed bolt with an external piston operating mechanism with an adjustable gas valve. The barrel is 16 inches with a modified M4 profile. The barrel is button cut with a 1/7-inch right hand twist and the muzzle is capped with a standard A2 compensator and threaded with ½” -28 threads. With proper installation of the back up sights you have a 13” sight radius. The rifle is equipped with a 9.1” proprietary Caracal handguard with M-Lok and a Magpul STR carbine stock, which slides on a MIL-SPEC receiver extension. The rifle is also outfitted with a Caracal pistol grip, which has a small storage compartment. It is also important to recognize that these Caracal rifles exceed all NATO testing protocols, including environmental and destructive testing. Very, very few AR manufacturers in the industry can say this about their products.

Caracal is offering the Caracal CAR816 A2 rifle with barrel lengths of 11.5”, 14.5” and 16” and a selective-fire options available to law enforcement agencies. The MSRP of the CAR816 A2 is $1,849.

Caracal USA also offers the CAR814 A2 series, which is a direct gas impingement operating system, or as I call it, an internal piston. The CAR814 A2 is sold with a Magpul MOE handguard, and the Patrol version is sold with a free floating handguard. Both are offered with the same barrel length options and selective-fire options.

Most recently, Caracal USA has made available the CAR 814 A2 VERSUS™ configuration, which features a 18” Proof Research carbon fiber-wrapped barrel, a Geissele Super 3 Gun trigger, extended magazine release button, and a 2-port, self-timing muzzle break. The VERSUS™ rifle is designed to be an out-of-the-box solution for the competition shooter.

Technical specifications and additional information about the Caracal CAR816 A2 rifle and other Caracal products is accessible at www.caracalusa.com.

As a writer/reviewer of firearms, I test many rifles (on average 3 a week) and I will say it takes a lot to get me excited, and that is rare. The Caracal CAR816 A2 is the first rifle I have really been excited about in quite some time. This is a military grade rifle designed by the finest firearm designers in the industry. Breaking into an already saturated market may be difficult at first, but once these rifles make it into shooter’s hands, I believe this will be a very successful product line. There are very few AR-type rifles, in the commercial market, that are military grade. There are very few I would feel confident in taking into combat with my life on the line. I can say without hesitation, the CAR816 A2 is one rifle I would take in a heartbeat. These rifles rank high, along side LMT, Sig Sauer, HK and Colt Canada. The CAR816 A2 rifles are currently in service in the Middle East with heavy backlogs for orders.

You can also watch our review of this rifle on our Bitchute channel below:
https://gunstreamer.com/watch/caracal-car816-a2_3Hl3TQwNQo2g68f.html

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