Does anyone have a Caracal 816?  Please share your experiences.

I have one and like it. Very underrated rifle IMO.

Excellent piston design incorporating lessons learned from the HK 416 and Sig 516. Lightweight and slim design. Especially, for a piston. Excellent and super stiff handguard. Lightest recoil I've felt from a piston similar to a carbine length DI AR. Only thing I don't like about mine is the barrel profile which steps up to a thicker profile a couple of inches before the muzzle.

Here's another review in this forum: https://www.ar15.com/forums/AR-15/Another-Caracal-816-Acquisition/126-780369/#i8573208

Pretty sure the only changes from the 516 are the reveiver height, Mlok handguard and the originals had a slimmer piston shaft to shave a few ounces.

QC on the 516 killed it for Sig.  Pistons are already niche and one that has pretty consistent issues is going to sink in the consumer market quickly.

I’m still impressed with the 816, and think it is a solid design.  In the short stroke realm, I feel HK (because of the QC they offer) and LMT (because of the mono upper) are equal or maybe superior but I wouldn’t feel poorly armed with a 816.

I’m quite impressed.  They’re definitely under rated / too often over looked.

We have some great piston options now: HK, LMT, Caracal, and PWS.

All worthy of taking to field.

QC killed the 516???   That gun has mil contracts and is one of the best piston guns around.  They are freaking solid.  You are way out of bounds dude..

Okay, cool.

Hey, why did Sig discontinue "one of the best"?

It's not discontinued, they just quit civilian sales.  It's still a MIL/LE catalog item.

Gary, there is so much dis information out there. We don't need more on here.  Especially on this forum.  Sig wanted to go full bore with the MCX.  This is why they dropped the 516.  As said by another poster, the 516 is still available with LE.  The 516 is as good as any.  I have an LMT Gen 2 piston, 516's and have some rounds down range with LWRC, 416 and also had a Colt piston.  All are solid. 516 is a very proven weapon and serves around the world militarily.  Even some LE departments use it.  Is it the best?  I don't know. I would put it against any.  I have a full auto version and it has a lot of rounds through it and also suppressed.  I highly recommend all weapons mentioned.

Thanks for sharing your opinion, and experience.

Has Sig taken over production or is Wilcox still making them for Sig?

That I couldn't tell you.  

My exposure to the 516 is two of the foreign contract overrun 14.5" uppers I bought when they were blowing them out for under $500.  I had one cut down to 11.5" and left the other one alone.  I've only shot the 11.5, it runs great (once I opened up the holes in the gas valve) and is plenty accurate.

Having said that, I'm very seriously considering a 11.5" Caracal upper for my SBR.  I don't care for the railed gas block setup on the 516 at all, and the 816 fixes that.

I have the 10" 516 and the 11.5" 816.

Both are nice, and really the 416 Gen 2 and 3 if you do some reading.

The 416 kills it with aftermarket, however.

HK OEM, Brownells, Nefarious Arms, HAUS Manufacturing, Geissele, and so on. The 416 market is pretty abundant with parts and support.

The one 416 component hard to find/expensive is lowers. After the BRN4 left the market, these are unubtainium.

I had one of the 14.5 overrun 516 uppers as well.  My impression was it was extremely well made.  I never heard of really any QC issues with the 516, widespread or otherwise.  Like anything else, I'm sure there is a lemon or two out there.

In the end, there were some things I didn't like:
-SOCOM-like barrel profile, combined with piston, and quad rail, made for a very heavy upper.
-Aftermarket handguard options are limited, and the railed gas block is right where my thumb on my forend grip wants to land, so heat buildup there is a problem for me.
-The Lancer carbon fiber handguard lightened it up a bit and extended the handguard, but needed six small screws undone to remove... I was never a fan of that, so in the end it just didn't see much actual shooting.  I imagine it could handle a very heavy firing schedule very well though, and mine was no worse than 1.5moa.

It ended up on the block and I sold it when I bought a Spear LT.

For a brief time, I looked for a Caracal 816 for comparison, but literally none were available anywhere I could find when I was looking.  I figured they were discontinued in the US market, but maybe they come in waves?

They moved production from NH to ID. I think that was a big part of the massive lull in consumer availability in the US.

For piston ARs and AR-like rifles, I have HK416s, CAR 816s, POF P415s, MR556, LMT MRP/MLC pistons, Sig MCX (more like AR 180), Bushmaster ACR and SCAR16.

I have both CAR816A2 uppers in 14.5 and 11.5. All are more pleasant to shoot suppressed than my DI ARs. All run significantly cleaner. The HK416s are pigs. They run awesome, but are heavy. Never had a malfunction. Eats everything I put through them. That’s true with my P415s, and my MCX, and my 816s. The 816 is the evolution of the 416, 516, MCX, and developed by the same team. My 816 uppers run awesome suppressed or non-suppressed. They’re accurate, soft shooters, and light relative to the 416s. Never had a stoppage or malfunction. I like the fine tuned piston system, the adjustable gas block, the lockup on the MLOC rail system, and fine with a nitrided barrel. Doesn’t need to be chrome lined. I bought each upper for about $1k. Worth every penny.

I like piston because they run so well suppressed. I especially love my Caracal because it's much lighter than my LMT and LWRC and makes me miss my light and handy DI guns a little less.