Thanks to a GunBroker seller (Ed at Lear Firearms in NH) who unearthed a pair of Kareen Compacts and was kind enough to share detailed pictures with me, we have a lot more information on those guns now.
The Kareen Compact is a bit of a unicorn, and a mysterious one at that. Not quite as rare as the IMI 9mm Revolver or 945 Compact, but probably about as rare as the transitional Baraks, which is saying something. Until now, I had only seen one other. More info after the break!
I’ve been doing some research and made some updates to the Kareen MkII article. For what I believe to be the first time on the Internet, I have detailed all six variants of the Kareen that made it to the United States.
I had been erroneously treating the “Kareen MkIII” and the “KA-MkIII” as the same gun. On detailed inspection of photos, it’s very clear that they have significant differences. The Kareen MkIII was an attempt to lower the manufacturing costs of the Kareen MkII. The KA-MkIII, on the other hand, looks exactly like an Arcus 94. I don’t want to claim I’ve solved the mystery, but I think my best guess now is that KSN was using rough Arcus frames and slides to produce the Mk II and Mk III, and then switched over to finished frames and slides for the KA-MkIII.
In other news, I have acquired a whole bunch of Israeli handguns, including a coupler rarer ones, and I hope to have some articles on them beginning in May.
The Hebrew Hammer 