Canik TP9 Elite SC optics ready

**Brian Ahearn** · October 21st, 2019, 01:24 PM

Mine came in last Thursday ,I did not post anything yet because I wanted to get some trigger time on it. When I got to Easton Fish & Game this morning it was beautiful nobody was there at 8 am. I love having all the ranges to myself. I made short work of testing customer guns and got right down to business playing with the Canik sub-compact. I did 1560 rounds of rapid fire at two different targets at 15 and 7 yards. The pistol ran all my mixed 9 mm no problems ,no failures. Accuracy was just fine right on target. I will shoot this one for while ,mount some kind of optic on it shoot it some more and get some extra mags so I can beat the crap out of it. The trigger has a very clean break ,all nickle polished trigger parts internally, nice feed ramp ,just a well built handgun. Canik did an outstanding job on this handgun, and it came with a decent holster something I could actually use with optic mounted. Price $379.95 plus $24.94 shipping and handling,this one is a keeper. Now since I like this one so much I will have to get the next size up with the Salient Arms trigger parts and barrel,those are running about $600.00

**Brian Ahearn** · October 26th, 2019, 10:18 AM

Just a quick update ,I like this sub compact model so much that yesterday I dropped $600 on the Combat Elite optics ready with the Salient Arms upgraded trigger and barrel. Sadly my Cz collection is feeling neglected so I must get some more CZ's as well. Too many guns to buy and not enough money so back to work now.

**bripro** · October 26th, 2019, 06:31 PM

Great write up Brian. It’s a shame how good solid information doesn’t generate many (if any) replies. Nonetheless the information is shared to those who are looking for it.
I was looking at the Caniks a little bit back. The TP9SFX yo be particular. It seemed like a good and solid pistol and if I remember correctly it just barely broke the four hundred dollar mark. When I stumbled on it I hadn’t heard of Canik yet so I passed it in favor of a Walther PPQ M2 Q5.

I wish I saw your write up before making that buy as I just can’t warm up to the Q5. Even with all the talk about the Q5s trigger, my BD75 easily has a better trigger with a few dollars worth of springs from Cajun. I guess putting a blue shoe on a stock trigger makes people like it better.

A friend of mine is starting to build a small collection and he asked if I thought there was anything not too expensive he should look at. I specifically told him to get a Canik TP9. You could only imagine my disappointment for him when he showed up to work a few days later with a used gen one Springfield XD40SC. He told me the salesman told him it was a better gun. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I wonder if they couldn’t move it during the Springfield “ban” and recognized a newbie as an opportunity.

Would you say the two pistols you mentioned in your thread are upgrades to the TP9? I think my next purchase will be a CZ Shadow 2 (which I just missed a like new one for 899) or Colt M45A1 but if these rival a Shadow with a few mods I’ll put one on the radar.

**Hodgie** · October 26th, 2019, 07:46 PM

The SFX is a good pistol runs reliable and has a good trigger out of The box. They released just under $600 at the time but quickly came down in price. I picked mine up in June of 2018 from KGC with a Vortex Venom for $609.00 delivered which was the best price I could find with a Red dot, locally they were Between $525 and $550 just for the pistol.

Sadly I haven't put more then a 2 or 3 hundred rounds through it but hope to change that in the spring. The gun was severely over sprung and wouldn't cycle anything reliably except for NATO spec ammunition. At 1st century tried to blow off their customers but eventually relented and acknowledged the problems and sent out new reduced power recoil assemblies. Mine suffered the same issues a year or two after release so I contacted Century and they send the parts to correct the issues.

As a whole the TP9 series of pistols are an excellent value for what they charge, however for me they still rank below my CZ's and Glocks, but it is possible that I just need more time with it

The 1st thing your friend needs to learn is that 99% of firearms salesmen don't know Jack shit about firearms and those who bash firearms only to quickly recommend another that they just happen to have laying around for two years are just looking to lawn their shit off.

He sold him an unpopular firearm in a very unpopular caliber. Now the popularity of the .40 S&W may change one day to more favorable but the XD's popularity won't.

**Hodgie** · October 27th, 2019, 10:46 AM

What appears to be a lightly used SFX just popped up for sale here today.

$375.00 OBO
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=353352

**Brian Ahearn** · October 27th, 2019, 10:53 AM

For me this was my 4th Canik TP9 series pistol purchase, I have been very lucky zero issues with the the other three. I am expecting the Combat Elite Salient version to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday . I will test fire that before the weeks out and take some photos of them. I have a variety of Turkish built pistols from Sar and Canik, all been excellent shooters. My next Turk gun will be another Sar,the K2 45ACP compact is finally on it's way to the US. That one is a CZ 75 clone using a Tanfoglio trigger system.

**bripro** · October 27th, 2019, 11:11 AM

Let me know your thoughts on the combat elite please. I’ve watched a bunch of reviews and a common thought is that these Canik pistols are their answer to the Walther Q5. I’m not sure if I should try to find a way to love the Q5 or start over with one of these. It may come down to how it feels in my hand. That’s the main problem I have with the Walther.

**Brian Ahearn** · October 31st, 2019, 02:06 PM

Just got my Elite Combat model in, trigger is a step the Sc model ,but this has the Salient Arms trigger upgrades. Overall it's a very nice package with decent holster as well,has four different optic mounting plates, and two mags ,tools etc. I will wait a copule days to test fire,it because I bought another one the Sar9 striker fired pistol. This one out of the box has about a 6.5 lb trigger. I have had a couple of customers get this one already. I bought it for two reasons the price $269.00 for the Stainless slide option and second Galloway Precision now has a spring kit and a flat faced short stroke trigger up grade available for theses pistols. Their spring kit is supposed to lower that pull to 3.5 lbs with out polishing the lifter and connector. I will run all three at the range at the same time ,first with the Sar unmodified and then after trigger ,polishing and spring upgrades,yes I will polish some parts if I am going to spend the time to swap out internals. Then I will run the pistols again and let you know what think of all three pistols. The upgrades on the Sar 9 ran me $44.00 plus tax shipping. I have other Sar pistols so I am no stranger to their products. So far I really like both of the Caniks,their triggers are better out of the box when compared to factory Glocks ,M&Ps and the HK VP 9's. For the money the are very good values for Optic ready handguns. By the way the sar steals it's grip design from HK, its a grip design that like,fully adjustable side and backstrap panels.

**bripro** · October 31st, 2019, 11:05 PM

Let us know when you’re shoot the Canik. I’ve decided to hold off for now and give my Walther Q5 some more opportunities for me to fall in love with it.

**Hodgie** · October 31st, 2019, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by Brian Ahearn

Just got my Elite Combat model in, trigger is a step the Sc model ,but this has the Salient Arms trigger upgrades. Overall it's a very nice package with decent holster as well,has four different optic mounting plates, and two mags ,tools etc. I will wait a copule days to test fire,it because I bought another one the Sar9 striker fired pistol. This one out of the box has about a 6.5 lb trigger. I have had a couple of customers get this one already. I bought it for two reasons the price $269.00 for the Stainless slide option and second Galloway Precision now has a spring kit and a flat faced short stroke trigger up grade available for theses pistols. Their spring kit is supposed to lower that pull to 3.5 lbs with out polishing the lifter and connector. I will run all three at the range at the same time ,first with the Sar unmodified and then after trigger ,polishing and spring upgrades,yes I will polish some parts if I am going to spend the time to swap out internals. Then I will run the pistols again and let you know what think of all three pistols. The upgrades on the Sar 9 ran me $44.00 plus tax shipping. I have other Sar pistols so I am no stranger to their products. So far I really like both of the Caniks,their triggers are better out of the box when compared to factory Glocks ,M&Ps and the HK VP 9's. For the money the are very good values for Optic ready handguns. By the way the sar steals it's grip design from HK, its a grip design that like,fully adjustable side and backstrap panels.

What's the street price on the Elite combat?

Originally Posted by bripro

Let us know when you’re shoot the Canik. I’ve decided to hold off for now and give my Walther Q5 some more opportunities for me to fall in love with it.

What are your negative feelings towards the Walther? I've personally never been a fan of Walthers more for their looks and grips then their performance, but all I see is rave reviews regarding the Q5 sometimes to the point where I feel it's being over exaggerated.

I wasn't all that impressed with the PPQ and I felt the trigger was too light. I also never understood why everyone lost their mind over the VP9. By the time I got my hands on one at one of the group shoots I thought I was going to feel something special but all I felt was another striker fired polymer pistol.