Canik TP-9 SA

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Pokem807

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Just picked up this pistol at the LGS yesterday, and figured I'd post a short initial review. I'd never heard of Canik until last week, and as far as I'm concerned the TP-9 SA is just too nice to fly under the radar for very long. There are some pretty in-depth reviews and videos out there if anyone is interested.

It's a polymer framed, striker fired pistol with a 4.25" barrel, 18+1 capacity and picatinny accessory rail. The slide is cerakoted, and fit/finish on mine is damn near flawless. The steel three dot sights are drift adjustable, and mine hit to POA out of the box. It comes with 2 Mec-gar magazines, and a Serpa-style holster with belt and paddle attachments. I'm not a fan of the Serpa, but it'll do until some better options are available.

The grip comes with two backstraps, and the texture is just about perfect for me. Not too aggressive, but it doesn't move around even during rapid fire.

The best feature is the trigger. Since the VP9 came out, almost every review I've seen or read stated that it has the best production trigger on the market. I compared the Canik and the VP9 side-by-side at the LGS, and the Canik blows it out of the water. Once you take up the slack, there is a wall and then a clean break (3.5#, according to my scale). There's no mush, grit, or sponginess at all, and it feels like a good SA trigger when it breaks. Reset is very short, and you can feel and hear it clearly.

There is one turd in the punchbowl. The original TP-9 had a decocker button on top of the slide, which made sense because it featured a DA/SA type trigger and the decocker simply returned the trigger to DA mode. Canik for some reason decided to keep the decocker, but on the TP-9SA it leaves you with a dead trigger. To fire the chambered round you have to do a press check in order to cock the striker. The reviews I read swore up and down that this wasn't a problem, because it took so much force to push the button that it was essentially impossible to inadvertently decock. After playing with it for a while I have to call BS on that, and I was disgusted because for me that's a deal breaker on an otherwise amazing pistol. Fortunately, after stripping the slide, I realized that it wasn't as bad as I thought. The decocker is designed in such a way that it's easily disabled with no permanent alterations at all. Not an ideal solution, but one I'm willing to live with.

I couldn't wait to shoot it, so I ran to the range without cleaning or lubing it first. (I know, I know.) Only had time to run 4 mags, but all 72 rounds fired flawlessly. Accuracy was great, recoil was minimal and the slide locked back every time with both of the supplied magazines. Hardly a torture test, but I've bought several new pistols in the last few years which couldn't do that.

All in all, for $375 out the door, I can't think of a better deal out there right now. It just hit the market a few weeks ago, so accessories aren't readily available yet, but I'm hopeful that will change.

If anybody else here has a TP-9SA, I'd love to hear what they think.
 

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