MadcapMagician
Regular
- Location
- Thunder Bay, Ontario
So the day finally came! I received my CANIK TP9SA by Century Arms and boy howdie do I love it!
First a big shout out to iRunGuns. The crew over there have been great to deal with in getting some interesting awesome items.
For my pistol I opted to go the tan route and picked mine up on sale at $350.00 USD. Ended up being about $525.00 landed to my door.
I'll get right into it. Lots of pics and my own inexperienced opinions, thoughts and comments. Forgive the poor cell phone photos.
We'll start with the unboxing itself. The case is pretty sweet. Mass produced standard pistol case. One thing that struck me with this was first the smiley face on the tag but also the foam insert on the inside. It held the pistol as perfectly as can be. Snug as a bug in a proverbial rug.
As with basically every single pistol case out there. After the initial use in Canada its useless as it can't fit a trigger lock. But who cares.
And in all her glory...
This unit comes with:
1 Pistol
2 Mags
1 mag Loader
1 Backstrap change out (they call it a palm-swell)
One holster
One paddle belt clip
One paddle belt (dunno the name for it. The thing you slide the belt through)
Standard Cable Lock
Cleaning Brush
Jag Rod
I don't have any experience at all with holsters or carrying pistols but I really like this one. It locks in place super solid and is easy to remove with a light press of the finger. It fits snug on my belt and has sliding tabs on the edges for adjusting to different width belts.
So I rack the slide back for the first time and one thing that stuck out to me, that I haven't seen on my other pistols is that the feed ramp looks like its polished to a mirror finish. So koodos to CANIK/Century Arms. They obviously have attention to detail.
Shes purdy!
There are a couple features on this pistol that I like. One of which is the "cocked" indicator as seen here:
As you can see it is quite clearly cocked.
Another is the somewhat controversial "decocker." Alot of people are hating on this decocker for some reason. It makes sense to me why the pistol has one as far as i can figure. It's just one more safety. If this were to be carried for some sort of Law Enforcement position (I don't know policies or if you can even use your own firearm) you would always want to have one chambered (I would think). So with this pistol being BOTH Single Action and Double Action you want the option to carried a round chambered without the primed striker sitting over the round (heaven forbid it goes off and you lose a toe). According to the pistol manual (which is clear and spelling mistake free... Unlike some popular Chinese brands) the firearm can be fired (mag in or out) with a round chambered. Naturally its a heavier trigger pull when firing the first round DA as opposed to SA.
EDIT!!! After looking at the manual more closely I see now that only the TP9V2/TP40V2 are SA/DA. the TP9SA is in fact Single Action Only. My mistake for the confusion folks.
This photo shows the ambidextrous decocker from the underside of the slide. First depressed in this photo.
And not depressed here:
And a close up of the back of the slide under the decocker.
Another neat feature I found on this guy is the loaded chamber indicator. It is a steel clip of some sort that actually gets pushed up and visible when a round is loaded. (NOTE I did this test with dud brass rounds. Safety kids!).
This is the clip in its natural unloaded position.
This is the clip in the up position when the pistol has a round chambered.
You can also see the glint of brass behind the barrel but with steel cased ammo I don't think that would be a very good visual clue of loaded vs not loaded.
One thing I REALLY like about this pistol is the sights. They are bright white and the eye follows them naturally. According to the manual this pistol has standard sights with a "lollipop" which I assume is the white line in the center of the two rear sights. I was pondering this "lollipop" and think it would be beneficial for a couple reason. First it would give novice shooters and easy way to center the sights for consistent sight picture as well as aiming. The other thought I had (whether it would actually would work or not would be for adjusting your aim without actually adjusting your sights (which are adjustable) keep the lollipop slightly off center to one side or another).
Pistol with the slide removed (which was super easy to do! The S&W I have is much harder to pull those two damn little tabs. This one is SIMPLE)
Something else I notices is that where the guide rod? (if thats what its called) or rather the piece that has the spring on it below the barrel seats onto the barrel is actually tapered with a small notch to make it nice and easy simple to reinstall it consistently without having to get the perfect angle and position.
The pistol when it came in the box had a green tag on it that read "Quality Controlled" which I believe goes with what I'm about to show...
The pistol was definitely fired. I assume thats just to test for function. Overall its in great shape. Doesn't look overly beaten up on the inside. Just superficial debris from maybe 5 rounds or so.
Mags are nice. A bit finicky to load the first round as the followers don't always line up perfectly but otherwise nice mags.
Overall I am impressed with this pistol. It feel good in my hand. Has solid construction. Super simple disassembly and the sights are mint. My only complaint so far is that I pinched myself in the slide because my hand slipped on the lube. But that's my fault. Oh and the mags. First round can be a pain. Its likely just due to them being new. I'm sure they'll loosen up with use. Heh heh.
EDIT: A note for dis-assembly. In order to take the slide off you do not need to hold the slide back 1/4" like with other pistols. You just press down the takedown tabs and the slide can be removed.
If anyone is on the fence. Jump the hell off. Without firing I know I'm going to love it. As my first pistol with a holster I'm pretty pumped. Pretty damn pumped.
As for firing. I will get to that soon!
First a big shout out to iRunGuns. The crew over there have been great to deal with in getting some interesting awesome items.
For my pistol I opted to go the tan route and picked mine up on sale at $350.00 USD. Ended up being about $525.00 landed to my door.
I'll get right into it. Lots of pics and my own inexperienced opinions, thoughts and comments. Forgive the poor cell phone photos.
We'll start with the unboxing itself. The case is pretty sweet. Mass produced standard pistol case. One thing that struck me with this was first the smiley face on the tag but also the foam insert on the inside. It held the pistol as perfectly as can be. Snug as a bug in a proverbial rug.
As with basically every single pistol case out there. After the initial use in Canada its useless as it can't fit a trigger lock. But who cares.
And in all her glory...
This unit comes with:
1 Pistol
2 Mags
1 mag Loader
1 Backstrap change out (they call it a palm-swell)
One holster
One paddle belt clip
One paddle belt (dunno the name for it. The thing you slide the belt through)
Standard Cable Lock
Cleaning Brush
Jag Rod
I don't have any experience at all with holsters or carrying pistols but I really like this one. It locks in place super solid and is easy to remove with a light press of the finger. It fits snug on my belt and has sliding tabs on the edges for adjusting to different width belts.
So I rack the slide back for the first time and one thing that stuck out to me, that I haven't seen on my other pistols is that the feed ramp looks like its polished to a mirror finish. So koodos to CANIK/Century Arms. They obviously have attention to detail.
Shes purdy!
There are a couple features on this pistol that I like. One of which is the "cocked" indicator as seen here:
As you can see it is quite clearly cocked.
Another is the somewhat controversial "decocker." Alot of people are hating on this decocker for some reason. It makes sense to me why the pistol has one as far as i can figure. It's just one more safety. If this were to be carried for some sort of Law Enforcement position (I don't know policies or if you can even use your own firearm) you would always want to have one chambered (I would think). So with this pistol being BOTH Single Action and Double Action you want the option to carried a round chambered without the primed striker sitting over the round (heaven forbid it goes off and you lose a toe). According to the pistol manual (which is clear and spelling mistake free... Unlike some popular Chinese brands) the firearm can be fired (mag in or out) with a round chambered. Naturally its a heavier trigger pull when firing the first round DA as opposed to SA.
EDIT!!! After looking at the manual more closely I see now that only the TP9V2/TP40V2 are SA/DA. the TP9SA is in fact Single Action Only. My mistake for the confusion folks.
This photo shows the ambidextrous decocker from the underside of the slide. First depressed in this photo.
And not depressed here:
And a close up of the back of the slide under the decocker.
Another neat feature I found on this guy is the loaded chamber indicator. It is a steel clip of some sort that actually gets pushed up and visible when a round is loaded. (NOTE I did this test with dud brass rounds. Safety kids!).
This is the clip in its natural unloaded position.
This is the clip in the up position when the pistol has a round chambered.
You can also see the glint of brass behind the barrel but with steel cased ammo I don't think that would be a very good visual clue of loaded vs not loaded.
One thing I REALLY like about this pistol is the sights. They are bright white and the eye follows them naturally. According to the manual this pistol has standard sights with a "lollipop" which I assume is the white line in the center of the two rear sights. I was pondering this "lollipop" and think it would be beneficial for a couple reason. First it would give novice shooters and easy way to center the sights for consistent sight picture as well as aiming. The other thought I had (whether it would actually would work or not would be for adjusting your aim without actually adjusting your sights (which are adjustable) keep the lollipop slightly off center to one side or another).
Pistol with the slide removed (which was super easy to do! The S&W I have is much harder to pull those two damn little tabs. This one is SIMPLE)
Something else I notices is that where the guide rod? (if thats what its called) or rather the piece that has the spring on it below the barrel seats onto the barrel is actually tapered with a small notch to make it nice and easy simple to reinstall it consistently without having to get the perfect angle and position.
The pistol when it came in the box had a green tag on it that read "Quality Controlled" which I believe goes with what I'm about to show...
The pistol was definitely fired. I assume thats just to test for function. Overall its in great shape. Doesn't look overly beaten up on the inside. Just superficial debris from maybe 5 rounds or so.
Mags are nice. A bit finicky to load the first round as the followers don't always line up perfectly but otherwise nice mags.
Overall I am impressed with this pistol. It feel good in my hand. Has solid construction. Super simple disassembly and the sights are mint. My only complaint so far is that I pinched myself in the slide because my hand slipped on the lube. But that's my fault. Oh and the mags. First round can be a pain. Its likely just due to them being new. I'm sure they'll loosen up with use. Heh heh.
EDIT: A note for dis-assembly. In order to take the slide off you do not need to hold the slide back 1/4" like with other pistols. You just press down the takedown tabs and the slide can be removed.
If anyone is on the fence. Jump the hell off. Without firing I know I'm going to love it. As my first pistol with a holster I'm pretty pumped. Pretty damn pumped.
As for firing. I will get to that soon!
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