Canik TP9 Elite SC - A Review of the Turkish subcompact!

tonight we are talking about some turkish steel that you can stick in your pants it is the canik tp9 elite sc are you ready stand by [Music] [Music] welcome back to the humble marksman channel i'm david and i'll be your guide in pursuit of practical pistol proficiency so today we're talking about the canik elite sc the canik brand has built a pretty loyal following for offering the tp9 sfx which i have another review on that you can check out so canik took their model of having a plastic gun with about the best trigger on the market and scaled it down to this model which is the elite sc they give it a cut for the shield rmsc right in front of the iron sight so you can have co-witness with those low-profile carry sights and you still get one of the best concealed carry triggers on the market if not the best it is a very very good trigger and i bought this gun in the third quarter of 2020 right before the election at the peak of panic buying and inflated prices and this gun still set me back less than 400 and did i mention it also comes with a holster because it comes with a holster right in the box which not a great holster but it's nice to be able to use the gun that you have for its intended purpose right out of the box as we're about to get started guys if you want to help support the channel uh check out the links in the description there's a link to my patreon where just one dollar gets you three to five exclusive pieces of content per week as well as a link to join big daddy unlimited which is like a buyer's club for second amendment stuff where you get near wholesale prices in the first months only like a dollar so check that out and a link to other stuff that i find that's pretty cool on the internet but what helps me more than anything here on youtube is if at some point during the video you find yourself enjoying the content going ahead and hitting that like button and subscribing to the channel and for those of you who are familiar with the channel you know my reviews follow a typical format and that is talking about the initial impressions things that i don't like about the pistol the frame the slide and the sights the trigger the other controls the shooting experience if it's a carry gun the concealed carry experience the aftermarket and then we wrap it up with some final thoughts so let's jump in and get this train rolling get ready for the pain woman the pain is coming so when they hand you this gun at the gun store you're going to be pretty impressed right out of the gate first and foremost the gun caboodle or box if you will that it comes with is very well and intuitively laid out with custom foam cutouts for everything that's included with the pistol and that's honestly a lot every other firearms manufacturer could take a page out of canik's playbook and do the same thing on their cases i wouldn't be so salty and jaded about the terrible foam-lined crates most pistols come in but the gun itself actually feels solid while this is a value brand and they compete at a value price point when you actually feel the pistol and manipulate put your mitts upon it you'll notice that all of the controls have a feeling of quality the trigger shoe is plastic which suggests a lower price point but the quality the mechanical quality of the trigger is honestly second to none there are very few striker fired pistols on the market with better triggers than a cannon the controls themselves otherwise are pretty good the mag catch is aluminum as is the slide stop so beyond the trigger everything else you put your hands on besides the grip itself is going to be metal and that does create a nice feeling feeling the slide cycle it actually does have a pretty good for a striker fire gun reciprocation if you're somebody with weaker hands like arthritis or something like that all of these shorter barrel pistols are probably going to present some issues racking and manipulating the slide this one's not going to be any different from that so if i handed you this pistol you didn't know anything about the canik brand you would probably assume that it's in the military law enforcement the style of pistols and not the consumer grade pistols even though the price does fall on the consumer grade the feel is much higher than that but it's not all rosy and it wouldn't be a humble marksman review if i didn't cry about something and honestly while i really like this pistol there's plenty for me to cry about first and foremost the back strap and the way that it is contoured you can see it kind of comes to a point right there in line with the back of the slide how i grip the pistol it puts tremendous pressure in the base of my palm rather than kind of going to like a blunt surface and spreading out the impact from the bottom of the grip as i grip the pistol it's just kind of digging into my palm and that sensation is increased when i shoot it there's other pistols on the market that also have this issue that i don't particularly care for and honestly this keeps me from loving this pistol despite everything else on this being largely positive and next is the sights the tp9 sfx comes with an amazing set of warren sights this comes with a blacked out rear and a white dot front that looks like it would probably glow in the dark if you charged it up with a flashlight and they're just kind of so-so this is a short sight radius pistol and i would prefer a thinner front sight with a little bit more air so precise sight pictures are possible and not something with kind of a large front sight which is what this comes with so while the gun is very mechanically accurate if you're shooting with irons then the precision you get out of these sites is very difficult to get good hits with but the sights are to their credit significantly better than most three dot sights that you're going to find on the market because three dot sights are terrible i've got a video about that too next since this is built on the tp9 platform is the grip is a little small front to back you can see there's not a great pocket for me to put my support hand on which for a double stacked gun you would assume you would get to plant that support hand to help control recoil but with how small the canik grip is front to back there's just not somewhere to really get your mitt on the gun and help hold the muzzle down not to say that it's impossible because it shoots very very well but if you're gonna go through the heft of carrying a double stack pistol it'd be nice to be able to plant your support hand and get the recoil control that comes from being able to get the second hand on the gun but that's honestly a fairly minor gripe in the scheme of things and finally these slide serrations are just kind of a little bit weak the way that the canik slide is machined where they kind of thin it out towards the front i like the rack from the front of the gun and this the serrations really don't get aggressive until you get kind of far down the slide so as long as you find the serrations it's okay but it's pretty easy to miss the serrations and the slide can get kind of slick so there's that the rear serrations are done well so it's not that big of an issue it's just my preferences to go to the front and sometimes you can miss the front duration while that sounds like a lot of belly aching and it is let's talk about all the reasons that i like this pistol so starting with the frame so as i mentioned in the things that i don't like it is a double stack gun so you get the thickness of carrying basically it kind of carries like a brick because of how heavy it is for such a small gun and that brick experience is increased when you load the magazine with 12 or 15 rounds that's not that big a deal any double stack gun that you get in the sub compact form is going to feel like a brick but as i mentioned there's no space on the frame for your support hand so it does kind of take away from your ability to hold the muzzle flat but it is still a very shootable gun all pistols basically have two ways that you secure them in your grip the first is the geometric fit of the gun into your hand that's how your hand interacts with the pistol specifically talking about the sculpt of the grip tang and the relief up under the trigger guard so the geometric fit is going to be the first thing it is not really dependent upon traction being the second way that your hand interacts with the gun everywhere you put the mitts on the gun you're going to want to have some traction to keep your hand in place on this particular frame the back strap does have some okay checkering as does the front strap the side panels are basically nothing and that's not that big a deal as i mentioned the grip is so small that you're not going to use the side panel for traction because i can't even get the heel of my palm onto the grip like i'm all over my fingers when i try and get on there but the grip is shaped in such a way that it provides a very easy reach at the trigger just about everyone is going to have an easy time pulling that trigger straight to the rear uh there is a very nice feel as you wrap your thumb up around under the grip tang so the frame is pretty squared away now the balance of the gun is very top heavy it's made better when the magazine is loaded it kind of counter balances it some but it just feels very top-heavy and due to the higher bore axis of the canik or walter design is what it is there's just a lot of weight up above the web of your hand it's not as balanced as some of the other ones in the market but that's very much a core center thing and guys as you go on with the review i've got a competition shooting background which colors a lot of my experience with pistols so you're gonna have to deal with some of that nuance it's just it's who i am and that's gonna bring us up to the slide and the sites now as i mentioned in the things that i don't like the sites are very quite good as far as the rest of the market segment especially in this price point is concerned but compared to its older bigger brother the tp9 sfx which come with brilliant warren fiber optic sites possibly the best sites out of the box in this segment these come with just kind of it's better than what everybody else is doing but not a lot better so the sights are okay the slide cuts as i mentioned and things i don't like i could deal with the front serrations going up a little bit higher on the pistol that really make me happy however all of the machine work is very well done the optic cut and optic pocket machining is very clean they use a plastic spacer kind of like the iwi masada that you actually put down onto the pocket and then mount the red dot sight onto the finish on the slide is a tungsten cerakote which is a really cool color i like the vitone look cerakote if you're not aware will wear out with a bunch of holster wear but it's not that bad and i believe the slide is nitrided as well so it's not going to rust or corrode or anything like that the finish will just take some dings to it but for a carry gun which is what this is not the end of the world so there's some interesting lawyer features which uh surprise me there is a striker position indicator on the back of the gun as well as a loaded chamber indicator which are features i don't really care about but i guess it makes people who don't know a lot about guns feel safer around them which maybe is more dangerous than it is helpful but the features are there if you're into that sort of thing they're there for you and that's going to bring us to the trigger so the qualities of what i consider a good trigger to be are going to be sort of two-fold there are the ergonomics of the trigger and how your finger interfaces with the shape of the trigger and then there's the mechanical quality of the trigger as you pull through it so starting with the ergonomics having a nice broad sort of flat face that is easy to get your finger pad onto or first digit something that makes it very easy to want to pull straight to the rear and the canik trigger as it's set up right out of the box very very good in that regard the ergonomics on this trigger are some of the better ergonomics for triggers in this segment or really any plastic striker gun segment now the mechanical quality is what really sets this pistol apart from many of the others out there a good trigger is going to have a very light take up that is very even and predictable then you're going to hit the wall that's when the trigger stops moving at this point the mechanical safeties inside the gun are defeated and you're just waiting to build enough pressure to release the striker and you don't want the trigger to move as you're doing it because you want it to be very predictable it increases your accuracy and it allows you to have very good consistency when you're shooting and the weight of the trigger is going to be important for this particular application you're going to want something at least five pounds and the weight of this trigger did come in to be about five pounds now after the striker has released you're gonna have a little bit of over travel as the slide cycles it is going to have a reset that is positive and sort of throws your finger forward and is very short the knx trigger reset is super short if not one of the shortest on the market it's darn near it and the force of the reset is positive and will throw your finger off the trigger that's good if you're trying to shoot fast and just dump a bunch of rounds real quick it helps speed you up and the trigger does that as well the wall on the mechanic is brilliant there is zero movement as the wall is loaded up with pressure and you're able to break the shot so again this trigger is brilliant and it pulled right out about five pounds just under five pounds on my scale which is exactly what you would want for this safe action style trigger so canik really did their homework and set up the gun very well at the factory for the application this gun was intended and to really drive the point home i used the most objective measure of trigger quality on the internet the humble marksman trigger rating system to convey to you the quality of this trigger and putting this trigger on that scale it rated a very respectable whoa now moving on to the rest of the controls this gun is going to make my left-handed audience whom i have a very near and intimate relationship with very happy because the mag release is swappable to the right side and the slide release is functional on the right side of the gun so all of the left-handed people together at once in the comments went wild but the quality of the controls let's talk about that the slide release is quite large but it doesn't really get in the way i didn't have any issues writing it and the mag catch is a little bit smaller it's a little bit difficult to reach but i never really had issues dumping mags with it either but on a concealed carry gun i really don't detract any points from the mag catch because that's not what this gun is made for and moving on to the shooting experience this gun is a tack driver when i was reviewing the tp9 sfx its big brother i had accuracy issues and reliability issues without any getting to know you period on this gun no dry fire nothing just loading it up and shooting it to check zero i was able to keep all 12 shots roughly on the size of the pacer which is about a one inch square sticker at about 12 yards this pistol was stacking around and it is very mechanical [Music] sfx and if it's made at all like this pistol it's probably incredibly accurate this pistol was stacking rounds and i was very impressed with it now as we mentioned in the frame portion of the video the shooting experience is somewhat muzzle flippy just based on the bore axis of the pistol but it returns to zero pretty well the way the grip is set up it's very easy to neutral grip it so that the sights settle in right where they lift it off which is what you ultimately want in a pistol so i really enjoyed shooting the pistol it performed very well the one thing i didn't quite like about it as as i shot it a bunch for the review i noticed that right here in the center of my palm where it kind of digs into my palm it started to it didn't hurt necessarily but it was making me aware that i was shooting something that was uncomfortable but for a gun that is going to be shot seldom this is not necessarily a recreational gun that you go out and shoot hundreds and hundreds of rounds at the range necessarily it's more intended as a carry gun it serves its job very well as far as the actual concealed carry aspects of this gun the gun because it is very short gripped is very well suited to inside the waistband at like a three or four o'clock position because the grip length is very important as i mentioned the gun is feels kind of like a brick i mean the glock 26 for the m p9 uh subcompacts all of those guns kind of feel like bricks and this is no exception to that rule uh it is a little bit heavier than its competition but it's still within the realm of acceptable if on the higher end of that but it is a very capable and suitable concealed carry gun does everything that is supposed to and it's worth noting that while i was shooting this i had to use my reloads because this is the rona and there's no ammo on the shelves so i was using my competition reloads when i was shooting this which are a 125 grain projectile at about 1060 foot per second so it's roughly in line with like subsonic 124 grain ammunition no issues whatsoever it threw brass acceptably and was very reliable i had zero issues with any malfunctions due to the brass not being ejected properly which is what lighter ammo will tend to generate so this gun can probably cycle anything that you throw at it and smile that's going to bring us to the aftermarket the aftermarket is kind of there for the pistol none of the top tier manufacturers necessarily that have very limited product offerings are going to offer something for maybe the canik but a lot of the middle tier guys are the canik has sort of a cult following so you'll have plenty of options available to it but the gun comes set up so well that i don't think you really need much of an aftermarket the magazines are sold directly from canik's website and they're reasonably priced between 33 and 35 dollars not the best price but it's not like six hour price at 50 bucks a pop and the magazines are reasonably well made it's worth noting that canik does sort of the oem model of offering kind of like aftermarket stuff directly on their website so if you wanted to mess with it there's stuff there where you could but as i mentioned the gun as it is right now which is bone stock is a brilliant gun so there is an aftermarket for this pistol it's not as great as kind of the top tier manufacturer but it's good enough but honestly the gun doesn't really need anything out of the box it's pretty good and that brings us to the final thoughts and i would love to tell you my final thoughts on the pistol but first we need to talk about the sacred relationship between content creator and you the subscriber and if you're not subscribed now is a great time to hit that like button hit the subscribe button and ring the bell for notification now i make world-class firearms content and you watch this content and you reflect on your invisible friend and how you haven't gotten a new shirt in a while so you order your invisible friend a new shirt which features my logo on it so in your madness as you look at your invisible friend and everyone else thinks you're crazy you'll be reminded of the world class firearms content here on want to the channel you so take a tip from me be a good winner and a good loser you'll enjoy your games more and so will the people who play with you good luck but seriously guys if you've made it this far i think we're in like territory we can make this facebook official just go ahead hit the like button so final thoughts this pistol is very squared away if you like tp9 style pistols and don't mind the top heavy nature of the pistol it does everything it's supposed to it does it very very well i personally would not use this pistol myself because i like to train with my concealed carry gear and i don't like shooting this gun that much because of how it hits me in the palm right there i have other guns that are this category of pistol that are more comfortable for me to shoot now the pistol sort of not fitting into the palm of my hand like this is a very personal item and i promise your hands are probably going to fit differently on the pistol you may not have this issue at all so my issue with this pistol is exceptionally personal because i can say nothing bad about the pistol as far as it actually functioning other than my preference isn't necessarily for this due to the comfort of when i shoot it and honestly just when i grip it like it's putting way too much pressure right there on my palm as i do this video and my other thoughts on a gun this size kind of this sub compact size unless you're absolutely super sensitive to printing i don't like the sub compact grip length of pistol i think a 15 round or compact size grip makes more sense just because you get a better purchase on the pistol you get a more ergonomic shooting experience and the holster ride nature of the gun is going to be roughly the same especially if you carry appendix i would probably just go with a compact over this and the problem with the canik lineup is it jumps straight from this up to like if you want an optic ready pistol to like an 800 pistol as far as like the combat elite is concerned so there's not just like that four hundred dollar compact pistol with an optic cut in the canik lineup currently which is unfortunate because that's really where the mechanic value shines in my mind so i would probably opt for the 800 one if i was going to spend that much money on mechanic and get the compact size with the optic cut and the threaded barrel so while my view on this pistol is very positive it's just not for me and they don't all have to be but it is a very very good pistol if you like mechanics and stuff like that there's a great youtube channel here on the web called frank the tank he's one of the canik team shooters he's done a bunch of content on these canon pistols if you like my content i can recommend a couple other videos that you might check out and the first is the review of the canik tp9 sfx and the second video i recommend on all of my videos is a recoil management video it's about 20 minutes long but i promise if you watch it you'll be a much better shooter i appreciate you guys watching i'll catch you on the next one take care guys

Channel: TheHumbleMarksman

Views: 139,713

Keywords: canik tp9 elite sc, canik tp9, canik tp9 sc, canik elite, canik subcompact, canik tp9 sub elite, canik sub compact, concealed carry, canik tp9 elite sc review, the humble marksman, humble marksman, tp9 elite sc review, canik tp9 elite sc unboxing, canik tp9 elite sc upgrades, Canik tp9 elite sc red dot sight

Id: Zbio2KSmSaw

Length: 21min 53sec (1313 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020