For those of you that don’t mind Turkish guns (the non-Nationalists out there, maybe), Caniks are very nice guns. They’ve a good polymer gun presence in the US gun market. A few of their polymer guns are the TP9 SF, The TP9 SF Elite, and the TP9 SFX. They no longer sell the TP9 SA, but have reworked their TP9 v2: it is now called the TP9 DA.
Canik also sells all-metal guns. Canik Sharks and their variants are available on the market, but I do believe they’re no longer imported by Century Arms. Tristar is an importer of Caniks. Any handguns they have are actually Caniks. Tristar handguns are just rebranded Caniks. A few of those guns are: the C120, C100, T120, T100, and P100. Most people refer to these guns as CZ clones, mainly due to the slide rails being inverted compared to traditional gun slides. They are not actual clones…they may share similar parts but you actually won’t be able to swap most parts internal to a CZ75, for example, into a Tristar C120. I don’t call them clones. I call them CZ-inspired.
Now, about my Nationalist comment. Many people tend to get their panties in a bind when they discover that Caniks are gaining popularity. These people usually can’t hold back the “I don’t support terrorism” comment. The general population of Turkey should not be held accountable for the few radicals they have. The US has radicals as well. If people held the US accountable like the US citizens always want accountability with other countries (such as Turkey), there probably wouldn’t be an uproar. The things we do to our own citizens here is actually appalling, yet we’ll make generalist comments about a damned Turkish gun maker. Caniks are imported by US businesses. The money spent on these guns are staying in the US…it’s going to those that work in those US businesses, to people like you and I. I wish I could buy a Canik every time I heard these comments, just so I could tell those folks, “every time one of you open your mouth, I buy a Canik.” I’m a military veteran and I’m about as red-blooded as one can be and I own three of these guns. It doesn’t bother me one bit. You can love your country and buy imported goods without issue, IMO. Every person is different. I feel I can do whatever the hell I want with my money, for one. Secondly, for every Nationalist that tells me that I’m unpatriotic because I bought a Turkish gun, I ask them, “have you served your country? Have you fought on foreign soil?” It usually shuts them up because most of those folk have never seen the world beyond the town they live in.
As well, those of you that feel that “it isn’t a Glock”…no shit. You can own both. Some people say, “well, aftermarket support isn’t on the level of Glock”. Well, there aren’t many gun makes that have the level of aftermarket support of Glocks. Still, all you have to do is Google Search on “Canik TP9 holsters” or “Canik TP9 sights” and you’ll see a ton of hits…it won’t be like there’s a scarcity of such info…trust me, I did several such searches the other day when someone commented that Caniks weren’t wanted. I also posted the results. I also said, “there’s a whole world beyond just Glocks. I own several Glocks and several Caniks and I like both. There’s room for both.” The guy never responded back. It was probably because such details are difficult to refute.
If you’re new to Caniks or want to know more about them, check out the Canik Fanatik web forum..