Review of Canik MC9

[cedartop]

Picked up from my LGS today. Did not get the usual discount and paid $439.99 + tax. That is what you get for being impatient. Why did I get this pistol? The plan right now is to run it in Backup gun (BUG) division of IDPA this year. I was looking for the largest and easiest to shoot gun that would still fit in the box. The standard is probably the Glock 26. As you can see in the case comes the gun, a holster (if you are a righty), 2 extra backstraps, 1 12 round magazine with optional pinkie extension, 1 15 round magazine, mag loader, stupid trigger lock, cleaning tools, Canik punch, and a little Canik gun that has an assortment of screws and bits inside it.



For some size comparison you can see it with my other small guns, a Glock 43, and a Sig 365XL. Interestingly enough, the Canik will "sorta" fit in my IWB G43 holster, but not in the Sig 365XLholster. After fondling the gun some I broke it down and cleaned and lubed it. I then put the large backstrap on and added the pinky extension to the 12 round magazine. I plan on switching the mag release to the other side. (At this point I am just assuming that is possible.) One thing I will mention is that I have never handled a pistol that was this hard to lock the slide to the rear on. I will be interested to hear if this is a thing with this gun or just my usual luck at work.



Trigger is of course good, better than both guns it is pictured with. I do not have a trigger pull gauge but I will borrow one from a guy at work just to check it out. My guess right now is about 4.5 pounds. The gun feels good in the hand. While I like the rear sight, for me the front is not what I want. A big white dot and unfortunately they chose to dovetail it in instead of the Glock type screw attachment. I will want to swap it out for a fiber optic for shooting matches. The gun is Optics ready though that doesn't fit what I want to do with it so I don't have anything to report on from that angle.

Stay tuned for a range report.

 

[Rookie]

The mag release can be changed, but be prepared to cuss. A LOT!!! There's a spring loaded pin (looks like a U shape) that sits in a channel that slides up and allows the safety to be removed and switched. If it pops out of the channel, it's a pain to get back in. If you have 90 degree needle nose pliers, it would probably be easier to get back in.

 

[cedartop]

continued with range time.

Upon taking the gun out immediately after the above review I almost regretted it. Yes, it was 32 degrees but the wind was blowing very hard and definitely affected my performance. I was shaking from the cold by the end of the session. I started out with just a little bit of plinking to get a feel for the recoil, trigger, sights, etc.. I then went on to the Justin Dyal Prep time drill. As Justin allows I ran this from 8 yards instead of the 10 for full size guns. It went pretty well except a couple that I threw. The first one came from changing pressure in my firing hand while pressing the trigger.


Next up I ran a drill I like to use to vet any gun that might get used for carry. I feel if you can't pass something similar to this with whatever you are carrying, you should probably choose a different gun, or practice with the one you have until you can. This is the stalwart 5 yard round up. This is also a Justin Dyal drill. I gave myself a 90 because the round I put in the 7 ring is a zero in my book. Have no idea where that guy came from.


Next up I ran the Spaulding 3 round fadeback. The goal is to keep them all in the 3X5 card firing 3 shot strings from the holster at 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards. Somewhere I shot an extra round. By this point as I reached 15 and beyond the wind was really starting to affect me so I can't blame the little gun for all of those bad shots.



It was time to try some old standards so I shot a 15 round mag of failure drills and a 12 round mag of bill drills. Remember how I said the gun sorta fit in the G43 holster? Well, I used it for the failure drills and ran those averaging 2.5 seconds from 7 yards. So as to get a feel for how the gun handled recoil I chose to shoot the 7 yard bill drills starting at low ready instead of handicapping it with a bad draw. The first one was at 2.05 seconds and the second came in at 1.93. That is not bad performance from a micro 9 giving splits right under .3. During this part of the session I did notice that the slide was not locking back. With the hard grip to shoot fast I must have been bumping the slide stop lever. This won't be good for matches where you have to reload u number of times when shooting BUG. That is something I will have to work on.



Stay tuned for the conclusion.

 

[DadSmith]

Picked up from my LGS today. Did not get the usual discount and paid $439.99 + tax. That is what you get for being impatient. Why did I get this pistol? The plan right now is to run it in Backup gun (BUG) division of IDPA this year. I was looking for the largest and easiest to shoot gun that would still fit in the box. The standard is probably the Glock 26. As you can see in the case comes the gun, a holster (if you are a righty), 2 extra backstraps, 1 12 round magazine with optional pinkie extension, 1 15 round magazine, mag loader, stupid trigger lock, cleaning tools, Canik punch, and a little Canik gun that has an assortment of screws and bits inside it.
View attachment 263371


For some size comparison you can see it with my other small guns, a Glock 43, and a Sig 365XL. Interestingly enough, the Canik will "sorta" fit in my IWB G43 holster, but not in the Sig 365XLholster. After fondling the gun some I broke it down and cleaned and lubed it. I then put the large backstrap on and added the pinky extension to the 12 round magazine. I plan on switching the mag release to the other side. (At this point I am just assuming that is possible.) One thing I will mention is that I have never handled a pistol that was this hard to lock the slide to the rear on. I will be interested to hear if this is a thing with this gun or just my usual luck at work.

View attachment 263372

Trigger is of course good, better than both guns it is pictured with. I do not have a trigger pull gauge but I will borrow one from a guy at work just to check it out. My guess right now is about 4.5 pounds. The gun feels good in the hand. While I like the rear sight, for me the front is not what I want. A big white dot and unfortunately they chose to dovetail it in instead of the Glock type screw attachment. I will want to swap it out for a fiber optic for shooting matches. The gun is Optics ready though that doesn't fit what I want to do with it so I don't have anything to report on from that angle.

Stay tuned for a range report.

They say the 18rd Canik magazines will fit into this little guy. If you have some can you test that?

 

[cedartop]

They say the 18rd Canik magazines will fit into this little guy. If you have some can you test that?

I will probably get some, but this is my first Canik so I do not have any right now.

 

[cedartop]

Summary and conclusion,

So this is just a start obviously, 108 rounds through the Canik MC9 today. No malfunctions or problems of any kind with the gun. As far as objective standards the gun did well enough and under more favorable conditions I think it will do better. Subjectively it feels better in the hand than my G43 and as good as the Sig XL with the Wilson combat grip module. The trigger is better than either of those. For whatever reason recoil seems to be soaked up better as it is a very easy shooting pistol for something of this size. Accuracy remains to be seen. It has a good start on reliability and hopefully that continues. At first glance it seems it may fill the role I have set out for it.

Things I need to do. Get a proper lefty holster. Get a different front sight. Get some more magazines.

 

[DadSmith]

Summary and conclusion,

So this is just a start obviously, 108 rounds through the Canik MC9 today. No malfunctions or problems of any kind with the gun. As far as objective standards the gun did well enough and under more favorable conditions I think it will do better. Subjectively it feels better in the hand than my G43 and as good as the Sig XL with the Wilson combat grip module. The trigger is better than either of those. For whatever reason recoil seems to be soaked up better as it is a very easy shooting pistol for something of this size. Accuracy remains to be seen. It has a good start on reliability and hopefully that continues. At first glance it seems it may fill the role I have set out for it.

Things I need to do. Get a proper lefty holster. Get a different front sight. Get some more magazines.

I just checked several places that have the Canik MC9. After shipping and say a $20 transfer and taxes you actually got a pretty good deal. They may drop in price as they become more available.

 

[cedartop]

Trigger pull was a little heavier than I thought but not bad.



Found a place called Muddy River Tactical that advertised holsters for this specific gun with a quick turnaround and no extra time or money for lefty so I ordered an OWB one and will give it a try. It should be here any day.

A coworker that I shoot IDPA with tried my MC9 out last night. He is going to buy one today.

 

[cedartop]

Holster came in today. Really impressed with the turnaround. Clearly this is a concealment holster so it is a little high and tight for a match holster, but I was so thrilled to get something in left handed for a brand new gun so quickly that is alright.

 

[Rookie]

You still haven't attempted the mag release? I don't blame you

 

[cedartop]

You still haven't attempted the mag release? I don't blame you

Haha, no. Probably this weekend.

 

[Route 45]

Clearly this is a concealment holster so it is a little high and tight for a match holster, but I was so thrilled to get something in left handed for a brand new gun so quickly that is alright.

You can unscrew and move the belt loops to the top holes in the holster make the holster lower than it comes from Muddy River. I have a few of their holsters, and like them very much. I prefer the holster as low as it can go on my belt, as the grip tends to rock out and print more if the holster is too high on the belt. Having the holster lower actually rocks the grip back into the body and aids concealment, as long as your cover garment is long enough to cover the bottom of the holster.

 

[Route 45]

I just checked several places that have the Canik MC9. After shipping and say a $20 transfer and taxes you actually got a pretty good deal. They may drop in price as they become more available.

I've seen them for $417 (FDE model) and $429 (Black model) here in a couple of Indy gun shops. I shot one yesterday at Range USA and liked it. Might swap a Glock 42 that I never carry or shoot for one of them. Don't really need it, as my EDC is a Shield Plus and I really like it, but I did like the way the MC9 handled recoil. Very accurate and easy to shoot.

 

[DadSmith]

I've seen them for $417 (FDE model) and $429 (Black model) here in a couple of Indy gun shops. I shot one yesterday at Range USA and liked it. Might swap a Glock 42 that I never carry or shoot for one of them. Don't really need it, as my EDC is a Shield Plus and I really like it, but I did like the way the MC9 handled recoil. Very accurate and easy to shoot.

I'm seeing several places showing $400 for them but they don't have any in yet.

 

[cedartop]

The mag release can be changed, but be prepared to cuss. A LOT!!! There's a spring loaded pin (looks like a U shape) that sits in a channel that slides up and allows the safety to be removed and switched. If it pops out of the channel, it's a pain to get back in. If you have 90 degree needle nose pliers, it would probably be easier to get back in.

That was quite literally the most frustrating 30 minutes of my life. Whatever engineer designed that should be shot and then hung from his testicles.

 

[Rookie]

I hate to say it, but I told you so.

 

[Shield1677]

I'm from the South Bend area and have been checking for this thing EVERYWHERE, but no one seems to have them in stock yet. Is your LGS North of the state line?

 

[cedartop]

I'm from the South Bend area and have been checking for this thing EVERYWHERE, but no one seems to have them in stock yet. Is your LGS North of the state line?

Yes. Co worker just bought one also.

 

[cedartop]

Small warning. The current 12 round mags for the other Caniks will work, but they have a different basepad and it is bigger. It not only sticks out on the sides, I think for optimum fit I am going to need to remove the basepads and sand some off of the top.

 

[DadSmith]

Small warning. The current 12 round mags for the other Caniks will work, but they have a different basepad and it is bigger. It not only sticks out on the sides, I think for optimum fit I am going to need to remove the basepads and sand some off of the top.
View attachment 266975

Waiting on the 15rd and 18rd test...