Canik SFx Rival Competition Pistol | Sootch00 Review

Canik has its roots in the aerospace arms development industry. They produce really high quality firearms that are NATO standards, ISO 9001 factories—they just make good quality products. When they introduced the TP9 series, it really was a game changer. It was a Walther P99 clone pretty much and it was just a basic pistol, but it was priced right yet it had a lot of quality to it. But one of the things about Canik to me, and I’ve done a number of Canik reviews, is that they just keep up in the bar more than any other company I’ve ever seen. I mean, they are producing new models, new configurations, a lot of accessories that come with these. Now today, we’re going to be taking a look at the Canik Rival which is built mainly for competitive shooters. This is the dark side version, there is a standard version with some gold accents, which is more of a race gun. But right out of the box, you can take this pistol to a match and compete with whatever’s out there. Now, Century Arms imports the Canik pistols into the US as they are made in Turkey. We really appreciate Century for including us in this launch because this is a brand new offering from Canik.

The Canik SFx Rival is a gun that is set up right out of the box meaning you can use this for competitive shooting immediately. It not only applies to a competitive shooter, this is also great for home defense. All the things and the attributes that lend this to a great competitive pistol would lend this to something that would be very effective in your home.

You know, there’s a lot of different experiences when you take a handgun to the range. I mean, you take one of the small little micro 9s, or you can take a full size Glock 17 out to the range, and there’s just different experiences. One of the things about the Rival is that it is made for the range. It’s made to perform at the range.

One thing that we noticed immediately was the trigger—it’s phenomenal. It is a super quick reset and we’ve looked at the trigger pull, but it definitely makes a huge difference being able to get shots off very quickly. The fiber optic side of the front allows you to really catch that sight and then with the spacing that’s in between the back in the front, it just allows you to get really good accuracy. It has that longer sight radius because of the five inch barrel so you’re able really to pick up those sights and to get more on target.

Now one of the things that we noticed, and this is typical for your long slides, is that it does have more mass at the top. So, when it comes back, there’s more mass coming back and it tends to lay back down right on target. So you fire, you recover, and it’s right there. It’s funny though, it kind of bounces a little bit, but it’s right there on target. Of course, the serrations are very aggressive, especially at the front. With this, you’re able just to grab those slide serrations and you can manipulate your firearm very easily. The grip angle is really natural, as aggressive in the right areas. And then of course, the undercut on the trigger really allows you to get your hand up higher on the firearm.

The Canik SFx Rival, it just performed and we had no malfunctions whatsoever. To be honest with you with Canik, I’ve not had any malfunctions, they just work. Then those 18 round magazines man, you can really put some rounds down range. But of course then they have the 20 round, additional baseplate which gives you a lot of rounds for this pistol. Taking this out in a competitive environment, I mean, you’re going to be able to go toe to toe with any gun out there.

Big thanks to Fiocchi USA for Supplying our ammunition!