Century Arms, importers of Turkish Canik pistols have just announced a product safety warning. It seems, in their words, that “repeated abusive dropping of pistols may result in damage to safety features and unintentional discharge.” Here’s the announcement they just issued:

Product Safety Warning and Severe Duty Upgrade

Century Arms, North America’s premier AK manufacturer, announced today the Canik Product Safety Warning and Severe Duty Upgrade Notice. This notice applies to Canik’s 9×19 mm pistols: TP9SA, TP9SF, TP9SFx, TP9SF Elite, TP9SF Elite-S. Canik’s other products are not subject to this notice. All Canik pistols comply with and exceed current industry and military abusive handling standards. There are no safety concerns with the pistols when used under ordinary conditions.

Canik is committed to continuously improving its product’s performance. Evaluations and tests have shown that repeated abusive dropping of pistols may result in damage to safety features and unintentional discharge.

DANGER: IF ANY FIREARM IS DROPPED INTERNAL PARTS MAY HAVE BEEN DEFORMED, DAMAGED OR DISABLED. The product mustbe inspected by a qualified gunsmith or returned for inspection after any significant impact.

WARNING: REPEATED IMPACTS TO YOUR PISTOL TO TEST ITS SAFETY FUNCTIONS WILL DAMAGE INTERNAL PARTS, AND VOID ITS WARRANTY. Firearm abusive handling tests can be dangerous and should only be conducted by qualified individuals in controlled environments with proper safety precautions in place. Canik does not recommend that any customer conduct drop tests or other endurance tests before or after this Severe Duty Upgrade.

WARNING: CONSUMERS SHOULD ONLY USE CANIK PARTS IN OUR PISTOLS. AFTERMARKET PARTS COULD DECREASE OR DISABLE SAFETY FEATURES OF YOUR CANIK PISTOL.

Canik is committed to manufacturing safe, reliable, innovative and affordable firearms. We are offering a voluntary upgrade to the trigger safety spring and firing pin block spring on the Canik models noted above. This is to further increase the safety of Canik pistols for enhanced drop discharge prevention in heavy/severe duty conditions that are beyond industry standards. The Severe Duty Upgrade does not alter any feature or design of the pistols. Canik will provide all parts and workmanship at no charge, but customers will be responsible for shipping costs.

Steps for upgrading your pistol? Our goal is to have the Severe Duty Upgrade process in place by Friday, September 8, 2017. After this date, please visit www.CanikUSA.com for complete instructions on how to receive your Severe Duty Upgrade.

52 COMMENTS

      • OMG

        Why is there no government-mandated recall? How can the feds allow these obviously defective firearms to be imported? What if a little kid starts hammering the hammer? Ohhhhhh, the horror.

        • To Sam the Sham

          Yes that is exactly why all guns should be put under “The Consumer Safety Protection Act”. Here is a good example of a disingenuous company playing semantics and trying to cover up a “dangerous defective recall” and calling it by another name. Sorry Charlatans it does not protect you from a lawsuit as a matter of fact the consequences of the law suit will end up being even more severe because of your outright attempt to sham people into believing nothing is really wrong with your plasticky pistol trash. I believe this is the second recall on this turd of a pistol. I had thought when it first came out I would like to have one but I stuck to my beliefs on never ever buying a new weapon until its been out for a minimum of 2 years. So far I have never been wrong on any of the newly marketed trash.

          I see the new Sig Assault rifle is a turd as well and is being recalled. I had a good laugh when I watched Sigs propaganda video when it first was advertised as the “new eight wonder of the world”. What trash, what garbage.

          How much you want to bet that if guns were under the Consumer Safety Protection act that not one manual safety-less pre-loaded striker fired gun would be on the market any longer. But no, that would mean thousands of lives saved and thousands more saved from permanent maiming and injury. We could not have that now could we as it might coincide with common sense.

          Now lets hear the Jethro Bodines start screaming its “my constitutional right” to cause accidental deaths with children, adults and ditto for permanently injuring of people. After all gun manufacturers should not have to loose even a penny of profits when it involves saving lives now should they.

          And of course Jethro will say, naaah it would never happen to me as I have never made a mistake with a firearm and never will because it always happens to “the other guy”. All I have to do is “keep my finger off the trigger” because I believe I am above human error and safeties are for “girly pansies” who don’t want to go through life as cripples or take an early trip to the grave. Look at me I get along fine with only one arm, one eye and one leg. Now the music is turned up to the theme song “The Beverly Hillbillies”.

          • ” To Sam the Sham
            Yes that is exactly why all guns should be put under “The Consumer Safety Protection Act”.

            Is a “/s” notation at the end of my commentary on this really necessary?

        • Dude Cisco. Eat a snickers man.

          No matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to legislate people into perfect safety. You’ll never be able to put enough warnings that no one dies. You’ll never be able to give up enough of your freedoms in following Gov’s every word that you’ll be perfectly safe. And I’m willing to bet that even if you could, it’d just make everyone miserable.

          Not even banning every striker fired (the most popular guns these days) would be enough.

          Good luck with all that anger and vitriol though…

        • On balance, I believe it is good that our political enemies believe that going through the effort of writing and posting a multi-paragraph rant after an article is an exercise worth the effort.

          • “…going through the effort of writing and posting a multi-paragraph rant after an article is an exercise worth the effort.”

            Sometimes, a superficial reading will lead one to an incorrect assumption.

    • According to the presser, they are drop safe until you do it enough times.

      This is like complaining your motorcycle helmet doesn’t provide 100% protection after you’ve crashed in it half a dozen times.

      • “According to the presser, they are drop safe until you do it enough times.”

        Then Canik and Century Arms must be ordered to determine precisely how many drops are “safe”. We must know, and keep count, of the number of impacts. How else can we know whether or not the gun is still drop safe.

        And the same should apply to motorcycle helmets and leathers. We must know. We must know.

        • As I remember it, just one good whack is enough to degrade a helmet’s level of protection. The problem is permanent deformation of the lining. It’s designed to give instead of your skull.

          • But how can we know how much the helmet is degraded without tests to determine how many hits make the helmet unsafe? We gotta have data, I tell you. We gotta have data. Who is in charge around here? Someone’s gotta do something.

            For the children.

          • “The rule for helmets is one drop.”

            Are there specifications for helmet size, height of drop, minimum velocity, point of impact, filling?

          • “Why are you all feeding this idiot!”

            Why do you lack a capability to detect sarcasm ?

            Just relax, and have fun.

    • Well this is what the ENTIRE GUN PRESS DESERVES for getting everyone to start hitting their Sig 320 WITH A DAMN HAMMER.

      News flash: No gun is so ‘drop safe’ that you can abuse the hell out of it it as a way to check to see if it’s safe. I don’t care who you are and for that reason. But this is what happens when you get random morons in the gun press to do really unsafe things with their guns to prove a point. All firearms are precision instruments and abuse them will always have consequences.

      Of course you know retards being retards is nothing new. But we are all damn lucky we didn’t have more of these ‘test’ that didn’t end up in a neglect discharge.

      • “Of course you know retards being retards is nothing new.”

        What is the saying: something is only foolproof until someone makes a better fool?

      • In point of fact, striking the firearm with a mallet is part of the official testing protocol for multiple law enforcement, military, and testing laboratory safety certifications. It is viewed as appropriately simulating a drop or other jarring impact (e.g. gun is bouncing around in the back of a transport vehicle) without causing damage to the firearm. It’s typically a “step 1” test, as it’s easier to pass than actual drop testing. Basically, you mallet test it and if it fails you reject the gun and you haven’t damaged the sample. If it passes, now you can proceed to the actual drop testing, which is almost always destructive to the sample to varying degrees.

        While TTAG did not “mallet test” and went straight to verifying whether or not a P320 would discharge when dropped — which it did for us twice out of three drops — the only retards involved in the mallet testing thing are the ones who don’t realize it can absolutely be a completely valid test and is a test used by professional testing houses and one that every firearm should pass.

    • Actually, I observed the opposite problem with the Canik. It fired almost immediately upon beginning the drop testing. The more I dropped it, the less it fired.

      • To Andrew.

        Wow that was a good one and maybe you were actually telling of a true life situation as it would not surprise me with the trash the firearms industry is making today.

  1. It’s called CYA. They issue a safety statement where they install $5 worth of parts while the customer bears the greater burden of the shipping cost. Even including a few minutes of a guy’s time, that’s cheap indemnification.

  2. I love how after the P320 debacle that everyone is obsessed with dropping their guns and smacking them with hammers.

  3. I have a TP9SFx. I won’t be sending it in. I give Canik props for trying to safe their pistols BEFORE the excrement impacts the rotary blade… instead of after.

    It’s funny how firearms progression works. I’m a CZ fanboy, I’ll admit it. Well, I started looking at a CZ Compact for my EDC and settled on a Canik C100 (CZ-75 Compact Clone) that I sent to Cajun Gun Works for some sweet upgrades. Liked the gun so much that I was more eager to see if I liked other Canik products. Tried the TP9SFx and liked that so much that I bought that too.

  4. OMFG! What is this obsession with dropping guns? It’s as bad a Russia, Russia, Russia! I own 9 Caniks and with minor exception they are excellent firearms at a great price. I carry the TP9SF Elite everyday and guess what? I have never dropped it.

    • Agreed, guns should be treated with respect and never deliberately abused. That’s just commonsense. Nothing is so durable that it can’t be broken if mishandled.

      I notice the recall only applies to their pre-cocked striker fired models (with the Glock style trigger dingus). The decocking DA/SA TP9v2 (Walther P99 copy) isn’t on the list. Because a de-cocked gun can’t go off unintentionally.

  5. This is why we can’t have nice things. Some asshole will beat it with a hammer until it breaks, then rush to the internet to complain about it, hoping to get his fifteen minutes of fame.

    If I take a Sawzall to my truck’s brake lines, should Nissan issue a safety recall?

    • “If I take a Sawzall to my truck’s brake lines, should Nissan issue a safety recall?”

      Absolutely. How else can anyone know the safety limits? A child might cut the brake lines and get hot fluid all over themselves. We need to know. More data, more data !

  6. You would think it would be common sense that abuse of any tool or machine would result in a failure of some type or another.

    • “You would think it would be common sense that abuse of any tool or machine would result in a failure of some type or another.”

      We need more data on all the ways an item can fail. How else will be be able to define “abuse” from “normal service” ?

      More date, I tell you; more data.

  7. Do you think they will also replace the red “cocked” indicator that fell off on the gun’s second trip to the range?

    I am not as impressed with Canik as some other folks here.

  8. “WARNING: REPEATED IMPACTS TO YOUR PISTOL TO TEST ITS SAFETY FUNCTIONS WILL DAMAGE INTERNAL PARTS, AND VOID ITS WARRANTY.”

    This reads like a piece from The Onion. I just can’t believe it’s “real” news.

  9. I guess its time for me to stop hitting the back of my TP9SA frame with a hammer and put away the file Ive been using on the bottom of the trigger guard.
    Maybe if I take enough of the plastic off. I won’t keep getting a blister on my trigger finger. Will it become a full auto pistol???? I guess Ill let them decide. Centurys offices are just up the block from my house. Here in Delray.

    • “I wonder if my hammer is Canik-proof?

      I really like that hammer and I’d hate to mess it up.”

      Borrow Ed’s hammer.

  10. PRODUCT SAFETY NOTICE:
    This product is manufactured in Turkey, by purchasing it you support the islamists and destruction of human civilization. For each Turkish or Pakistani gun you buy, one Christian is killed, one girl is raped and one centuries old work of art is destroyed. Thank you.
    😮

    • Ka-Pow ! Zing ! Spot on !

      Your post needed saying. Have always been quite puzzled at any attention given to any firearm manufactured in Islamland. While it was once difficult to buy only American produced gasoline (remember SUVs supporting terrorism), there is absolutely zero need to be purchasing firearms (exercising an exclusively American RTKBA) from nations that have a proven record of hating or swindling American citizens.

    • Yeah, and Austria fought for the Nazis and the USSR designed the AK-47 to kill US troops. Let’s join Antifa and tear down all the guns whose history we disagree with.

      • Austria isn’t run by Nazis today. Turkey IS run by Islamists today.

        The USSR doesn’t exist any more. Russia hasn’t killed any American soldiers. Turkey IS currently supporting Islamist terrorism.

        Some so-called Americans will support our civilization’s enemies in order to save a few dollars. We call them whores.

  11. Never saw anything great about these guns, still dont…….rather not contribute to making erdogan’s dream of ressurrecting the ottoman empire a reality….

  12. Only reason i bought one of these is support the rag heads. hope they kill you all.

  13. I purchased the Canik TP9SF after watching many positive youtube videos and having owned the Canik 55 (copy of a CZ 75) that was a great shooter. I sold the Canik 55 to my brother. When I finally got to the range to fire the TP9SF. It jammed often! I had ftf (failure to feed) and fte (failure to eject) problems with it. Average about 2 jams of one sort or the other with every 17 rnd. magazine that I fed through it. I do not recommend this pistol based on my experience. It is pretty to look at but not a good reliable shooter.

  14. I bought a Canik TP9SF in 2017 and the first time at the range it failed to fire. there was no primer indentation on several cartridges. I wrote Canik and I believe my e-mail reply was from Turkey. The author was asking me what the problem was. Finally I got an e-mail from another Canik customer service rep who sent me another firing pin with instructions on it’s replacement. It was easy and simple. The end of the pin was broken off.

    What I don’t understand is how it got out of the factory. Anyway, I don’t shoot it much as I have many other pistols but I have noticed a jam every box of cartridges. I am no gunsmith but I believe the recoil spring is too stiff and won’t allow the slide to cycle completely. I have fired it so little that I won’t change anything for now. Funny though, it is the most accurate striker fired pistol I own due to it’s great trigger.

  15. All this has me thinking, Should I be hitting my Colt Python with a roofing hammer or a framing hammer? So yes, this whole subject is stupid, Here’s an idea, if you keep dropping your firearm, maybe shooting sports are not for you. .

  16. I’m reminded that there is a reason why so many Colt .45 owners kept the hammer down on an empty chamber.

    Next up was the 1911 getting dropped cocked and locked, breaking it out of the sear notch.

    Now we are up to “throw it on concrete until it goes off and if we can’t make it then beat on it with a hammer!”

    Seems like our guns are getting smarter than the gene pool. Will an annual $800 Federal Firearms Ownership License make it any better?

    We need to all hang together or we will all hang separately.

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