Hey y'all, another quickie review now that i'm unbanned (at least for now, lol, thank you Aimless), this is for the Tristar C-100 9mm, on it's third importer I believe now, this time from Tristar Sporting Arms of MO.

The pistol is made by Canik 55 of Turkey ( http://www.canik55.com/ ), it is a compact 9MM clone of a clone of a CZ-75, I say this because it has a little more in common with Tanfoglio/Witness pistols than CZ's, but CZ's are the big daddy from which all these pistols spring. The gun was $349.00 plus tax from our local Academy store.

My first impressions about this pistol are really good, actually got it for Mrs. Dragynn to bump her up to 9mm from her beloved .380, she liked the way this one felt in her hand, and I had no problem with it as I am a Tanfo shooter from way back. The fit and finish on this pistol are outstanding, tight slide-to-frame fit, tighter than most Tanfo's I have had, yet non-binding, nice and smooth. The pistol came with two 13 round mags,  a manual, cable lock, and a cleaning brush and rod, all packed in a nice hard plastic padded case w/cutouts for gun and mag:


http://s19.postimage.org/qerbffig3/canik1.jpg (adding URL's too in case your browser doesn't like postimage.org.)

The grip panels are hard plastic, and some say CZ-75 compact panels will fit, some say not, don't know but the Mrs. is okay with these. The controls are tight, safety is very positive and can be engaged while cocked, mag release looks to be reversible for lefty's. Front of trigger guard is both squared and serrated like my old Tanfo TA-90 is, this a great feature to me. Backstrap is not serrated but front of grip is. The pistol is very lightweight, the frame is super-light, feels like aluminum to me, but is supposedly an alloy. Slide is steel, and the 3.9" barrel is cold-forged.


http://s19.postimage.org/zb23jd92b/canik2.jpg

The sights are 3-dot, and the dots are luminescent paint that glows for a bit after exposure to light, one quick hit from my mini-mag led last night, gave me bright glowy's for around 3 minutes or so, this might be useful in a pinch.


http://s19.postimage.org/6zgjmbp5v/canik3.jpg

There are various compatibilities noted by other owners around the 'net, with both CZ and Witness/Tanfoglio parts, the one I can attest to has to do with magazines, I tried a standard 16 round Mec-gar made for the older slim-frame EAA/Tanfo guns that I use in my TA-90, it only sticks out about half an inch, fit like a glove, and functioned flawlessly! I hear tell that you can use a polymer basepad from a a CZ P01 magazine on the 16  rounder, and it takes up that extra space and gives you a little finger-hook to boot.


http://s19.postimage.org/bdtmbwp43/canik6.jpg

I took it out for a test fire, not really intending to really wring it out, as I feel you need a couple hundred rounds down the pipe minimum before you begin to see what a pistol is really capable of, and what's worse, is that in a classic brain-fart-not-enough-coffee moment, I grabbed two boxes of .380 instead of 9mm, and wound up at the range with just one partial box of 10 rounds and a full magazine (16) from my Tanfo...but still want to point out a couple things:

Trigger pull was heavy, didn't have a gauge but felt like about 12-13 for DA, and about 5-6 for SA, but even the DA was not slushy, it was fairly crisp and uniform with a clean break. The SA pull has quite a bit of take-up and i'll need to work on that, probably a good quarter inch. On the bright side, the overtravel was almost non-existent, which is a real shocker as I have had to install an overtravel screw on every Tanfo/Witness i've ever owned.

Now, every CZ clone i've ever had, shot low from the get-go, it's just the way they lock up points the barrel down a bit.  I had high hopes for this one as the front sight is very low already (i've had to file down tall ones in the past and re-blue). But lining up the rear sight perfectly flat with the front, and holding just under the one-inch target dot in the center of the target got me about 5 inches low, you can see all the hits at the bottom of the target, and I wasn't practicing good trigger control either(that long take-up messes with me), so that's why they are to the left and right of center a bit. Those were all Federal 115 gr. fmj's.

I settled down after those first few shots and focused on trigger control, and went 180 degrees the other direction with aiming, I put the bottom of the front site, level with the top of the rear and covered the bullseye with the front site, and that produced the very top hole on the target you see, about 2 inches high and almost dead center, and folks, that's 3 shots in that hole, this little pistol is no joke.

The last two rounds I fired, is the hole you see a little closer to the bullseye, this time I again aligned the bottom of the front site, with the top of the rear, but this time put the top of the front site just at the bottom of the orange-dot as I did the first few rounds, don't know why they went to the right, possibly because I changed ammo at that point to Independence, again 115 gr. fmj's. All shooting was done offhand at 15 yards. Looks like if I split the distance and run the front site halfway above the rears and hold the bullseye just on top, and it ought to be dead center.


http://s19.postimage.org/vh8na7rqb/canik5.jpg

So that's it for now, i'll add more later, and my apologies if this is a duplicate, but I didn't see another review here on arfcom, and these sorts of reviews are really helpful to me, so hope somebody gets some use out of this one. This little pistol is a winner so far....wife always gets all the good stuff The mag compatibility is really nice, i'm going to order a few more 16 rounders, and try the basepad trick to get her 16+1. I wouldn't call this pistol super-compact, but it is definitely more concealable than my fullsize, and should fit great in her IWB for EDC.

~D

*EDIT 8-21-12*

Went out and fired a couple hundred rounds w/the wife and am adding some thoughts:

Went through more 115 gr. FMJ's, some 124 gr. +P's, a few 147 gr. JTC's, and even some 124 gr. JHP's. Not a single hitch or burp, the little booger is ultra-reliable outta the box, which may a first for me at least for an under-400 dollar imported pistol, i've even had some nice expensive pistols stovepipe once or twice when they were new.

The braided recoil spring is wicked stiff, which is fine by me, a plus in my book, but my rather petite gal had some trouble racking the slide, this may be an issue for small folk, so something to consider before purchasing.

The magazine springs are also seriously stiff, which again is a plus technically, but they are almost stiff enough to be annoyance to me, and definitely one for her, I may have to break down and buy her a magazine-loader-helper-thingy....I don't even know what you call them because i've never owned one, but I know they exist.

The shorter barrel plus the ultra-light frame, make recoil a little more noticeable apparently, she had a frowny-face over it, dunno, again, she's pretty  small with tiny hands. It may not work out for her, but at this point, it's not gonna break my heart, if she doesn't, i'm buying a bunch of sixteen round mags and adding the P01 finger extensions for a lengthier grip and this will be my left-hand pistol.....I think I may have inadvertently stumbled on a new technique fer getting new guns past the watchful eyes of the budget queen: "Honey, look what I bought YOU today!!"

Nice! Keep us updated on reliability as you put more rds thru her.

Looks like a fairly close copy of a CZ PCR except the manual safety instead of a decocker!

Neat pickup thanks for the review.

A dolphin?  Really?  Cute.  

Yeah, I thought it was kinda cutesy too, but it's the wife's gun anyhoo....they make a "shark' model too which is probably more my style. Trying to find what grip panels might fit it, as those factory plastic ones are actually pretty thick. The replacements need to be plastic or wood or anything but rubber as the wife has an allergy to latex and rubber.

Found spare 13 rd. mags that should fit here: *EDIT*  Found out these do not work  Still looking for 13 rounders that work, some say the CZ compact mags work, some say otherwise.


Also gonna pick up at least one of these to see if that trick works good with a 16 rounder: http://czcustom.com/cz-sp01-polymer_magazine_base_pad.aspx

Great revue, thanks. I've looked one of these over at the local Academy and from what I could tell they looked like a pretty solid piece. I was thinking those mags would work in this pistol, I'm glad you're checking on this this. I may go pick one up this weekend

Went out just now with some Winchester Ranger 147 gr. JHP's I got from SGammo, again, cycled perfectly and shot to point of aim. More and more impressed by the day with this little pistol, best deal I can see at it's price point in a not-fullsize-yet-not-truly-compact pistol. Definitely ordering some 16 round mags and the CZ basepads next, will post some pics once that's done. Looks like mixed reviews on whether Witness or CZ compact mags work or not, just going to bypass that and go with the 16's and the two 13's that came with it.

Here's a good link with lots of pics :
http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=40930.0

nice,  just placed an order at jgsales for a cannik 55 sting ray-c  yesterday.  cant wait for it to get here

Its the Russian black dolphin  pistol    ( its a hardcore prison)

Looks like a nice Pistol.
Been wanting to try the CZ type pistols

Just got my SP01 mag base pads I ordered from http://czcustom.com/, they fit perfectly on my tanfoglio mags, again, these are old-style slim frame Tanfo mags, not the new large-frame mags that they use on everything now.

These take up the extra space when using a 16 rd. mag on this compact (13 rd.) gun. I had hoped they took up all the space and made for a flush fit, unfortunately as you can see from the pics, there is still a tiny gap, about 1/16", so not bad at all, but still noticeable. Possibly the CZ 16 rounders will work without a gap, will try to obtain one to test.

The function is great though, 3 more rounds and the extra grip on the front is nice, if the pad had extra meat on the back it would be great, maybe I can rig something. It's a little easier to grip now with my size XL hands. Not that it matters because this IS the Mrs.'s pistol......

It looks like a $200 cheaper alternative to the P-01. Thanks for the review.
 

Another 200 rounds down the pipe today, all out of the 16 rd. Witness mags with P-01 basepads, some cheapie Tula steel case 115 gr.fmj, some Aguila 124 gr. fmj, and some Winchester Ranger 147 gr. jhp +P.  Nary a hiccup, in fact the groups seem to get tighter as it breaks in, wife is digging it more and more, she shot really well today on fullsize silhouettes.

Side note: The Mec-Gar 19 round CZ mags (their 17 rounder with their plus 2 extension), will fit old style Tanfo slim frame guns like my TA-90, and will also fit this Tristar/Canik gun though they do stick out a fair bit. They fit the Tanfo almost perfectly, feed fine, and 19+1 is nice Got it from Greg Cote LLC, great service from that place, they had a tracking number for me 15 minutes after I placed the order, does not get snappier than that, highly recommended!!! Link:  http://gregcotellc.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97_130&products_id=592

Ordered two witness compact mags from Cdnn,..and they
(Do Not Work) they do not lock into place.

Yep, that's why I went back and modified that post, I did the further research regarding dimensions etc. that I mentioned in the original post, and found out they do not fit. So I went with the slim frame Tanfo mags+P-01 basepads for 16 rounders, adds a little length too. Basically just gave the wife a pair of my mags+new basepads, and bought new Mec-Gar CZ 19 rounders for my Tanfo.

From other sources, I read that you can make those mags work with some modification, but I have not tried it, so don't know for sure. Take a look at the lock notch and it's positioning compared to the factory mag, sometimes it just takes a tiny bit of careful trimming or filing.

I believe these :  http://gregcotellc.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97_134&products_id=595  Are the 16 round Tanfo mags I have now, they work with the CZ basepads and fit the Tristar I have. *EDIT* Again with the edits, damn, haven't paid enough attention, actually one of my Tanfo mags, the factory one, is a 17 rounder, and the aftermarket I purchased is a 16 rounder, doh....So, the 16 rounder won't fit into the Tristar with 16 rounds loaded, no room left, but loaded with 15, it works fine....with 16 it will still go into the TA-90, but with difficulty....may just drop it to spare status and try one of the Witness 17 rounders: http://gregcotellc.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97_134&products_id=1087
Out of stock of course....

"....EAA Witness - Tanfoglio, Tanfoglio TA90, Springfield Armory P9, Jericho 941 (built with Tanfoglio supplied  parts, a Tanfoglio clone), Armalite AR-24 and ITM AT-84 16 round 9mm Mec-Gar magazine with a blued finish.  This magazine is only for the steel framed (small frame Witness) and the Witness PS (small frame polymer).  The large frame Witness 9mm takes a different magazine which I also stock. ....."

But the CZ 16 and 17 round mags should work too, the 19 rounders I have now for my TA-90 are just the new model 17's with a +2 baseplate, and they lock in the Tristar and shoot fine too.

So probably the CZ compact mags would work, but again, don't know until someone tries them and we have verification. http://gregcotellc.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97_130&products_id=589

Edit: Apparently the CZ compact mags don't work right either, that's really strange, do the Canik's have some tiny measurement that's different? The Canik factory mags are made by Mec-gar....weird. This thread has pics:
http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=40301.0



Again as I mentioned above, the poster in that thread mentioned that it looks to be possible to modify the mag catch cutout...I have had to do this before on another gun.

What kind of finish is your C100?  Is it black chrome or black poly?
Thanks

I'm guessing it's the "black polycoat" finish as that's the only one Tristar has listed on their site: http://www.tristararms.com/pistols-semi-automatic.php

Unless they've changed something in the pistol recently, CZ compact mags from Mecgar work fine in my Canik.

Well that's good news, have seen conflicting reports about that though, weird. All the slim frame old-style tanfo mags and all new CZ mags have been 100% interchangeable and work perfectly in my TA-90 and the Tristar C-100 (canik), the only compact mags I have for the C-100 are the ones that came with it, and they are Mec-Gar mags.

The other thing I noticed is that if you trim the follower to be the same as the CZ mags, you can load 14 rounds into them.

I was able to handle the c-100 @ sportsmanswarehouse today.  I think the black finish is poly coating.  It does feel light, but the trigger reach was just a little too long for me.  I had to adjust my natural grip to pull the trigger in the double action mode.  Maybe because the trigger pull was heavy?    The single action mode was fine.  I was able to pull the trigger on the single action mode using the pad on my trigger finger.   If I do purchase this pistol, I am not going to carry it double action mode since I do not feel safe dropping the hammer on a loaded chamber.  I like the cocked and locked approach.  I think people with smaller hands should go and feel for these pistols before purchasing them.   Thank you.

Well, I might have to eat some crow.  It looks like you can't exactly use CZ compact mags in these things.  The go in just fine, and seem to lock into place, but take a couple of shots and the mag falls out. It appears the mag catch cutout on the Canik is slightly larger than on the CZ.  You can either modify the CZ mags to fit the Canik, or modify the Canik mag catch to work with the CZ mags.  I chose to do the later, and it took about 5 minutes, including the time to take the mag catch out of the gun, dremel the bottom edge of the catch, and put it back into the gun.  I suspect you can also replace the mag catch with a CZ mag catch.

ETA: Here's the archived review i did a while ago.

This sure looks like the CZ 40B to me.  I hope so, it is a teriffic little handgun..