After watching dozens of positive reviews on the Canik TP9SA... and then seeing the $300 price tag at Academy Sports, I decided to get one.  Apparently, it was a mistake.

The first time I loaded a magazine and racked it, it failed to completely load the round into the breach.  It went in about 1/2 way and then appeared to stop because the angle was wrong.  I played with it for a while, stripped it, cleaned it, lubed it... same thing.  It would only successfully chamber a round about half the time.  When I fired it, it would cycle for two or three shots, and then hang in the same manner.  This happened many times.

It almost seems like the magazine was not presenting the round high enough for the slide to get it into the breach.

Has anybody else experienced this?  I guess I will have to go to Canik, but I'm not sure how confident I am in their customer service.

I attached a couple pictures, including the ammo I was using (Remington 9MM 115gr FMJ... which I've been using fine with other guns for years).

Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

I recommend this....

Pack it back up.  Return to academy. Hope for refund/exchange.

Saw the EXACT same thing happen to a guy at my range last month, two different mags, Speer Lawman ammo. He was infuriated, to say the least. No idea what the resolution was, as I haven't seen him on my last two visits.

Try different ammo?  Does the round fit tight in chamber (field strip drop rounded into barrel see how it fits)?

First step is to try different ammunition.  I have had many problems with UMC.

I doubt if the problem is ammunition related but I'd try another brand before sending it back.

Good luck.

As was said above, did you take down the pistol and do the "plunk" test?

That is, hold the barrel with the chamber end up, and drop one of the Remington round into it.

It should drop in with a "plunk" sound and when you invert the barrel the round should drop right out with no effort.

If this is not the case, then either the barrel has an issue, either a poorly cut/polished chamber, or the ammo is out of spec.

Neither would surprise me.

Remington ammo has not been a top tier choice in many years.

I agree try some different ammunition.

I did some testing with four different types of ammo.  Results were interesting.  Ammo definitely seems to play a role.  The Blazer ammo worked 100% of time... which makes me feel a little better.  But, the fact that the gun seems to be so finicky about ammo is disapointing and I don't have a lot of confidence in it.  I sent a message to century arms detailing my issue along with the test results pasted below... we'll see what they say.  Thanks for all your input.

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Testing Page 1


Testing Page 2

Send it in, quit wasting ammo. Any decent 9mm pistol should function with nearly any popular ammo.

I played with one today at Academy in Chattanooga. I wasn't impressed...

Yeah... I'm hoping they can send me a gun that works with all the ammo... then I'm going to try to sell it for close to what I paid for it ($315)... then get the Glock 17/19 that I should have bought in the first place.

Anybody interested in a slightly used TP9SA for $300? :-)

This is the right answer. Live and learn.

Sorry to hear OP.

So far mine has eaten:
Steel Cased:
Wolf Poly Performance
Tula 9mm

WWB
Some Random Hollow Points
ZQ Ammo

With pretty much 0 issues, even during break in. Doesn't seem normal at all.

Definitely send it in, something's not right with that gun. My TP9SA has exhibited no problems at all whatsoever with all sorts of different brands of ammo, FMJ, JHP defense rounds, brass or seven some crappy steel case stuff. Generally people have been very happy with the reliability of these guns, but as with anything else some lemons have gotten out there into the wild.

Good call.....  Beware it can happen on any brand of pistol but the bigger names have better QC so they will usually get caught and fixed before leaving the factory.
You decided if you are doing a Gen3 or 4 also keep you eyes open sometimes LEO trade ins you can score one used for only slightly more than the TP9.

I had one failure to load with one magazine of mine, took the magazine apart and cleaned it out. No problems since. Hope they fix your problem

Heard back from century arms.  They appreciated the thorough testing I did... so I was able to skip all the "did you try this..." crap.  Sending it back to them for repair/replacement... keeping my finger's crossed.  Will update with the results.

Thanks for all the input.

Good luck with the return, hope it gets sorted out. My father-in-law recently picked one up and has had zero problems out of his. I shot 2 magazines through it, the trigger is nice for stock and the gun seemed pretty accurate for both of us, especially for the price.

I recently shot one.  After shooting it, I decided not to buy one.   The magazine catch was very hard to release, the slide release was difficult to manipulate upwards due to being a basically untextured sheet metal tab, and my trigger finger dragged on the bottom of the trigger guard with every shot.   Good news was that was fairly accurate and reliable.

Update on my Canik TP9SA.

I sent the gun into Century Arms with all my test data.  They machined/honed/polished/replaced? the barrel and sent it back within a week.

Took it up to the range and ran 100 rounds of the same assorted ammo that I did my initial tests with, and it ran like a champ.

Action was real smooth, and there were no FTF problems.  Must have gotten unlucky and gotten a bad barrel from the factory.

Now that it functions properly, it is a good shooting gun.  I really like the trigger.

good turn around on their part.  I guess there is no G17 in your future then?  too bad.  Enjoy your Canik.

I had an ordeal with a Zastava EZ40, Century's service was excellent, even if it took pistol #3 before I got one that worked.

About the same time I got my Canik 55, no issues with it.  The TP-9, not the newer SA.

Luck of the draw.  Would still like to get an SA.

Tony