Canik55 Tristar c100

[john455]

I have owned one of these guns for about a year now, and thought, on this cold winter day I might try my hand at a honest review of my experience with this CZ75 clone.

  I bought this gun on an impulse buy at a going out of business sale for $100+tax and back round check so total I have $123.00 in it, and after doing some online research I got one heck of a deal on it, it retails for $325-$350.

 It came with a hard plastic box, 2 clips, slide lock and a cheap cleaning kit. (side note both clips are listed as 13 rounds but for some reason one holds 14 rounds), and I haven't tried myself but according to the CZ forums the CZ75 clips are interchangeable with the Canik.

 I have found (even though I am a die hard revolver man) this gun is just fun to shoot, I have put around 1000 rounds down range with it and never had a misfire or malfunction, one draw back I have found, and several others have posted other forums about is the slide takes some muscle to rack, it can be a little tough on the fingers, and after 1000 rounds it is still just as tight.

 I also found, and again has been posted on other sites is that OTB the sites are about 1" high at 25ft but after compensating for it I can punch out the bullseye at 25/50ft.

 The factory grips are a little bulky for my taste (I have small to med hands) but I just found some thinner aftermarket grips last night and am planning on ordering a set.

 So all in all I am extremely happy with this purchase, and If your looking for a great mid range priced fun to shoot 9mm I highly recommend you give the Canik55 Tristar C100 a chance.

 

 If you have any question on anything I did or didn't cover please don't hesitate to ask.

[pops572]

Wish I could find one for $125. I would definitely have to try it for that.

[peejman]

Wish I could find one for $125. I would definitely have to try it for that.

 

 

Amen.  I never get that lucky.

[john455]

I just happened to stop in on the last day they were open to see if they had any revolver deals, it was the last pistol they had, I really hadn't ever heard of a Canik before I bought this one, and I started not to get it lol but I'm very happy I did. 

[EssOne]

To add on to John 455's fine report, I'd like to add some range reports on two C100's I own. First, a couple of months ago I took possession of two TriStar C100's which I intend to use for carry purposes for my wife and I. The C100 is made in Turkey by the Canik55 firm, and marketed in this country by the TriStar concern. It is closely modeled after the CZ 75 Compact, the most profound deviation from the CZ design being the use of an aluminum frame. The C100 has already been the subject of a multitude of reviews like John 455's, so I won't reinvent the wheel here, except to comment on certain areas of note.

We've been freezing our tails off around here, but it got back up into the 60's for a few hours and we were able to confirm zero and test out some groups before the 30 mph winds came in and blew us off the range. Here's what we did.

I began by carefully lubing both pistols and firing three 15 yard bench rest groups out of each pistol with three different loads. The purpose was to check zero and see just how well the pistols fed and grouped with different loads. I was especially interested in seeing how the Federal 124 grain standard pressure HST load would perform. Unfortunately, I developed a bad case of "fifth-shot-itis" and threw away every fifth shot in 4 of the 6 groups after having fired a really nice 4 shot group. So since I knew it was me and not the gun, I did not count the wild 5th shot in the group measurements. Here's how my wife's pistol did: (Test results and notes are on the photos.)



Here's how my pistol handled the same test:



Based on these results, I would have to say in all honesty that these little guns group every bit as well at 15 yards as any of my full size 9mm service pistols have. Included in that statement are a Beretta Brigadier 92FS, a Browning Hi Power and a couple of its clones, a S&W M5906. a CZ 85, two 85B's, and a Bersa Thunder 9 Pro. The C100's, in my estimation, are darned accurate pistols, especially for their short barrels and sight radius.

In the next test I wanted to test the pistols' ability to feed and group with the HST loads, to proof one mag per gun with that load, and I wanted to get familiar with their double action triggering characteristics. So here are two 15 shot DAO groups fired standing offhand with full sight alignment, two-hands, at 7 yards. I fired continuously slow fire without lowering either gun. Here's how my wife's gun did:



And here's how my gun did - note the "ohpooshot." It was not entirely my best day. ;D



Throughout these tests I found the two pistols to have remarkably similar triggering characteristics in both single and double action, but that the single action pull can get scratchy if the sear/hammer engagement surfaces are not lubricated. A drop of oil on the sear/hammer engagement surfaces produced a good, crisp, clean breaking single action pull I'd guesstimate at 4-5 pounds. 

Most of the reviews of these guns I have read cite a tendency for them to shoot 3" low at around 10 yards. I found that my pistol shoots around 2" low at 15 yards, and a "click" left, while my wife's gun shoots dead bang center at both 7 and 15 yards. I don't worry about a minor elevation deviation in a defensive pistol, but I really wanted to bump the rear sight a hair right to center up the windage. My wife's pistol shot all three loads to the same point of impact, while mine wants to be just a bit fussier.

 

Later in the week, I managed to get up to an indoor range and retest my gun's zero after tapping the sight to the right. The target shows the result while the photo of  the sight shows how little I had to bump it to the right to get it to center. These shots were fired at 10 yards bench rest, aimed slow fire. As to magazines, These two pistols were provided with MecGar-made Tristar 15 shot mags. The CZ75 Compact 14 round mags work great, as do the CZ factory 16 shot mags, the MecGar CZ75 17 shot mags, and the CZ 75 SP01 18 shot mags. You just have to live with the larger mags hanging out the bottom of the grip frame, but to me this was a non-issue. Total round count out of each pistol is now roughly 275 rounds each with only one FTF, which I attributed to a bad round. The ammo used throughout the majority of these tests was Blazer Brass 115 grain FMJ and Federal standard pressure HST 124 grain JHP's, along with a smattering of WW NATO 124 grain FMJ.

 

This photo shows the pistol and the case it comes in, although I revised it to get it to carry more gear. I simply took a square of old mattress pad, covered it with fleece and held it to the back of the pad with double sided tape.  

 

I think John455 and I agree about the gun's worth. Given its obvious quality of manufacture, fit, and finish, as well as reliable functioning and excellent accuracy, I think the C100 definitely falls into the class of pistol in which a lot of guys will soon be saying: "Boy I sure wish I had bought one while they were cheap." I have a feeling they're going to be "discovered" right soon.

 

Edited February 19, 2015 by LMTFAN

[TrickyNicky]

Great reviews and great shooting LMTFAN!