Cybergun CANiK TP9 Gbb Pistol Review

Cybergun CANiK TP9 Elite Combat Gas Blowback Pistol

This is not your average gas blowback pistol. Cybergun and Armorer Works are doing something different here but it might not be what you think but it is a breath of fresh air.

First of all looking at the CANiK TP9 from Cybergun may not be interesting at first glance to some but this is not only a new model that hasn't been made before they are taking a similar path to what GHK did with their Glock 17 model.

Let's get the basics out of the way first before we jump head first down the rabbit hole. This is a gas blowback pistol which is manufactured by Armorer Works and is powered by green gas. It has a polymer frame and a metal slide. The pistol is ambi friendly with a dual slide release and a magazine catch which can be switched from side to side. The trigger is Glock like in its appearance and has a chonky design with a bladed centre which acts as the safety. To disassemble the pistol you pull the two tabs downwards similar to a Glock and the frame is finished off with a flared mag well for quicker reloads. The slide looks vaguely similar to a HK45 with a Walther style live fire indicator at the rear. You get a set of easy to use iron sights with a fibre up front and a panel at the rear that can be removed to fit a red dot sight (More on that later). The outer barrel is threaded to 14mm counter clockwise and its not one of those finicky adapters that loosens itself no matter which way you turn it. They have kept it simple at it's a welcome change. The outer barrel also brandishes full Salient Arms International markings.

You will see a lot of similarities to other GBB pistol replicas on the market. The hop up wheel is where you imagine it would be. It strips apart similar to most GBB pistols too. However when you look at the section where the hammer usually sits you won't find one. There is no hammer. Just like the real pistol it uses a striker fire system. GHK did something similar with their Glock 17 making it more realistic and more importantly making the slide super smooth.

The CANiK slide is buttery smooth for an off the shelf pistol. There is no hammer in the way for the slide to drag over and give you that resistance which is found on almost all GBB pistols. I love my GHK Glock 17. Everything about it made me glad I bought one and it also made me sell most of my other pistol replicas as there was no going back to the old ways. The CANiK does satisfy this itch with the striker trigger system however it is less than half of the price of my GHK Glock 17. The trigger will feel weird to you, if dry firing the trigger with no magazine inserted or with a magazine inserted that has no gas fill. You can't feel the wall at all and you get a bit of an "eugh" reaction when doing so. That changes when you pop in a gas filled mag though. The system requires that back pressure of the outlet valve under load. Once that magazine is gassed you can find the wall on the trigger very easily and the break is nice too, much lighter than the GHK.

This gets even more reassuring when the pistol was shot through the chronograph. It is so consistent. And I didn't experience that drop off you get with gas pistols. You know what I mean when your first shots are up there at 310-320fps and ever shot rapidly decreases the output. The CANiK shot consistently at 305-310fps for the whole magazine. Not once plummeting after many shots were made. The pistol is punchy too with great blowback action and felt feedback thanks to that smooth slide and no hammer.

The magazine has a cool feature too. The baseplate has a spring loaded gas nozzle extension that lines up perfectly with the inlet valve and gets the hell out of dodge when not in use so the baseplate can be slid off with ease. This completely removes any issues with different size nozzles on gas canisters. It's a welcome and well thought out feature, well done Armorer Works!

There was one niggle I had with the pistol and its very minor. The hop and barrel did have grease gunking it up from the factory which meant the hop up was less responsive under fits range tests using 0.30g BB's. This was easily solved by pulling out the barrel set and spraying some Abbey degreaser on a cleaning patch and pulling it through the barrel and hop a few times. If I was to purchase one I would pull the inner barrel assembly completely apart and wash it out with warm soapy water and let it air dry to completely remove it all.

After the cleaning the hop up did a much better job after a magazines worth of BB's went through it. I was then able to hit a small target at 40 metres most of the shots I took. A man size target at that distance would be easy. Mag after mag the pistol seemed to do better which leads me to believe there was a bit of residual grease in the system. I tend to pull new pistol purchases apart any way to clean and apply better lubricants like Maglube.

The frame is a bit small for my hands it must be said. It was slightly more comfortable without the mag well attached but then the pistol looks a bit odd and you are going to want to make use of the mag well. I could definitely get used to it but I do hope they do other models in the line like the CANiK TP9DA which looks more G17 size. The TP9 here feels a bit like a Glock 19 size frame with a 17 size slide. It's hard to put into words.

The RMR blanking plate once removed does indicate it will require an adapter to fit a red dot sight and an RMR cannot be fitted straight out of the box.

You can definitely see where CANiK has pulled inspiration from. You can see design cues from other models all over the pistol but it is its own model and looks great.

We really like this new release and hope to see them release more CANiK models in the near future. If they do a similar model size to the G17 frame then one will definitely sit on the gun rack next to my GHK.