Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm – Superb Steel Frame Competition

Description

Steel framed striker fired pistols are a small and expensive category, and the Rival-S is the one that made the price reasonable. The Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm puts a stainless steel frame under a 5 inch slide, bringing the loaded weight to nearly three pounds, and finishes it in bright chrome with rosewood grip panels. The weight is the point: heavy guns do not move much, and in competition that is everything.

A steel frame competition pistol 9mm built to stay flat

At 42.72 ounces empty this weighs roughly fifty percent more than a polymer framed competitor, and every ounce of that works against muzzle rise. A stainless steel frame puts the mass low and central rather than out at the muzzle, so the gun settles quickly rather than rocking. On a stage with fast transitions the difference is obvious within a magazine.

The trigger is a flat face aluminum trigger, and Canik pairs it with the short reset the brand has built its name on. Flat shoes give a consistent finger position and a touch more leverage low on the face, which is why competition guns almost universally use them. Three magazine release extensions ship in the case so the reach can be tuned to your hand.

Rosewood grips are the detail that gets people talking. They are warmer in the hand than polymer or aluminum, they look like nothing else on a modern striker fired pistol, and against the chrome frame they give the gun a deliberately old fashioned presence. Three backstraps are included if you want to change the grip circumference.

Sights, optics and case contents on the Canik HG7010CR-N

Sights are a fiber optic front sight against a click adjustable rear. Click adjustments matter on a competition gun because they let you zero precisely for a specific load rather than drifting a sight and hoping. A spare fiber rod ships in the case, which is sensible, because fiber rods are the one part of a sight that eventually breaks.

The slide is cut for a red dot and optic plates are included, covering the Shield RMSc, Trijicon RMR, Canik ONYXc and PHANTOMc, ONYX XL and PHANTOM, the Leupold Delta Point Pro and the Vortex Venom among others. That is unusually broad coverage and means almost any dot you own will mount without a further purchase.

Case contents run long: a travel case, two 18 round magazines, an E Z loader, an external magwell, a holster, a punch, a tool kit, a cleaning kit, the spare fiber, optic plates, three backstraps, three magazine release extensions and a lock. Canik still treats accessories as standard equipment rather than upsells.

Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm Specifications

• Caliber: 9mm Luger
• Capacity: 18 rounds, two 18 round magazines included
• Barrel length: 5 inches
• Overall length: 8.09 inches
• Height: 5.75 inches
• Width: 1.41 inches
• Weight: 42.72 ounces unloaded
• Frame: stainless steel, chrome finish
• Grips: rosewood
• Action: striker fired, semi automatic
• Trigger: flat face aluminum
• Front sight: fiber optic, spare rod included
• Rear sight: click adjustable
• Optic compatibility: Shield RMSc, Trijicon RMR, Canik ONYXc and PHANTOMc, ONYX XL, PHANTOM, Delta Point Pro, Vortex Venom
• Included: travel case, external magwell, holster, loader, tool kit, cleaning kit, 3 backstraps, 3 magazine release extensions

Canik lists the Rival-S in this chrome finish and in a black Darkside version, with and without the MeCanik MO2 optic fitted. The polymer framed SFx Rival is a lighter and cheaper alternative if the weight of the steel frame does not suit you.

Why Buyers Choose The Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm

Steel frame pistols in this class normally start well above a thousand dollars, and most of them are 2011 pattern guns with the maintenance schedule to match. The Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm delivers the weight and the shooting characteristics at a striker fired price point and with striker fired reliability.

The package removes the usual follow up costs. Optic plates, an external magwell, a holster, two magazines, spare backstraps and magazine release extensions are all in the case. On most competitors those are separate line items adding up to real money.

And it is a genuinely striking pistol. Bright chrome with rosewood panels is a deliberate throwback in a market of black polymer, and it holds attention on a table at a match in a way very few modern guns manage.

Who Should Buy The Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm

This is a competition pistol first, aimed at USPSA Carry Optics, steel and any discipline where a heavy gun pays off. It also suits high volume range shooters who value how little it moves. At 42.72 ounces the Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm is far too heavy for concealed carry, so look at the METE MC9 family for that role, and shooters who want a similar layout without the weight should compare the polymer framed SFx Rival.

Full manufacturer specifications for the Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm are published by Canik on the official product page. Browse more Canik pistols and competition guns in our handguns category.

What a rosewood grip competition 9mm actually ships with

Canik ships the SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm as a kit and the list is unusually long. Canik HG7010CR-N arrives with two 18-round magazines, five optic mounting plates, two aluminum magazine base plates, rosewood grip panels, a magwell, a speed loader, a competition holster, a cleaning kit, a tool kit with a punch, and a water-resistant hard case to put it all in. Very little of that is a token inclusion; on a rosewood grip competition 9mm the optic plates alone usually cost real money.

Spare magazines are the one thing worth adding to a Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm. Canik full size 18 round magazines are stacked over two thousand deep here, and there is a 18-round magazine with a plus two extension and a bronze TTI Combat base plate version if you want something different on the bottom.

Optic mounting on a 5 inch ported slide 18+1

Zanders records the Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm slide cut as a Canik proprietary pattern, which is why the five plates are in the box rather than sold separately. The Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm has an adjustable rear sight and a fiber optic front, so on this 5 inch ported slide 18+1 the irons stay useful whether or not you mount a dot. Ask us to confirm fitment on a specific optic before you order, because the plate set covers most patterns but not all of them.

How it compares inside the Canik range

The Rival-S Rosewood Darkside is the same steel framed gun as the Canik SFx Rival-S Chrome 9mm in a dark finish. The standard SFx Rival is the polymer framed version rather than a steel frame competition pistol 9mm, which is lighter to carry and lighter in the hand under recoil. The METE MC9 Prime is the compact end of the same family. For practice ammunition, Federal 115 grain FMJ is what we hold deepest.