Customizing Canik Pistols with LOK Grips

Where do you start customizing Canik pistols?

How do you start, and what actually matters? This is a loaded question for many because the options are endless, and you can get a little crazy making changes to your gun. Also, only you should decide what upgrades benefit you rather than having outside input on your gun. Where you should start is what will actually make a difference in shooting competitions. Typically, that means your grip angle and texture, your trigger and your finger fitment relative to the trigger, your sights, and to dive into the weeds, the recoil impulse of the gun. The final piece might be upgrades you make to fit a certain division, like thumb rests for easier grip placement on the gun or mag wells for speed reloads. Let’s dive into the Canik model pistols specifically and what from LOK Grips can help improve your game.

I’m the proud owner of Canik SFx pistols, the Canik Rival, and the Canik Rival-S. Before upgrading your gun with any LOK Grips parts, be sure to know what model pistol you have and what upgrades are possible. For example, the Rival model pistol doesn’t have interchangeable grips but does allow for a backstrap and mag well to be added. The Rival-S allows you to swap the two grip panels for an upgraded wraparound grip that includes the backstrap. All of this to say, know what gun manufacturer, model, and what’s possible before shopping at LOK Grips.

Grip Options for Your Canik Pistol

The best upgrade you can make to a handgun is finding the right grip for your hand size and the texture that feels good but also allows you to hang onto the gun in recoil. Many handgun manufacturers these days include different backstrap sizes with the firearm, but the grip size can be just as important to fit the shooter. Even though we are talking about Canik’s here, LOK Grips is why I could fit my Walther Q5 pistol back in the day. I don’t have small hands for a woman, but I struggled to reach the trigger on that pistol and was unwilling to change my fundamental grip just to reach it. The Thin Bogies from LOK on that Walther set me up for success to have the perfect reach onto the trigger.

Going back to the Canik Rival-S, LOK Grips has two options for upgrading your grip; the main decision is weight. The Rival-S is a steel frame gun, so it is heavy without modifications, but more weight isn’t going to break the gun's balance. There are the Canik SFx Rival-S Standard Veloce grips and the Canik SFx Rival-S Standard GridLOK Brass grips. Every polymer handgun that I can add weight to the grip with. But because the Rival-S is a steel-framed gun and with an extended mag, it is fully loaded and heavy already, so I went with the Veloce grips. They weigh 1.75 ounces and are a mix of aggressive textures running in multiple directions to prevent slippage, but they aren’t overly aggressive enough to wear your hand down. The brass grips are 9.4 ounces, and they feature the aggressive GridLOK texture for increased stability on the gun. The easiest way to shop for what you need is to “Shop by Model” on LOK Grip’s website, where you can view all the accessories for the Rival-S or the polymer-framed Rival.

Backstraps - Weighted or Not Weighted?

The Canik Rival and the older SFx model pistols only allow the backstrap to be upgraded instead of the grips or grip panels. Since these handguns are polymer frame pistols, I 100% recommend upgrading to brass backstraps to help weigh down the gun and balance out the pistol. The added weight on a polymer gun is an advantage to help decrease the gun's felt recoil. But, as I mentioned earlier, only you can decide how you want your pistol to look and feel. You can ask ten shooters what they prefer when upgrading their guns and get ten completely different answers that don’t benefit you. It’s a personal preference for most of these decisions, so always stick to your guns (pun intended) when picking out what you want.

The TP9SFX brass backstrap looks good and pairs well with the brass magwell. I have competed with this pistol in 3 Gun competitions, and the added weight from the backstrap, mag well, and extra rounds because of the extended magazines have made this polymer gun a lot more enjoyable to shoot. It has much less felt recoil than the pistol in stock configuration, and the added texture from the LOK Grips backstrap makes it easier to hang onto in extreme heat, rain, and other conditions where my hands tend to slip.

The aluminum backstrap for the Canik Mete and Rival handguns are similar in size and shape to the small backstrap that comes with the gun. These are machined from solid 6061 Aluminum and come in various anodized colors. The texture is the aggressive GridLOK texture, and the backstrap is compatible with the factory mag well and LOK Grips mag well.

Reminder: If you’re shooting a specific division in a shooting sport with weight limitations, BE SURE to order the right grips and backstraps and always weigh your gun before competing to ensure you are not bumped into the Open division (unless that’s what division you want to compete in).

Magwell

I love the freedom magwells gives me in being lazy in my reloading skills. To be honest, I’ve shot mostly with a mag well my entire shooting career since I started in Limited division in USPSA, Tac Ops in 3 Gun, and now with the addition of Limited Optics in USPSA and moving to Open division in 3 Gun, I don’t really pay attention much to the divisional rule requirements. That said, check to ensure the division you are shooting allows adding a mag well onto your gun. The Canik Mete/Rival mag well is a game changer for me. In my best Trump voice, it’s Yuuuuuuge! It comes in either black cerakote or raw brass and clocks in at 1.52 ounces. The front and rear of the mag well feature the aggressive GridLOK texture and match the backstrap texture, making it a seamless transition. I’m a big fan of this magwell and attribute many reloads to it.