Tisas PX-9: The Best Turkey Has To Offer? [Hands-On Review]

TURKISH GUN, LOW PRICE, AND HIGH QUALITY?

Deep down, I think most of us are pretty cheap. While many of us will force ourselves to shell out big bucks for the specific category of gun that really take our interest (long-range precision in my case), for everything else, most of us are looking for as much value as we can squeeze out of a dollar.

And in times like these, who can blame us?

With that in mind, I’m always on the lookout for a good, reliable, cheap pistol. While Glocks might be the gold standard for reliability, SIG P320s offer a huge range of customization, and 2011s are the big wave in competition shooting, none of them are cheap.

Enter the Tisas PX-9 Gen 3 IO. With an MSRP of $300 and a street price of less, this is definitely what I would call “cheap.”

Does it work? Is it worth it? I had to know, and Tisas was nice enough to mail one out for me. Let’s find out.

TISAS PX-9 GEN3 IO SPECS

• Frame: Polymer
• Slide: Forged Carbon Steel
• Caliber: 9MM
• Barrel: 4.11″ Cold Hammer Forged
• Trigger: Flat Tactical Integrated Safety
• Sights: Black Serrated Rear/Fiber optic Front
• Grips: Interchangeable Side and Back Panel (S/M/L Incl.)
• Finish: Black Tennifer® Slide/Black Polymer Frame
• Weight: 1lb 8oz

TURKISH GUNS

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Turkish guns have a highly debated reputation for quality.

There is a lot to be said on both sides, but I’ll give you my take. The geographic origin of a company has little to do with the quality of the manufacture.

If you buy a no-name shotgun made in Turkey for pennies on the dollar, there is a good chance it’s going to be a pile of crap.

But at the same time, the Winchester SXP series of shotguns are made in Turkey, and they’re amazing for both price and function.

Good products can come from places you don’t expect them to, but rolling the dice on those products can be risky.

Good news for you, that is why I’m here. Although I admit – I didn’t risk my own money on this gun. And most of the ammo was provided by AmmunitionToGo.com (thanks!). 

But hey, at least I shelled out for the gas and tacos.

BEFORE THE RANGE

The PX-9 comes with side grip panels and backstraps that can be configured to your heart’s content. You get 3 sets of each, small, medium, and large. Installing them is super easy, just take out one pin and slide them off and on.

For me, I went with the small backstrap and the large side panels. This gives me a grip that fills my hand nicely (feels very similar to how most Walther grips fit) but also makes the grip short enough front to back so that my short thumbs can reach the magazine release with no problem.

Overall, I really like how it fits my hand.

ON THE RANGE

I have about 50 rounds of defensive ammo and over 400 rounds of 9mm through this gun. So far, it has run 100 percent.

I went into this review not really knowing what to expect, but even so, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the PX-9.

The iron sights are steel with a white dot front sight and a blacked-out rear sight. The front dot is on the small side, and I actually really prefer that. This feels more like competition sights than tactical sights, but they work in any application as long as there is light.

Something that feels odd but good is the slide. It’s easy to rack. Not that most other pistols are hard, but this one feels lighter and easier than most others. I thought this might contribute to increased felt recoil or lower reliability, but I’ve found neither to be true.

The recoil felt normal, and as I said, reliability has been 100 percent.

On top of that, the side is really well made. Every edge is curved off and contoured cleanly. It just slips effortlessly in and out of holsters, it’s easy to rack with serrations on the front and rear, and it feels smooth and flowing. I dig the lines.

The trigger isn’t amazing, but I would call it better than a stock Glock trigger. A flat-faced shoe is nice, and it breaks at a perfect 90-degree angle. The trigger safety level is large, flat, and almost entirely unnoticeable when you pull the trigger.

Overtravel is almost non-existent, and the break itself is fairly crisp. Not glass-rod crisp, but fresh celery crisp for sure.

That said, the pull is a little mushy even as it hits the wall, and the reset is pretty long. These aren’t game-breakers or anything, but if you’re going for high-speed splits, this isn’t great.

I found this to be more than accurate enough for a pistol. I had no trouble with head-sized plates out to 25 yards or pistol spinners to the same. The smaller front dot helped a lot for those targets.

A rail under the dustcover fits as you would expect. I had no issue mounting any of my lights and lasers.

The bottom line, there really isn’t anything wrong with the PX-9. In fact, there is a shocking amount of right to it. Packed with features like the flat trigger, customizable grip, wide range of optics for barrel and optics options, the PX-9 hits all the high notes and does it at a super competitive price.

This model is only $300 MSRP and is commonly found for less.

MAGAZINES

Something you should be asking yourself is, what mags does it take? Sadly, they aren’t Glock mags. But they are standard SIG Sauer P226 mags.

Tisas makes their own magazines for about $35 each for both the 18-rounders and the 20-rounders. Not a crazy good price, but not bad either.

If, for whatever reason, those stopped being made or imported, you’re still going to be able to get mags since any standard P226 mag works just as well.

And since these are well-known and well-proven magazines, I doubt we’ll see many malfs caused by them.

All that said – the PX-9 comes with 2 magazines, one 20-rounder, and one 18-rounder. Both feel great, work great, and look good enough for a magazine.

NEGATIVES

Two things I’ll mention as being downsides to the PX-9, and I really don’t think either of these is a big deal.

The grip, while being customizable and easy to fit to your hand, is great, it feels kind of cheap. Not that should be surprising since the gun is cheap, but the grip definitely feels it. Partly because the panels aren’t super tight fitting. When you squeeze down, there is some give to the grip. This doesn’t really impact my shooting, but it doesn’t feel amazing, either. It’s mostly something I notice in dry fire.

I kind of wonder if this might be solved with something like super glue under the panels, but since this isn’t really my gun, I can’t test that theory.

Second, what you see is what you get. Because this is a mash-up of different designs to make a new pistol, and because of the overall price point of the pistol, I really doubt you’ll see a lot of aftermarket support for the PX-9.

You can find new sights, you might be able to tighten up the trigger, and you can always get polymer stippled or something to your liking. But beyond that, unless it is made and sold by Tisas – I don’t think you should count on being able to tinker much with this gun.

That isn’t a bad thing, but it’s something to keep in mind.

LOOSE ROUNDS

For the price, I think this is an amazing gun. With 2 magazines, adjustable grip, steel iron sights, and it runs great and accurately, it's overall just a really good gun to shoot – all for a super low price. It even comes with a super minimalist holster.

The options Tisas offers are pretty compelling, the price is outstanding, and the quality is way above what you might expect.

This wouldn’t be my top pick of any gun in the world, and if you have more money to spend, you might be better off with something a little higher up the price list. But there isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with it, either.

For a starter gun, a gun you need to save money with, or a gun that you want to buy a few of and stack deep around the house for defense or something, the PX-9 is a solid contender.

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