Continuous SiC fiber-reinforced titanium-based (SiC_f/Ti) composites are one of the key materials for future high-performance power devices. To address the problem that the axial loading of fibers and specimens in SiC_f /Ti composites often exists at a certain off-axis angle, the influence of the off-axis angle on the mechanical properties and failure mechanism of SiC_f /TC17 composites was investigated using room temperature tensile, finite element simulation and fracture characterization. The results show that a critical off-axis angle can be defined based on the mechanical properties, fracture morphology and stress distribution of SiC_f /TC17 composites, and its value is about 1°. The tensile strength of the composite specimens decreased with the increase of the deflection angle, and the decreasing rate of tensile strength increased when the deflection angle exceeded the critical value. The failure mechanism of the composite material is related to the off-axis angle. When the off-axis angle is smaller than the critical value, the specimen fracture consists of several flat sections, the degree of fiber pullout and interfacial cracking is low, and the fiber section is basically perpendicular to the axis, which is a typical positive stress fracture; when the off-axis angle is larger than the critical value, the degree of undulation of the fracture increases, and the phenomena of fiber pullout and interfacial cracking become more obvious, and some of the fibers start to appear shear fracture, indicating that tension-shear coupling plays an important role in fracture. Therefore, for the axial specimens of SiC_f /TC17 composites, the off-axis angle between the fibers and the specimen as a whole should be controlled within the critical value in order to obtain effective performance test data.