What’s in the Bag? A Look At The B&T TP9 [REVIEW]

For most of us, it’s a staple of action movies and an icon of first-person shooter video games that’s rarely seen in the American wild. For others, it’s a gun they love to hate — or perhaps a gun they hate to love. The somewhat obscure and oft-misunderstood weapon we now know as the Brügger & Thomet TP9 rarely gets discussed in any depth and sometimes catches an unjustly bad rap — likely the result of being analyzed outside of its intended role or without an appreciation for its inner workings. 

After spending several months with a complete test setup in hand — a factory short-barreled rifle with suppressor and full accessory suite — we’ve gained a new appreciation for this smooth shooting, compact PDW with undeniable sex appeal. But before we get to any of that, we need to start at the beginning. Which was, albeit, far less glamorous than what you see here.

SPECS:

• B&T USA TP9 US
• Caliber: 9x19mm
• Capacity: 15, 20, 25, 30 rounds
• Barrel Length: 5.1 inches
• Overall Length: 11.9 inches
• Weight (unloaded): 3.75 pounds
• MSRP: $2,116

Accessories:

• TP9 Suppressor: $690
• Vertical Grip: $85
• Folding Stock: $158
• B&T Optic Mount: $124
• Aimpoint Acro P2: $600
• SureFire X300U: $300
• Discreet Shooting Bag: $335
• As Tested: $4,408

A ROCKY START

Long before the B&T there was the TMP — a Steyr product of the early 1990s. The ’90s were, generally speaking, a time of outside-the-box thinking for small arms development and deployment with a number of would-be paradigm shifts that … well … wouldn’t be, as time tells us. One such concept was the PDW, or personal defense weapon. As armored vehicles proliferated aggressively across both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, NATO realized that a significant number of its troops would spend the next conflict huddled inside the bellies of steel beasts where space was at a premium and assault rifles were unnecessary. 

Even “full-sized” submachine guns of the day like Uzis and MP5s were deemed too large for the task of protecting vehicle crews in a last-ditch firefight. But pistols seemed too small and, perhaps more poignantly, too difficult for the average grunt to become skilled with. Ironically, this is the same concern that birthed the M1 carbine during World War II, which was specifically meant for support troops who “couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn” with their issued 1911A1s.

Enter the PDW: smaller than a rifle, smaller even than a submachine gun, but larger enough than a pistol to be easier to train on and easier to hit with at anything farther than across-the-table distance.

Why does any of this matter?

Well, the supposedly NATO-wide PDW initiative became Euro-centric almost immediately, with most of Western Europe’s legacy arms manufacturers producing something to fit the bill. Steyr’s answer was the TMP — short for Taktische Maschinenpistole or, you guessed it, Tactical Machine Pistol. Sales of the TMP turned out to be as uninspiring as the name, with Steyr moving only a couple hundred units per year. A semi-automatic version of the TMP known as the SPP, or Special Purpose Pistol, was launched and brought to the American market. It too failed to excite the masses. 

Fast-forward to around the turn of this century, and the corporate entity known as Steyr was broken up and restructured under new owners — who knew nothing about firearms but plenty about product profitability. The lackluster sales of the TMP led this new ownership to formulate a plan — destroy it. Literally. They fully and seriously intended to destroy all of the molds, tooling, drawings, existing parts inventory, and intellectual property related to the TMP, launching it into the catacombs of firearms history. In a truly fatalistic turn of events, a team from B&T just happened to be at Steyr’s offices on other business and got into a conversation over lunch with the owner, who lamented the TMP’s financial shortfall and his intentions on how to handle it. B&T made an offer for the parts and IP in question, which was accepted on the spot. According to B&T’s own historical records, “by the time coffee was served, B&T owned the TMP.” 

THE REST OF THE STORY

B&T received several shipping containers from Steyr that contained enough loose parts to build several hundred complete guns. Some of these guns were indeed assembled and sold almost immediately. But B&T also initiated a series of product improvement programs that took a few years to complete. By 2003, the TMP had undergone more than 20 individual design changes to be reborn as the MP9. 

By this time, many NATO nations were supporting the American-led wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing Western Europe to reequip its civilian police forces and security services for a potentially more-violent counterterrorist role. In a new world order dominated by asymmetric operations carried out off the battlefield and in civilian clothes, the MP9 and — by extension — the PDW concept as a whole found new life in a previously unforeseen context.

Pistol-caliber weapons of any type, be they submachine guns, machine pistols, PDWs, or PCCs, have been almost wholly eschewed by U.S. forces in favor of short rifles. But our European counterparts continue to employ the MP9 in several roles, including close protection, counterterrorism, low-profile law enforcement, and armed intelligence work. 

Early adopters of the MP9 included police forces in Spain, Switzerland, and Romania, as well as special units of the Dutch KMAR national security force. When asked about current end users, B&T responded: “Every single Western European military has purchased them, and the platform is extremely popular in Southeast Asia.”

A number of purpose-driven accessories are available for the MP9 including a belt holster and covert deployment bag, which we’ll come back to in a moment.

HANDS ON

For the American consumer, the MP9 is known as the TP9, specifically the TP9-US. While earlier versions of the TP9 had a section of Picatinny rail forward of the trigger guard, the current TP9-US has an empty socket that can be filled with the factory vertical grip if you choose to file a tax stamp for it. 

The controls will feel very comfortable for American shooters. The safety selector is an “HK style” thumb lever on the lower receiver, just above the trigger. The mag release is a push button on the pistol grip, located right about where the trigger guard meets the grip. Both are ambidextrous, and both are located exactly where you’d expect. Even the charging handle is top-mounted and T-shaped, right at the rear of the receiver, just like an AR. 

All this to say that the TP9 manual-of-arms is incredibly intuitive for anyone who’s ever handled any of the most popular guns in America. The polymer side-folding stock may be anemic in appearance but locks up tightly and provides a surprisingly sturdy weld to the shoulder. The folding mechanism is released by a push-button on the bottom of the receiver, opposite the charging handle, meaning that it too is ambidextrous. In addition to the selector lever, there’s a trigger-within-a-trigger safety tab on the bang switch itself. 

Let’s talk about the trigger, almost certainly the most maligned part of the design and regularly bemoaned by those who’ve shot a TP9. While not a true bullpup, you’ll notice in these pictures that the operating group (bolt and carrier) is indeed offset behind the fire control group. This design requires a longer trigger bar, translating to a longer, heavier trigger pull that feels less defined than might be desirable in the age of drop-in match options. 

The problem is most obvious with guns that are brand new or not shot very often, when the trigger can feel heavy and like it has stages. But this bang switch can age like fine wine — or at least like a good factory striker trigger, which will smooth out and lighten up over time.

Another thing we sometimes hear TP9 users gripe about is suppressor compatibility. The short answer here is that there really isn’t any. B&T makes a suppressor specifically for the TP9 that’ll only work with its intended host. The reason for this has to do with the TP9’s operating mechanism, which uses a rotating barrel. Not a commonly used method of delayed blowback, proponents say the rotating barrel design allows for a lower bore axis and drives the recoil straight back through the operating system, albeit without the harsh feel of a heavier direct-blowback mechanism. 

But that rotating barrel can play havoc with direct-mount suppressors. Thus, the TP9’s specially designed can locks onto the barrel guide, not the barrel itself. The lug-based attachment system is fast and ratchets securely into place. The can also incorporates a couple of unique design features. For one, it was the first B&T suppressor to incorporate their reduced blowback system. Achieved through a series of radial ports around the muzzle end of the body, it gives the can a unique toothed aesthetic. 

It’s also one of a small handful of suppressors that incorporates a Picatinny rail on the locking collar. Located at the 6 o’clock position, putting it just forward of the vertical grip, this small section of rail-estate would be superfluous on just about any other gun. But in this case, when accessory mounting space comes at a premium, the option does come in handy and is perfectly sized for large pistol lights. 

FINISHING TOUCHES

As we mentioned earlier, a number of uniquely purpose-built accessories exist for the MP9/TP9 family. The one we got our hands on, and which most excited us, was the discreet carry and deployment bag. We’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of different carry bags meant to transport all manner of short guns. This example from B&T may be the single most well-thought-out SBR deployment bag we’ve ever seen, bar none. 

They went with a messenger or laptop bag design as opposed to a backpack, specifically so that the gun can be fired from inside the bag. The exterior design is extremely sterile with muted colorways and only the most generic of accessory pockets. But that’s exactly where “generic” ends with this bag. 

The main compartment features a two-part opening, incorporating both the typical over-the-top main flap as well as a vertical zipper along the back side of the main compartment, which can be accessed without opening the flap. The zipper allows you to slip one hand into the back and get a secure firing grip around the TP9 for firing. A firing port on the front end of the bag includes a short plastic guide sleeve for the silencer to fit into. 

On the outside, this port is covered by a plastic mesh flap that appears to be just a small admin pocket. Particularly ingenious is that this small piece of mesh is secured to the outside of the bag entirely by hook-and-loop, with no hard-sewn attachment point. In the event you do fire the gun through the bag and destroy the cover piece, just tear it off the hook-and-loop and replace it with a new one. 

The bag is clearly designed to only be used with the suppressor attached. 

Our test gun came with three different sizes of magazine: 15-, 25-, and 30-rounders. Of these, we found that the 25-round sticks with bumper plates set the gun at the perfect height inside the bag. Speaking of inside, the interior of the bag is lined entirely with hook-friendly soft cloth and includes two small foam blocks that can be fixed to the inside of the main compartment to stabilize the gun while it’s inside the bag. 

We also noticed there are no straps, tie-downs, or hard attachment points for the TP9 itself, presumably so that it may be drawn from the bag and deployed properly if an initial volley fired from concealment doesn’t get the job done. Our sample even included a small brass-catcher that clips onto the right-side Picatinny rail to keep the bag from filling up with spent casings.  

There’s no doubt that the TP9 is a specialized weapon, offering some unique advantages as a stopgap between a pistol and traditional SBR or PCC. It’s, arguably, the lightest SMG/PDW in the world coming in at a scant 3.75 pounds and less than 12 inches in overall length. In fact, three loaded 30-round magazines weigh more than the gun itself. In the civilian world, its applications are narrow — it makes a great bedside gun — and come at an equally specialized price point to set up properly. 

But depending on your needs, this little Swiss subgun may be the Goldilocks answer to your personal protection needs.

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