INTRODUCTION

In the late 80's Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher AG began their work on new sub machine gun which could compete with the German MP5 PDW, dedicated mainly for anti-terrorist forces and personal security service.

Mass production of Steyr TMP started in 1992. During following years small amounts of this weapon were purchased by Austrian army special forces and the police. Strong competition of other sub machine guns like FN P90, MP7 and still preferred short versions of MP5 resulted in low sales.

Later Steyr designed TMP version dedicated for civil market: Steyr SPP which stands for Special Purpose Pistol. It was meant to be sold mainly in the American market, where it became popular as an assault pistol. Producer estimated that there would be demand for that kind of weapon among individual customers. But neither this version was a success, at first because of high price, later because of new regulations which restricted access to such a weapon type in the USA.

Bad sales numbers meant that further production would be unprofitable, which brought the decision to stop the project in 2001. The same year, Swiss  company Brügger & Thomet AG has bought patent rights to TMP production and after introducing a few improvements gun was back in the market as the B&T MP9.

WRAPPING

Replica is packed in a sturdy, thick cardboard box. Replica is well secured in styrofoam additionally protected by wrapping film. Everything looks fine.

Design is eye catching. There are pictures of two versions of a replica on the box and basic information. Except for a replica itself, you get one magazine, manual, pack of pellets and a small tool for HU adjustment.

English manual is clear: it contains basic information regarding the replica and safety measures. Use and maintanance of the MP9 replica is illustrated with photos.

FIRST IMPRESSION

Even though it weights less than 2kG, it does not feel too lightweight - especially if holded in one hand. It seemed shorter on the pictures than it really is. First impression is really good. Its look and quality of outer parts are decisively the advantages of this replica.

Compact design makes it almost impossible to have any loose or playing parts - everything is tightly matched.

OUTER LOOK

Specification: lenght - 305mm / 527mm (stock), weigt - 1725g, inner barrel - 140mm.

Replica is being produced with licence of real B&T AG MP9, which resembles real firearm with a good care for details. Body is made of nylon as in real gun. Metal parts are made of aluminium (pins, screws and breech slides are made of steel). Quality of material used for body is very good - mat black colour and nice surface. Finishing is flawless - you won't find any protruding plastic or other shape defects. Pistol grip surface is rough and it is comfortable even though it's pretty sizeable. A1 version has integrated front grip which is a huge aid while shooting.

Foldable stock has some minor play, but it would not affect comfort while shooting.

Stock has a cut in which allows comfortable grip on the front while stock is in folded position.

Stock lever lock is located on the back end of the body. On the back of the gun, there is also a bore for tactical sling.

Aiming devices are very simple, but practical. Front sight is just a small metal pin, mounted with a single screw on the inside part of the body.

Rear sight is made of abs and it can be adjusted sideways. Integral upper rail allows to mount optical aiming devices (it is one single casting with upper body).

On the front right there is a short RIS rail, which allows to mount tactical light or red dot aiming device. It is made of metal and is mounted with two Allen screws on inside of the body.

Metal muzzle device.

Latch on the both sides, in the real gun is used do dismantle a weapon - in a replica is also used to take apart breech  (by pulling it down)  with a barrel unit and a muzzle device.

Replica's fire mode selector is slided sideways. When pushed fully to the left it is semi-automatic fire mode (marked with single red dot).

Pushed fully to the right it is in full automatic fire mode (marked with three red dots).

Both fire mode selector and a breech release lever were located in pretty inconvenient spots. It is difficult to operate them with a thumb of you hand (either left or right) on the pistol grip. Hard to blame a replica for that though - it resembles original weapon solution.

Breech release lever.

Safety lever, as in original is only at the trigger.

To adjust hop-up system, pull back a reload lever and use special tool (you get one with replica).

MARKS

Replica has licenced marks of real firearm producer: Brügger & Thomet AG. Those are overprinted with silver colour. Action Sport Games has rights to use B&T brand marks for airsoft market. Replica is produced by KWA for ASG, and for now only products approved by this Danish company can use those marks. On the left side of the body, there is the MP9 mark and B&T logo.

On the right side of the body, except for B&T logo, you may find "Swiss made" emblem, ASG logo and airsoft caliber (6mm) mark. Apart from that there is an original caliber mark and serial number on the breech cover.

Both "made in Taiwan" and "max 1 joule" emblems are easy to remove stickers.

MAGAZINE

Gas propelled mag which you get with the replica can run on Green Gas. It is made of metal in mat black color.

BB's feeder spring can be locked on the bottom, for convenient loading. Of course to feed pellets again, spring has to be released.

It is a low cap and as for producer data it can load 48 BBs. But during test it came out it may be loaded with 50 BBs and it feeds all of them without any failures.

PARTIALLY DISMANTLED REPLICA

DISMANTLE AND INTERIOR

To get to interior, first you need to take off upper body part. To do that, first remove screw located on the front just above the muzzle.

After removing upper body.

Outer barrel, yoke and muzzle.

To proceed with dismantle, take out spring slide (with a spring).

Then push down notch above muzzle. This allows to take out upper pin which keeps outer barrel in place. Then carefully remove the flat notch, as its spring might tend to jump out.

Then pull down double-sided notch (it is visible on the both sides of the body) and while it's pulled down, push the breech to front and take it down along with barrel and muzzle.

Breech with outer barrel unit, HU chamber, muzzle (with yoke) and bolt catch.

Lower body part after breech and barrel unit removed.

Whole breech slide is made of steel as one part along with reinforcement plate on the back of the body.

Behind the reinforced back plate, there is a rubber shock absorber. There should be no problem with the back of the body, as breech movement seems to be well absorbed.

Muzzle device is mounted to its yoke with two pins.

Breech, outer barrel unit, HU chamber, muzzle device and bolt catch.

Breech release lever (bolt catch).

Nozzle.

Seemingly producer has not planned any custom replacements of inner barrel, or HU rubber. HU chamber is permanently fixed with outer barrel.

Inner barrel is secured with pressing screw.

Hop up adjustment.

To put all the parts back together, there is no need to press the front notch. But to put the breech back in place, you have to press the notch located on the left side of the lower part of the body (picture below).

PRACTICAL TEST

Shooting experience is nice. Even though it is compact size weapon - taking a shooting position is surprisingly comfortable. Breech work is very fast and smooth: whole mag might be emptied in no time. Tested replica mac was feeding well, without any failures or jamming. We didn't experience any cool down effect neither.

Blow back system is pretty lightweight, so you won't experience hard kick, and it would be more noticeable while shooting with unfolded stock. If you keep the stock folded, there is almost no feeling at all. It is worth to keep it in mind that It is neither a long firearm replica,  nor running with CO2 and as already mentioned - breech is lightweight.

While taking shots with unfolded stock, not only the blow back is more noticeable, but also thanks to breech movement you might feel some air exhausting if you aim with standard sights.

Our impression is that shooting with MP9 is more interesting than let's say an avarage AEG replica.

Also sound is very nice: sharp and loud, especially indoor. Of course it is not even close to real firearm, but indoor, during CQB games, in full auto mode - it gives some impression.

TEST RESULTS

Test was carried out at indoor shooting range. Temperature: 15 degree Celcius.

Low temperature was affecting replica's performance. As far as green gas performance was correct, HFC 134a equivalent was visibly affected. Replica seemed to have not enough energy to properly move the breech, which temperature was getting lower with each taken shot - and in the result, with one gas loading it was impossible to shoot last few pellets in a mag.

Green gas tests

 1. Muzzle velocity, energy and rate of fire

Velocity and energy was measured with 0.2g Blaster Devil BB.

Muzzle velocity with 0.2g BB is 393 fps, while energy 1.4J

Results are avarage number, while difference between the highest and the lowest was 14fps.

Rate of fire with Green Gas is 21.1BB per second (1266BB per minute).

 


2. Accuracy and convergence in distance of 20 meters.

Tested with 0.25g BB (this time G&G).

10 of 10 shots found its way to silhouette target, 9 of 10 taken shots hit A4 size sheet of of paper placed on the target.

3. Effective and maximum range.

Effective range is around 25 meters. At this range most of the shots taken hit the silhouette target. At this range convergence with full automatic firing mode is also good. 

Maximum range is a bit above 30 meters.

 
4. Gas consumption test (how many shots you can take with one gas filling) and effectiveness test (after how many shots effective range is being affected).

One gas refilling is enough to empty one magazine - so 50 pellets or so. And practically till the last BB in the mag, range and accuracy in the distance of 25 meters to the target was not affected. It is probable that if the air temperature was higher, we might take more shots with one refilling, but since the shooting range for tests had no heating, we could not check it for sure. We would take more tests in the summer time and update the results.

Test with Ultrair gas produced by Action Sport Games (HFC134a equivalent).

1. Muzzle velocity, energy and rate of fire test.

Velocity was measured with Blaster Devil 0.2g BB.

Muzzle velocity with 0.2g BB is 322 fps, energy 0.95J.

Results are an avarage. Difference between the highest and lowest result was 24fps.

Rate of fire with Ultrair gas (HFC 134a equivalent) is 15BB per second (900BB per minute).
 

2. Accuracy and convergence in the distance of 20 meters to target.

For test we used G&G 0.25g BBs.

9 of 10 shots hit the silhouette target, 6 of 10 hit A4 size sheet of paper placed on the target.

3. Effective and maximum range.

Effective range for HFC 134a equivalent gas is as well around 25 meters. At this range most of the shots taken hit the target. In full automatic mode convergence is satisfactory.

Maximum range is around 30 meters.

4. Gas consumption test (how many shots you can take with one gas filling) and effectiveness test (after how many shots effective range is being affected).

With one refilling we managed to empty one mag as well - so 50 pellets. But in comparison to Green Gas, this time last two shots had some range and convergence issues. It is probable that if the air temperature was higher, we might take more shots with one refilling, but since the shooting range for tests had no heating, we could not check it for sure. We would take more tests in the summer time and update the results.

SUMMARY

MP9A1 ASG/KWA is a very interesting replica. The look, performance and the resemblance of the original firearm - are all very good, which we have already got used to with KWA products. All parts are well matched and replica feels solid.

It gives pleasant shooting experience and seems to be perfect for CQB games (if not propelled with green gas) and if filled with green gas it might work in other type of games.

We would definetely recommend this replica for any airsoft player, but especially for short distance games or as an effective sidearm (i.e. for snipers).

Pros:

+ well resembled original weapon

+ licences marks

+ attractive and uncommon looks

+ good quality and finishing with care for details

+ economic gas consumption

+ side rail (allows mounting taclight or other device)

+ well matched parts (no unwanted play)

Cons:

 - additional marks, different to the real firearm

- typical for gas propelled replicas susceptibility to air temperature

- limited access to inner barrel and HU chamber

Replica was tested thanks to courtesy of MP9 distributor: Action Sport Games AS (Denmark)

Real firearm photos:

www.bt-ag.ch

www.kitsune.addr.com

translated by Bukhart